Pilot reports mystery black ‘drone’ at JFK

[Explorocam]

Lmao.

We have an idiot here who got a prebuilt F550 Didn't want to wait for the GPS to calibrate and just took off flying. Something happened and he lost perspective, apparently put it in RTL and it just flew away. Gone! Some guy saw it fly over his house and filmed it with is smart-phone, saw the idot's flyer for Aerial Shots at the grocery store and called him to tell him he saw the idiot's MM fly over his house. The MM is gone he can't find it flew over some neighbourhoods and maybe off into some forest. So the idiot buys another prebuilt F550. He wants to do a business with it, but has never flown anything before, no planes, helis or MM. He leaves his flyers around town reporting he can take aerial shots and clames he got FSOCs from Transport Canada. I say (Bull-Sh!t) TC would not grant an FSOC to a guy who applies with flight zones in parking-lots 10" from a road. TC must review all my applications for FSOCs and I need to have at least 30 meters clearance plus a spotter at the very least!

Yeah, just wait until Costco starts selling the phantom, every f~<king idiot will want one and be flying them over hi-ways.

 

[Dewster]

Weeks later and there have been no updates in the press.

I assume no one at the FAA ever found the person flying the quad.

The flyer got away with doing what he did.

What if Costco begins selling the Phantom? Offering them for sale to anybody. There will be a lot of eyes put out and faces scarred. The RTF's aren't toys. I bet Costco will sell something similar to the Phantom. It'll happen. Let's see what happens. One of the worst products ever sold was Lawn Darts.

Dji China would be delighted, imo.

I'm almost sure that the news coverage and the fact that the FBI is looking for the pilot/s is enough to scare the person from doing it again. I wouldn't be surprised if every person that had a neighbor who flew a "drone" in their back yard in NY has called in to the FBI. I imagine it would go like "Hello, I'd like to report that my neighbor flies one of those drones..."

Welcome to the watch list. Now correlate mobile phone usage near a cell tower in the area of the incident and now you have a suspect.

But what was the intent?


I think these products should come with simple AMA rules. People get/build these and they want to see how high they can go. It's like having a fast car with 180 on the dash- some wonder if it'll do it - and others try. I don't want to see the regulation that limits or prohibits flying multi-rotor aircraft. The technology is so cheap that I worry more incidents will happen.

 

[Explorocam]

I'm almost sure that the news coverage and the fact that the FBI is looking for the pilot/s is enough to scare the person from doing it again. I wouldn't be surprised if every person that had a neighbor who flew a "drone" in their back yard in NY has called in to the FBI. I imagine it would go like "Hello, I'd like to report that my neighbor flies one of those drones..."

Welcome to the watch list. Now correlate mobile phone usage near a cell tower in the area of the incident and now you have a suspect.

But what was the intent?


I think these products should come with simple AMA rules. People get/build these and they want to see how high they can go. It's like having a fast car with 180 on the dash- some wonder if it'll do it - and others try. I don't want to see the regulation that limits or prohibits flying multi-rotor aircraft. The technology is so cheap that I worry more incidents will happen.

I worry about the same thing.
I think we need to band together and have an international multirotor club one with rules like AMA and MAAC and have insurance to fly at multirotor fields. I know Transport Canada is talking about licensing and I think this is a good idea. It can push out the wing nuts and make it serious. Like I said, I miss the days when you had to build your own. Not sure what I'll do if I see an idiot flying a Phantom in a dangerous manner.

Yeah know, I still like my Open Pilot Copter control board, it's not Naza but it's still pretty good. I'm also looking at the Audupilot Mega and experimenting with that. I have zero interest in the Phantom and while I like my F550 I prefer the Carbon Core 650.

 

[helloman1976]

Weeks later and there have been no updates in the press.

I assume no one at the FAA ever found the person flying the quad.

The flyer got away with doing what he did.

What if Costco begins selling the Phantom? Offering them for sale to anybody. There will be a lot of eyes put out and faces scarred. The RTF's aren't toys. I bet Costco will sell something similar to the Phantom. It'll happen. Let's see what happens. One of the worst products ever sold was Lawn Darts.

Dji China would be delighted, imo.

The FBI is investigating and they've likely been on websites just like this one trying to figure out who or what it was exactly. From the article below they are doing an investigation of drones and not just who is flying them but more what their general purpose is. It will only take one idiot to ruin it for everyone and I'm afraid that's what will happen. It's too bad so many people are so ignorant.

http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/i-was-contacted-by-fbi-terrorism-task-force-about-jfk-drone

 

[Explorocam]

I hate idiots, with a passion.

 

[helloman1976]

I hate idiots, with a passion.

