Two drones almost collide with NYPD chopper


Old Man

Active Member
Notice the charges were not directly applicable to aviation. The lesson from the Trappy conviction failure was quickly learned.
 


News Robot

Drone Enthusiast
Two men from Inwood arrested after they flew drone near George Washington Bridge, nea



BY*MARK MORALES*,*KERRY BURKE TWO MANHATTAN men were arrested early Monday after they piloted a drone close to the George Washington Bridge and nearly struck an NYPD helicopter, police sources said. Wilkins Mendoza, 34, and Remy Castro, 23, were remotely piloting…Read more →


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News Robot

Drone Enthusiast


By*Larry Celona Two drones nearly took out an NYPD chopper over the George Washington Bridge on Monday, and cops arrested the wayward crafts’ operators, law-enforcement sources told The Post. The Aviation Unit helicopter was on patrol at around 12:15

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This one is just what the FAA is looking for professional Police pilots and a platform that was recording video at the time that will be able to refute the lawyers claims. This is very likely to go huge today.
 


PCMAerial

Member
These stories leave me with such mixed feelings. While I have respect for a pilot of ANY uav who respects the policies that have been set (Below 400ft, away from populated areas, away from airport and restricted airspace). These effin DJI Phantom (sorry guys) users are RUINING this for the rest of us. How often do you see a Skyjib or Cinestar flying through populated NY areas, or places similar? BARELY EVER. Why? It seems as though users who have to build and appreciate a rig from scratch know the risks and threats. While these fools (sorry to responsible phantom owners) go out an buy a phantom and fly within an hour.

Hoping a regulation/certification will come around soon. I'll gladly pay a premium fee to responsibly fly and be set apart from this type of image, and let these dumbass(sorry guys) phantom users get what they deserve

-rant over. lol
 

R_Lefebvre

Arducopter Developer
It seems as though users who have to build and appreciate a rig from scratch know the risks and threats. While these fools (sorry to responsible phantom owners) go out an buy a phantom and fly within an hour.

Sorry, I have to laugh.... I've been into RC for 20 years. 15 years ago, the old codgers in my club said the EXACT same thing about ARF RC airplanes. :highly_amused: Your Skyjib is an ARF. ;)

Some things never change.

But I agree. Back in the day, it still took 10-20 hours to assemble an ARF. And if you were an idiot, you didn't get 5 feet off the ground before turning it into matchsticks. And it was impossible to fly above 400 feet because you couldn't see a 40 size model.

These days, with fully automated UAV's that you can just charge and fly, we get this stuff going on.

That being said, I really want to see the full details of the case. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the police pilots saw the drone below, and then swooped down to check it out, thinking it was a full-scale at a longer distance. They probably realized too late it was small scale and close, and had to take evasive action. Then, police being police, the poor hapless schmuck flying the quad maybe not too terribly dangerously gets thrown under the bus. and/or, the reported altitude is falsely reported as being higher than it was, because the police pilot doesn't want to admit he was flying at a dangerously low altitude. ;)
 


PCMAerial

Member
Sorry, I have to laugh.... I've been into RC for 20 years. 15 years ago, the old codgers in my club said the EXACT same thing about ARF RC airplanes. :highly_amused: Your Skyjib is an ARF. ;)

Some things never change.

But I agree. Back in the day, it still took 10-20 hours to assemble an ARF. And if you were an idiot, you didn't get 5 feet off the ground before turning it into matchsticks. And it was impossible to fly above 400 feet because you couldn't see a 40 size model.

These days, with fully automated UAV's that you can just charge and fly, we get this stuff going on.

That being said, I really want to see the full details of the case. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the police pilots saw the drone below, and then swooped down to check it out, thinking it was a full-scale at a longer distance. They probably realized too late it was small scale and close, and had to take evasive action. Then, police being police, the poor hapless schmuck flying the quad maybe not too terribly dangerously gets thrown under the bus. and/or, the reported altitude is falsely reported as being higher than it was, because the police pilot doesn't want to admit he was flying at a dangerously low altitude. ;)

All built from scratch here:) Skyjib doesn't even fit my budget lol. So I can understand what your saying though. I should have said overall my statement is not to generalize the entire "RTF" crowd, but more-so the mentality of certain users causing events like this. I've seen a $500 rig go down from an expert, and a $50k Rig w/ RED Epic flown without a flaw by someone with no experience

At the end of the day there is substantial video evidence and proof of these simple "plug & play" users vastly defying the precedence for UAV hobby or commercial use. I can do more extensive research but so far it's around a 3 to 1 ratio Vs. Any other Rig in the Youtube & Instagram "Flying Above Clouds" "Flying Through NYC" "Flying Over Marathon" etc. categories. From a quad to an octo, they all have mishaps.

