FAA and Hollywood, progress?

[tstrike]

I gotta say Steve, it's a f##king trip to see Aerial MOB's name when reading all these articles on legalization. You my friend have come a long ways from the days of dunkin your old flame wheel in the Colorado. I don't think the industry could ask for a more passionate, enthusiastic, knowledgeable bunch of guys to fight the fight.

A few years ago we were doing one of those news magazine shows in the middle of no where between Wendover and Wells, Nevada. We were filming a bunch of extreme motorcyclist in a gravel pit in the middle of the night. Anyway, the producer wanted to bring out a uav for some aerials but the network (NBC) shut him down unless one of the flight crew guys had a pilots license. I believe it had to do with their insurance.

 

[SJBrit]

The question is, do we want to come together and do something positive or sit back and one to one complain about what we don't want or like? We have the option to do either but one will get us to someplace we want to go while the other only further isolates us from what we want and love to do.

Couldn't agree more - there's too much whining and not enough participation in the process, at least from the hobbyists.

I really hope that there is more than 1 category for UAV's if they go this way.

And that would be 100% consistent with pilot licensing and the way airspace is controlled. I think people fear that regulation automatically means restriction when that need not be the case: as a VFR pilot I have considerable freedom to do whatever I want at low altitudes in rural areas, but I have to be in touch with ATC and I have to tell them what I'm up to.

 

[kloner]

Thanks T..... I aligned myself with all the right people and it paid off big time. Were all so different that we are very well rounded, if an issue comes up it never ends up requiring going outside to find an answer, we got it handled. were long time RC guy, Media Sales guy, Engineer guy and Physisist guy

SJ, same with us,,,,

And that would be 100% consistent with pilot licensing and the way airspace is controlled. I think people fear that regulation automatically means restriction when that need not be the case: as a VFR pilot I have considerable freedom to do whatever I want at low altitudes in rural areas, but I have to be in touch with ATC and I have to tell them what I'm up to.

 

[Ronan]

Thanks T..... I aligned myself with all the right people and it paid off big time. Were all so different that we are very well rounded, if an issue comes up it never ends up requiring going outside to find an answer, we got it handled. were long time RC guy, Media Sales guy, Engineer guy and Physisist guy

SJ, same with us,,,,

Hard work pay's off, congrats

Your motorcycle incident is all too common (i also ride). Honestly, i haven't been on a bike for nearly a year after my buddy got slammed by a SUV. The roads are pretty darn scary for riders...

Heck got a buddy that killed himself with his crotch rocket too... right after high school, what a waste...

 

[kloner]

I hit a saturn sedan so hard broad side it ripped the rear wheel off the car, snapped my frame in half and pitched me 200' airborne, 130' sliding down the road on my head and made the front tire on my bike almost touch the rear tire, i hit it doing 45 mph and had grabbed the front brakes too hard so was already skidding on the front tire in half an endo when it hit so i cleared the roof of the car, luckily. I had been having dreams about dying with my face down in the gutter, after the crash i remember looking around and my face was face down in the gutter and was in so much pain i went unconcious. woke up a day later with external fixators on both legs and had fractured my hip, back, and collapsed 2 lungs. it was awesome, i'll never be able to bring myself to ride any bike again, i get shakes, phobias, absolute disaster. I had started riding bikes when was 4 years old, we live in so cal and went to Glamis bi-weekly till i left home. Spent 2.5 years in a wheel chair and 4 years non weight bearing on crutches/walkers after the chair

Ironicaly it happened at the airfield i'm training to fly at and i go by the spot every time i go to fly..... it's almost unbearable but i'm pushing through it. Figure if this place wants to finish me off it ought to be in a blaze of glory now with the crap i'm playing with. I had worked at the field for 4 years painting helicopters and planes.

 

[oculi caelum]

[MENTION=1417]kloner[/MENTION]: Wow that's a heeluva story...my hat's off to ya.
I got a couple of quwstions if you don't mind--based on the exemption...

It says your copters will return to home and land if they lose transmitter signal -- no problem there. But it also says they return to home if they lose GPS signal. How'd they do that, please?

Also, it says, the copters will abort a flight if they encounter and unexpected obstacle...does that mean they use LIDAR or somethiung to detect obstacles -- and they have a map of the known obstacles so they know if it's an unexpected obstacle or not?

The exemption seems pretty dang hardnosed about accidents on location too. You have to stop using the copter, report to the FAA and NTSB and wait to get FAA approval to reauthorize flight ops. Sounds pretty bad if all that happen was a tipover on takeoff that broke flight-critical stuff like a prop, don't you think? You'd be shut down for days woudn't you.

Be real interested to hear your take.

 

[Ronan]

I hit a saturn sedan so hard broad side it ripped the rear wheel off the car, snapped my frame in half and pitched me 200' airborne, 130' sliding down the road on my head and made the front tire on my bike almost touch the rear tire, i hit it doing 45 mph and had grabbed the front brakes too hard so was already skidding on the front tire in half an endo when it hit so i cleared the roof of the car, luckily. I had been having dreams about dying with my face down in the gutter, after the crash i remember looking around and my face was face down in the gutter and was in so much pain i went unconcious. woke up a day later with external fixators on both legs and had fractured my hip, back, and collapsed 2 lungs. it was awesome, i'll never be able to bring myself to ride any bike again, i get shakes, phobias, absolute disaster. I had started riding bikes when was 4 years old, we live in so cal and went to Glamis bi-weekly till i left home. Spent 2.5 years in a wheel chair and 4 years non weight bearing on crutches/walkers after the chair

Ironicaly it happened at the airfield i'm training to fly at and i go by the spot every time i go to fly..... it's almost unbearable but i'm pushing through it. Figure if this place wants to finish me off it ought to be in a blaze of glory now with the crap i'm playing with. I had worked at the field for 4 years painting helicopters and planes.

Woah nasty... hence why i don't ride right now. Seen some nasty stuff and it just put me off. A guy in UK died not long ago too, car made a left turn without looking and biker slammed into it so hard he died on impact.

You were really lucky!

I second oculi caelum's question, how do your multi's return to home if the GPS is dead?

 

[kloner]

I can't go into details about the exemption. The press has no idea what there reading, just gotta believe that we went through very long lengths to make sure all the ducks were lined in a row.

the gps part was mis interpreted by whoever put that out there, the other part is a VFR thing, no lidar involved

 

[Old Man]

I was 18 when I t-boned a Dodge Dart at 50mph. The Dart had blown a red light. Woke up 3 days later all messed up. This was back before helmet requirements. Took a bit over a year to get back to near normal but every day I feel the effects of those injuries 40 years later. Some a lot more than others. Traffic conditions are much worse for riders today than when I went down. I feel for ya.

 

[oculi caelum]

I can't go into details about the exemption. The press has no idea what there reading, just gotta believe that we went through very long lengths to make sure all the ducks were lined in a row.

the gps part was mis interpreted by whoever put that out there, the other part is a VFR thing, no lidar involved

No sweat...my hats still off to you fer what you went thru to get your business going. Thanks much for the explanation on GPS and VFR -- really thought you'd got LIDAR airborne and wanted to buy one!

 

[kloner]

it is in r&d so we do have one, but that's not a requirement, yet