Ditto, and 80% of the entire Earth's population are just that, 10% keep us moving forward and the other 10% are your common people who are smart enough to keep it moving. Keep in mind that even tribes in the Amazon use steel knives and wear Levis Every time I go to merge on the freeway and someone is in front of me going 45mph and trying to merge into a 65mph zone I realize what we are really dealing with here. The American education system has been gutted and destroyed and this is the result and it will continue to spiral downhill until parents start raising their children and school becomes important again to Americans. I'm off my soap box, sorry for the rant...had to get it out I guess. Now I really need to go flying lol... I had a good dogfight, WWII style, with 6 Buzzards the other day. One of them tried to take me out! I realized I was right over their food source and when I moved away they stopped. Now that was amazing...

 

[Explorocam]

Ditto, and 80% of the entire Earth's population are just that, 10% keep us moving forward and the other 10% are your common people who are smart enough to keep it moving. Keep in mind that even tribes in the Amazon use steel knives and wear Levis Every time I go to merge on the freeway and someone is in front of me going 45mph and trying to merge into a 65mph zone I realize what we are really dealing with here. The American education system has been gutted and destroyed and this is the result and it will continue to spiral downhill until parents start raising their children and school becomes important again to Americans. I'm off my soap box, sorry for the rant...had to get it out I guess. Now I really need to go flying lol... I had a good dogfight, WWII style, with 6 Buzzards the other day. One of them tried to take me out! I realized I was right over their food source and when I moved away they stopped. Now that was amazing...

Great experience with the buzzards.
I agree with you about the education system. I grew up in Florida. Because I stuttered and had dyslexia I was put in a school for the the mentally handicapped. When I was 17 I moved back to Canada and worked in a dump, taught myself to read and at 24 moved to Japan, just for the hell of it. Lived and worked in Japan for 2 years and learned to speak and read Japanese. When I returned I applied to Queen's University as a mature student. They gave me one chance to make it or brake it. I ended up doing very well and by my second year there I was enrolled as a regular full time student. earned a degree and did some masters courses in Visual Information Processing. I went on to do a seconded degree in Behavioural Science. I now own my own business and do what I love. Your right the education system in the States is awful! They tried to destroy me because I didn't fit the profile of normal and the teacher were to inept to know what dyslexia is. It was in a Canadian University where I was discovered and given a chance. It was the same university that gave me testing after I requested it and that's where I found out I was dyslexic and not retarded, at age 26. The education system in the States is deeply flawed. Amazing that such a rich country can let intelligent people fall through the cracks and at the same time ignore all the tallent just sitting in front of them, (I'm not the only one this happened to). Like I said, we need an international presence to show how our hobby or jobs with UAVs can be used to help and not hinder. Licensing is not such a bad thing. Personally I don't mind filling out FSOCs for Transport Canada. It helps to keep the idiots away.

To Queen's University in Kingston.
Sapientia et Doctrina Stabilitas!

 

[helloman1976]

Great experience with the buzzards.
I agree with you about the education system. I grew up in Florida. Because I stuttered and had dyslexia I would put in a school for the the mentally handicapped. When I was 17 I moved back to Canada and worked in a dump, taught my self to read and at 24 moved to Japan just for the hell of it. Lived and worked in Japan for 2 years and learned to speak and read Japanese. When I returned I applied to Queen's University as a mature student. They gave me one chance to make it or brake it. I ended up doing very well and by my second year there I was enrolled as a regular full time student. earned a degree and did some masters courses in Visual Information Processing. I went on to do a seconded degree in Behavioural Science. I now own my own business and do what I love. Your right the education system in the States is awful! They tried to destroy me because I didn't fit the profile of normal and the teacher were to inept to know what dyslexia is. It was in a Canadian University where I was discovered and given a chance. It was the same university that gave me testing after I requested it and that's where I found out I was dyslexic and not retarded, at age 26.

To Queen's University in Kingston.
Sapientia et Doctrina Stabilitas!

Other countries, like Canada and England etc, take education seriously which results in many positive side-effects like higher tax paying citizens and reduced violent crime etc. In these countries High School is important and if you don't do well then you aren't afforded the highest education but often still get to go to a "trade school" if you will and still don't come out of school with tens of thousands of dollars in debt, what a way to start your career and future. In America High School means nothing and you can get into college with a 2.0 or C grade average and nobody is a priority over anyone else unless you have more cash. It's an appalling system and the teachers are more inept than ever before but what do you expect from a $25,000 USD a year salary? If you pay low you'll get the worst, if you pay high you'll attract competition which is why colleges are where teachers make real money. In our sports teams we pay our best players millions a year, I don't think millions a year for a teacher are necessary but we can surely put more of an emphasis on paying them better to attract teachers who care and are highly educated versus, "Doing it for the love of it" and only so many of those kind of folks exist. In my daughter's high school kids make out in the hall ways as teachers walk by, kids cuss and teachers don't stop them, if they call the parents the parents don't care and are often very young and high uneducated like the kids they raise so getting out of the problem now will take a concerted effort and will take a decade to turn around. Higher education here has become only for the elite and those who can afford it etc. To compound the issues, as you experienced, we put everyone into the same class and even the mentally handicapped are in there now and these class rooms are over burdened with students who lack the books and instrumentation to learn as each desk gets a book instead of each student and so now there it no more homework as it has to be done in class. I could go on and on but you get the idea as to why America is no longer the greatest nation on Earth.