While I am not blaming the craft itself, there is only blame to place on the users who have not fully grasped the concept, but more less want to defy gravity and get a kick out of sending a GoPro 5000ft into the air. In building a UAV one should always learn the in's and outs of the craft. Which most of the time leads to the internet and research on how things work, certain rules and regulations, and many times leading to this site directly. I'll admit my first time looking into a UAV I had no idea of all of the concepts. Then I waited after years of internet research, field work, and this site alone to hand-build a craft. A person can really understand a safer way of flying UAV's by the extensive amount of info available these days. Rather than "Buying & Flying"
 
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R_Lefebvre

Arducopter Developer
That may just be because of numbers though. The Phantom probably outsells the expensive machines 1000:1. I've certainly seen plenty of dumb things even from "professional machines". There's been a number, over the years, the latest being that white thing in Italy. I think it's the flight controllers to blame more than the rest of the airframe, and some of them are worse than others because they make things appear too easy when they're really not. "What is your GPS reception quality like?" "I dunno... uh, I count, hang on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 flashes? That's good right?" "Well, what's the HDOP?" "HDOP?"
 

PCMAerial

Member
That may just be because of numbers though. The Phantom probably outsells the expensive machines 1000:1. I've certainly seen plenty of dumb things even from "professional machines". There's been a number, over the years, the latest being that white thing in Italy. I think it's the flight controllers to blame more than the rest of the airframe, and some of them are worse than others because they make things appear too easy when they're really not. "What is your GPS reception quality like?" "I dunno... uh, I count, hang on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 flashes? That's good right?" "Well, what's the HDOP?" "HDOP?"

That I can agree with. I suppose it's what comes with a territory such as this. Hurts to see the negative media attention, especially when there are such a high number of responsible users around the globe.
 

R_Lefebvre

Arducopter Developer
Here's a great example that I just stumbled on, pretty well demonstrates my point:


So what would have happened if this buffoonery had resulted in the helicopter crashing? Who is at fault? Seems the heli pilot was pretty reckless IMO. Trying to force a drone from the air, when ground officers apparently had already found the operator. I can just imagine the justification "ZOMG, it's a terrorist plot to blow up Great Falls! We must immediately knock this drone into the water to foil their evil plan!"
 
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Old Man

Active Member
Here's a great example that I just stumbled on, pretty well demonstrates my point:


So what would have happened if this buffoonery had resulted in the helicopter crashing? Who is at fault? Seems the heli pilot was pretty reckless IMO. Trying to force a drone from the air, when ground officers apparently had already found the operator. I can just imagine the justification "ZOMG, it's a terrorist plot to blow up Great Falls! We must immediately knock this drone into the water to foil their evil plan!"

Robert,

That's another issue in its own right in this country today. Law enforcement agencies and their staff are above the law. Bring charges that manage to stick against them and if an officer is terminated he's simply rehired by another agency within a very short period of time. It the days of the wild west you'd simply shoot them and be done with it. Today you can only stand there and take what they dish out and pray you survive to heal.

With the helicopter event in your post I would have filed a near miss report with the civil aviation authority. Although police get to do pretty much whatever they want they are still bound by the rules that assure pilots must assure the safety of persons and property on the ground. The size of the shadow well depicted the altitude of the helicopter, and since it wasn't trying to land on the water it was not being operated in a safe manner.
 

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genesc

Member
Another Idiot Trying To Ruin Our Hobby

Two men arrested after flying drone near George Washington Bridge in NY

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Gene
 
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Does anyone else kinda suspect that for each one of these reports of an idiot with a phantom that comes out, in addition to the bad press and alarm that it brings to the general public, there's also probably a bunch of other excited idiots watching, typing "DJI Phantom 2" into the amazon bar?
 

Av8Chuck

Member
Its probably much worse than that. Problem is that no one is posting positive images with meaningful messages about MR's.

But let me ask you, how is the success of an online video measured? The number of views, right? So what's accomplished by posting videos of idiots with MR's? Your encouraging them, your adding to their success.

I can understand why people might not be able to post inspirational footage that gets the kind of views a video of flying your dead cat around or something might get, but we certainly shouldn't be supporting these idiots by re-posting the their videos in the non-idiot forums. Its an oxymoron and it kind of makes us the idiots.
 


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