Locals arrested for flying drones



DucktileMedia

DucktileMedia

Drone Enthusiast
I am feeling like I did a few months back, where this is a hopeless career path. You spend all this money and hope you can make a living at it, then find out it's illegal to go lfy anywhere even for fun. Then you get your arm chopped up trying to support a local business. I think the sad truth is, that unless you live in the boonies, you are entering a world of much frustration. California especially is just too much. So much for entrepreneurial freedom. I think the only winners in this drone business will be DJI, Droidworx, the few that have their foot in the door and the military.

Debbie Downer out!
 

Simon Templar

Simon Templar

Member
"On Tuesday, working from a boat on the bay, Hedrick was operating the electric helicopter for a client, Bruce Paquett of Sausalito, whose project involves images of Alcatraz. According to park service spokeswoman Alexandra Picavet, the helicopter, which has a rotor span of about 6 feet, was flying low around the island, frightening the birds and swooping over the tourists' ferry dock."


Really? Six feet?

I'd like to see that. Hell, I'd like to fly that.


....sT
 

hjls3

hjls3

Member
As a guy who flies around a bunch for fun in a private aircraft, the ones who really worry me are the ones making all these high altitude FPV flights. Couple hours ago, a guy on this forum posted a video going over 2000 feet up. Sooner or later bad things are going to happen and we will all pay the price. Few months back a private jet reported seeing something drone like above Denver. Crazy.....I dont mean to harp on anyones fun but seriously....

Debbie Downer #2 out :)
 


Bartman

Bartman

Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
hjls3 said:
As a guy who flies around a bunch for fun in a private aircraft, the ones who really worry me are the ones making all these high altitude FPV flights. Couple hours ago, a guy on this forum posted a video going over 2000 feet up. Sooner or later bad things are going to happen and we will all pay the price. Few months back a private jet reported seeing something drone like above Denver. Crazy.....I dont mean to harp on anyones fun but seriously....

Debbie Downer #2 out :)
Click to expand...

i wish more people would voice these concerns because, in reality, anyone flying beyond visual range and above 300 to 400 feet above the ground is a risk to manned aircraft. while the FAA has tried to remain some form of balance in tolerating RC aircraft operations to date, a midair accident with deaths will ground the entire RC fleet, IMHO, until real regulations can be formed. RC aircraft sitting on peoples' shelves and in basements/garages are of no concern to the FAA if manned flights are at risk.

RC has gone a bit nuts lately between long-range/high-altitude FPV flying, high speed jets, and ultra large scale gassers. the incident over Denver won't likely be the last we'll hear about.

Bart
 

Bartman

Bartman

Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
IrisAerial said:
http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_20975136/feds-cite-marin-county-men-over-drone-helicopter
Click to expand...

watch the video at the end of the article. the second sequence has him flying from the edge of the water, over the beach and then out over the adjacent town. that alone leads me to believe the guy didn't have much common sense and that the charges of him flying low over sea birds and people are probably well founded. as low as he was over the town, it's impossible to believe he was maintaining line-of-site contact with the aircraft. if he was using the same 6' rotor span heli for that shot then he's even more reckless for flying a large single rotor heli, very low over a populated area solely by reference to his video display.

we can ***** all we want about our investments going to waste but if we don't make an attempt to honestly assess and regulate our own activities then we have no one to blame but ourselves.

the FAA responded to complaints, that's what they do. when the Alcatraz footage becomes public we'll see if the complaints were well founded. i would have complained myself if that guy was flying low over my head with a big single rotor heli or any helicopter for that matter. it's common sense to avoid overflying people, active roads, etc.
 

hjls3

hjls3

Member
Bartman said:
i wish more people would voice these concerns because, in reality, anyone flying beyond visual range and above 300 to 400 feet above the ground is a risk to manned aircraft. while the FAA has tried to remain some form of balance in tolerating RC aircraft operations to date, a midair accident with deaths will ground the entire RC fleet, IMHO, until real regulations can be formed. RC aircraft sitting on peoples' shelves and in basements/garages are of no concern to the FAA if manned flights are at risk.

RC has gone a bit nuts lately between long-range/high-altitude FPV flying, high speed jets, and ultra large scale gassers. the incident over Denver won't likely be the last we'll hear about.

Bart
Click to expand...

Bart - My fear is that, like most things with the FAA, it is going to take a bunch of time to come up with some rules. In the meantime, there are going to be several more 2000 feet straight up FPV flights like the one posted on this forum. If something happens before the FAA defines some stuff, we will all pay a big price. When watching the Guai go 2000 feet up, I kept thinking to myself, wow this is totally a place I would love to fly my Cub. Scary. Then you add that he took off from a soccer field surrounded by a bunch of homes...I think that soccer field would be real small if something happened to his copter 2000 feet up.