 

[Bartman]

moving right along.....

 

[Explorocam]

I agree with Helloman.

So moving along. Is there a way that we as a community, can turn this negative image around for ourselves. Can we create a responsible group or attach ourselves to the AMA and MAAC. I'm a MAAC member and fly at some AMA fields every year. (I use the term "community" because I'm sure many of us started this hobby with the open source technology in the beginning, like the Arducopter, OpenPilot, ETC, which is Open Source technology) Is there a press release that we could create or is that just going to make matters worse. Any ideas?

Common guys; if we can make cameras fly I'm sure we can collectively come up with something to mitigate this problem. If not we could be banned all together.

 

[helloman1976]

moving right along.....

Roger that admin! I'm off my soap box I promise

 

[helloman1976]

I agree with Helloman.

So moving along. Is there a way that we as a community, can turn this negative image around for ourselves. Can we create a responsible group or attach ourselves to the AMA and MAAC. I'm a MAAC member and fly at some AMA fields every year. (I use the term "community" because I'm sure many of us started this hobby with the open source technology in the beginning, like the Arducopter, OpenPilot, ETC, which is Open Source technology) Is there a press release that we could create or is that just going to make matters worse. Any ideas?

Common guys; if we can make cameras fly I'm sure we can collectively come up with something to mitigate this problem. If not we could be banned all together.

Yes, but we don't need to band together in a group to do it. All of us are ambassadors to this hobby so it's our responsibility as responsible people to put out the correct information as well as fly responsibly and to report others who do not. I try not to fly over anyone or anything where if I fall out of the sky I'm going to cause damage and cause concern for "drones". What we don't want is stories like the JFK story where it draws national attention. Honestly, I'd say we really don't want any attention at all because the concerns are obvious, privacy, damage and terrorism come to mind. For all the good things you can do with these, as with everything, there are a 100 bad things you can do. I personally feel it's our responsibility to be responsible with these drones and just look what's happened lately to a few of our members needing stitches and getting hurt from propeller blades. I use a pre-flight check list and an after flight check list. I do the following and it would be a good idea for others to follow suit and to especially do this in front of there people, and explain what we are doing, so they can see we are a responsible group of people.

1) Check that all wires are connected properly
2) Check that my batteries are fully charged or get to know my "state of charge"
3) Check that everything is secure and nothing has shifted or is loose and no damage has occurred. (I caught a broken arm that would have come off in flight this way one time)
4) Arm my antenna
5) Arm my radio
6) Place my Hexa in a safe location away from things it can smack into, clear take-off zone etc.
7) Arm my Hexa
8) Check that my diversity is working by unplugging on lead and watching it switch and checking that my video is good
9) Fly and do a simple range check by going around myself in a circle and then out in front of me
10) Proceed to normal flying

Landing
1) Disarm the Hexa immediately
2) Turn off my radio
3) Turn off my antenna
4) Repeat damage check
5) Inspect cabling
6) Replace batteries and do pre-flight checks on take off only a little less stringent.

I've caught problem after problem this way where at least 2 times I would have lost my Hexa and about $2,500+++ If this helps even one person then I'm doing my part.

 

[Explorocam]

Well said Helloman.

I do the same. This is something we can put out as the steps we take. People trust planes now because of the flight checks, regular maintenance and the hoped competence of pilots. Just letting the public know that serious UAV pilots do the same is helpful our cause. After all Google like us.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/12/09/google-gives-5m-to-build-drones-that-hunt-poachers/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqIMhlrU-oE

I think Helloman's check list should be pinned to the top of the "New Member's Intro Pages". This could help new members and our image.

 

[helloman1976]

Well said Helloman.

I do the same. This is something we can put out as the steps we take. People trust planes now because of the flight checks, regular maintenance and the hoped competence of pilots. Just letting the public know that serious UAV pilots do the same is helpful our cause. After all Google like us.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/12/09/google-gives-5m-to-build-drones-that-hunt-poachers/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqIMhlrU-oE

I think Helloman's check list should be pinned to the top of the "New Member's Intro Pages". This could help new members and our image.

That's a good idea and let everyone contribute to it and modify it as we think of more things or to streamline it etc.

I'm going flying today, probably won't see any poachers but I may get revenge on some Buzzards who were trying to knock me out of the sky lol. This time at least my camera shouldn't quit in the middle of recording!! By the way if anyone is interested I did some extensive testing on my Go Pro 2 to determine what the issue was. I have a 20 M/Bs memory card, specifically an Ultra San Disk 16GB. I had ProTune turned on which simply turns of any camera based color corrections and records at a faster bit rate so you get a better quality image and can post process it later. With Protune on it would shut off half way in the middle of the second video almost every single time. I never noticed before because I always cleared my card when I landed. I turned Protune off and have tested it over and over again over the course of days and about 40 hours of recording and not one shut off yet. My theory is that my memory card is not fast enough OR that at the slightest hiccup where the memory card can't sustain the bit rate and it shuts the recording off. I'm going to test my theory by upgrading to a Extreme Pro SAN Disk which is rated and tested at 90M/Bs so if it shuts off with that it's likely the firmware as rolling back to a previous version before Protune cures the problem or so I've read.

 

[Explorocam]

So what do you think Admin? Can we pin a Preflight checklist to the "New Member's Intro Page"
Some basic rules, how to perform preflight, post-flight checks and general good flying practices. I'd be willing to contribute a little something. If anyone likes I can post the Transport Canada Staff Instruction for "Special Flight Operation Certificate Applications" There are quite a few rules in there for commercial UAV pilots but much of it can be applied to the hobbyists for best practices.

 

[RobertsUp]

Thanks for posting your checklist, helloman.

I saved it.

There's a youtube video of some professional seller of the s800 going thru his checklist. Many must have seen it. His checklist goes further.

I would have added this to your checklist: Wait for the BEC to signal that all the GPS satellite receptions are completed.

There's an account of somebody so impatient to fly his RTF 550 that he didn't wait for the GPS to lock and his craft flew away and was lost forever.

(Sorry. I still haven't flown my own build as yet. I only noticed something ought to be added to the checklist.)

Rob

 

[Explorocam]

Thanks for posting your checklist, helloman.

I saved it.

There's a youtube video of some professional seller of the s800 going thru his checklist. Many must have seen it. His checklist goes farther.

I would have added this to your checklist: Wait for the BEC to signal that all the GPS satellite receptions are completed.

There's an account of somebody so impatient to fly his RTF 450 that he didn't wait for the GPS to lock and his craft flew away and was lost forever.

(Sorry. I still haven't flown my own build as yet. I only noticed something left out of the checklists.)

Rob

Could you please post the video. I think it's a good idea to see what this video is showing. The lights flashing and all is very good for DJI owners, but we have to remember that there is more than one one system out there and they all used there own methods and lighting patterns. I think it is important to make sure that we post a best practice check list for any system and anyone to follow before flight, while flying and after flights. This may be a hobby for many but we should be taken seriously. That idiot flying a Zypher around the Liberty Statue sure didn't help our image and did a lot for pulling the idiots out of the woodwork.

 

[RobertsUp]

 

[helloman1976]

Excellent!! I'd also like to see added to the new person's list a section of expectations of FPV pilots. Something like,

Welcome to this forum, as an FPV pilot there are many expectations from us that you may not be aware of. The crafts we fly, although fun, are dangerous and can cause serious damage, serious bodily harm or even death in rare cases so it's important to take this hobby seriously and to report those who do not. You may have noticed in the media lately that the term "drone" has been linked with drone strikes in the Middle East and around the world and many believe it now has a negative connotation to it. It's our job as ambassadors to this hobby to let people know that we are simply hobbiest who enjoy the experience of flying and/or recording nature and man's creations from the sky. We respect other people's privacy and we do not fly over the top of people or record people for the sake of spying, espionage or voyeurism which will be people's main concerns. Remember, you are an ambassador to this hobby and like you, and all of us, we are responsible for this hobby, what we do, and keeping it around for many years versus laws being generated against us because of irresponsible pilots. Welcome to this forum and we hope that you follow these rules and guidelines so that we can all share knowledge, grow together and experience First Person View or F.P.V.


Someone proof read that and spell check it

 

[Bartman]

So what do you think Admin? Can we pin a Preflight checklist to the "New Member's Intro Page"
Some basic rules, how to perform preflight, post-flight checks and general good flying practices. I'd be willing to contribute a little something. If anyone likes I can post the Transport Canada Staff Instruction for "Special Flight Operation Certificate Applications" There are quite a few rules in there for commercial UAV pilots but much of it can be applied to the hobbyists for best practices.

we had started working on this but it's tough to stay focused on anything around here as there are so many new conversations popping up each day.

do a quick search and maybe you'll find the thread I'm referring to. I plan to have a set of guidelines at my shop site when it's up in a few weeks (I hope). No reason we can't do the same thing here too though.

Bart