Perhaps there were a bunch of safety measures taken that are not apparent on the video. I hope so. In fact, I hope everyone flying this high really takes some time to think about the safety measures that should be in place.
 

kloner

kloner

Aerial DP
there already are rules for hobby RC flyers, the guys your seeing do those flights. suppose to be under 400' and LOS. I've heard of several guys being contacted by the faa about there videos on youtube illegaly flyng

the only thing faa is working on making up rules about are the guys making money for there efforts

Some places along here have floors over 4000-5000 feet to prevent drug smuggling through the river valley. it is where i fly, but......... just about every trip out i see a few f-18s buzz the river 100 feet up, hundreds of miles an hour.

I live under an approach to a pretty big airport here in town, also about 2 miles off MCAS Mirramar approach. I still haven't fpv'd at home, scares me to death,,,, houses, other planes, screw that
 

D

Dewster

Member
LAPD has been cracking down on Real Estate agents who hire and the drone pilots. I guess there was a lot activity or one sensitive incident that drew all of the attention to drones in California. People that are against commercial flight (or even allowing the flight of drones by private citizens) will use stories like this to apply regulation against the industry.

The technology is out on the public market and more accessible due to cheap price and ease of assembly. Anyone can build these drones. The manufacturers may need to impose self regulation to avoid killing the industry. I don't like height limitations imposed on the electronics of a craft. It may become a reality if people are making these high altitude runs. Besides.... There's nothing to see above 400 feet.

I think the article misquoted some of FAA's regs. I don't think there is anything prohibiting flights of drones by private citizens.
 


D

Dewster

Member
Bartman said:
watch the video at the end of the article. the second sequence has him flying from the edge of the water, over the beach and then out over the adjacent town. that alone leads me to believe the guy didn't have much common sense and that the charges of him flying low over sea birds and people are probably well founded. as low as he was over the town, it's impossible to believe he was maintaining line-of-site contact with the aircraft. if he was using the same 6' rotor span heli for that shot then he's even more reckless for flying a large single rotor heli, very low over a populated area solely by reference to his video display.

we can ***** all we want about our investments going to waste but if we don't make an attempt to honestly assess and regulate our own activities then we have no one to blame but ourselves.

the FAA responded to complaints, that's what they do. when the Alcatraz footage becomes public we'll see if the complaints were well founded. i would have complained myself if that guy was flying low over my head with a big single rotor heli or any helicopter for that matter. it's common sense to avoid overflying people, active roads, etc.
Click to expand...

Not trying anger anyone, but the beach video was pretty nice. :) Yoda says: "Small and light should the drones be.". I can see complaints coming from a large helicopter low flying over populated areas. Even the small ones draw negative attention.
 

Kilby

Kilby

Active Member
IrisAerial said:
I am feeling like I did a few months back, where this is a hopeless career path.
Click to expand...

Yuri, I think you are absolutely correct. This is a terrible career path. Don't stop that CNC from cutting!

Do it for fun, or because it's a challenge, but not because you expect to turn a coin. You will only be disappointed in the end if you do.
 

fotophanatic

fotophanatic

Member
The thing I seem to be seeing a lot about lately is the jack@$$ people flying their small fpv machines on private property or up to someones windows trying to get a peek. Common sense goes a long way. If it doesn't seem like a good idea, it's probably not. The only thing we use the fpv for on our machines is to line up a shot but the quad itself is NEVER out of my sight and we NEVER go on private property without very explicit permission from the owner. The highest I have ever gone was 500' and that was for about 30 seconds to get an aerial shot of the city. We stay miles and miles away from the airports and flight paths. What we are trying to get across to the FAA is that when we rent a manned heli for, lets say an hour, there is emissions from gas/fuel going into the air, if the manned heli falls out of the sky there is going to be hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage PLUS loss of life. If a quad/hex/oct copter falls out of the sky, there's not going to be a loss of life (hopefully) and the $ loss will be minimal in comparison plus there's no emissions polluting the air. Yeah the beach video is cool but not smart flying over a busy populated area with traffic. When we fly our machines, they draw a lot of attention so I can imagine a driver seeing something and then he causes an accident because he's "rubbernecking" as we call it here. Like I said before, a little common sense...
 



D

Dewster

Member
IrisAerial said:
Damn, 1 motor out on an X8 and it falls that quick? not good. Great video thanks for posting.
Click to expand...


I was surprised too! My Hexa did the same manuever when it crashed (I had the feature enabled that would kill the motors if the tilt angle exceeded 45 degrees). My craft fell straight down after losing its prop.

The force of these craft coming down is more than enough to cause serious injuries.
 

Aerial Media Pros

Aerial Media Pros

Member
It never helps when things are in the local media. It also never helps when rumors and wrong information is spread. The title of tis thread is a perfect example of someone sharing flase information. "LOCALS ARRESTED", No one was arrested. They received some tickets and went on their merry way. All I see is that they did not have a permit, and there was some reckless fying involved. The birds nesting area that they were flying over, was a nesting area (Protected wildlife sanctuary), So yes some fines are exspected. Fix those few problems and go fly. If your flying on a shoot (with permits, or on private property) and your not breaking laws, I dont think you will have a problem. Go buzz the Laz Vegas strip with your copter, and you can bet your A*& that cops will show up. Be smart, and fly safe. In the mean time, lets stick to the facts. No reason to induce fear of being arrested for flying your copter, when that has not yet happened.
 


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