DRONE SHOT DOWN BY ANNOYED NEIGHBOUR

[Phil Perry]

https://arstechnica.com/tec...

[aj_richo]

Loved this quote in the article..

 

“An aircraft is an aircraft,” Rocky Davidson, of the FAA’s Nashville Flights Standards District Office, told Ars. “We have the same rules and regulations for shooting a regular aircraft.”

 

..as long as you follow the rules and regulations, you can shoot an aircraft..

 

 

[Phil Perry]

It's inevitable, drones are now considered by many as privacy busters.Expect to see a lot more news on drones as they saturate the planet!

Remote control 'Model' aircraft never created this kind of fuss. . . .maybe due to the fact that they were fairly well 'Controlled' by clubs having rules etc. . .and were the province of genuine aircraft enthusiasts. . .

 

Drones are too easy to fly. . .any daft bugger can 'buy and fly' with minimal training if any at all. There are loads of youtube videos showing people doing daft things with them. . . monkey sees. . . .

 

Some entrepreneur somewhere had a brilliant idea for making a quick buck and obviously did. Our local Maplins tecchy shop runs out of drone stock every Christmas without fail, and there is usually a noticeble surge in sales ( according to the manager ) each time any drone features in a media report. . .

 

I see a dozen or so every week flying around the urban area where I live, none of whose operators ( apparently ) observing the regs regarding flight over congested residential areas.

 

 

[Marty_d]

Talk of art imitating life... tonight my wife was watching her favourite show ("The Good Wife") and the premise of this episode was that a bloke was being taken to court for shooting down a drone that was spying on him.

 

 

[planedriver]

Certainly wasn't mine.

 

But I only fly responsibly, and have never flown near a nudie beach or near people who feel inadequate. (so far)

 

 

[Phil Perry]

That's all very true, the only thing I'd like to add is that drones have the ability to loiter, their presence is continious and in yr face where as a fixed wing model continues to move forward and doesn't have zany where near the capability as drones. Also drones have the ability to spy pervade people's privacy like we haven't seen before, these are the two reasons why they are thought of as offensive. Drones are amazing they have amazing ability & like everything man invents it gets abused.

I forgot to mention model Helicopters,. . . friend Sy at the aero \club ( owns a Savannah ) has operated model helicopters for many years. He mounted cameras on them before it was the 'In Vogue' thing to do. BUT. . . it takes a certain amount of training and coordination to operate a helicopter, . . .I crashed two, so I can only assume I'm no damn good at it ! I would imagine that they are also more difficult to hover outside someone's bedroom window at night by sole reference to a videocam. . .

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Certainly wasn't mine.But I only fly responsibly, and have never flown near a nudie beach or near people who feel inadequate. (so far)

My mate has fitted an 'Inadequate Persons' scanner on his,. . just to make sure. . .

 

 

[Phil Perry]

My local council have been paying an Aerial Survey company to 'Spy' on the public to see if anyone has built a conservatory, house extension or other outbuilding without planning permission.

 

It was reported that some council members were complaining about the cost of hiring a commercial pilot / photographer in a Thielert diesel powered C-172 to provide aerial evidence of this disgraceful wrongdoing and proposed using drones instead, apparently they are organizing a demonstration and feasibilty study. . . I'll try to find out how this goes / went. . .

 

I can't really imagine 'Uncle Fred and his illegal shed' daring to fire a shotgun at a low flying Cessna, but a drone ?. . .knowing some of the wallies around here, it wouldn't surprise me one bit !

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Helo's are in the minority these days now that sophisticated drones are avail. I've flown helo's for many years as well as fixed wing and used to put cameras onboard sometimes but FPV wasn't around way back then the equip was too heavy and bulky. The footage we used to get was pretty basic, short and often unwatchable wth vibrations being the norm, I don't recall anyone being too bothered, it was more the noise that was of concern.Mob Ph's where also considered offensive as well when they came out in large numbers as they where looked upon as yuppie rich people's spoils & invaded our privacy but look at them now, every man and his dog has one, drones will someday be part of normal society, whatever normal is

I used to listen in to the early analogue mobile phones with an old Bearcat scanner. . .( Naughty radio hams were us ) but I take your point about the 'Acceptance of technology' over quite a short period of time. . .

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Drones can easily be taken out electronically, the technology already exists as they still rely on radio signals.

They CAN,. . .if those who wish to do so are as clever as us. Dunno about Fred and his shed though ! In the early days of CB Radio, I lost a couple of models due to interference from the 'Good Buddies' back in the days of 27 Mhz RC. Even though our frequencies were situated in between the CB channels. And separated by only 10Khz in some cases. . .an overmodulated AM transmitter nearby could easily cause this. . .was a bit of a pain, for a while. . .

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Haha that brings back memories, 'rubber ducky' truckers used to take out our models all the time as we flew near a major Hwy even though they where tuned to 20KC spacing and sometimes 10 strong CB units would claim a kill

Such was the problem having our flying field situated next to a main trunk road. I never heard of any CBers doing it deliberately, but BOTH my model fatalities ocurred when 'Up Elevator' refused to respond in a vertical dive exiting a loop or similar manoeuvre . . Ouch ya bugger !

 

I used to repair CB radios as a hobby business on the side so I was aware that a lot of these truckies AND others were using So-Called 'Linear' amplifiers on the end of their rigs. These things were nearly ALL el- cheapo simple, ruff as guts Class 'C' boosters with no linearity at all, giving rise to all sorts of cross channel bleed splatter and other spectral 'Spooglies' Fifty watts of 'Dirty' AM a few hundred yards away from your aircraft would almost certainly blank the controller signal. . .

 

Looking at all these units on my spectrum analyser, showed a picture like a bloody barbed wire fence spreading over half a Meg. . . lovely.

 

 

[Marty_d]

Topical...

 

Backyard skinny-dippers, peeping drones and the law

 

 

[DingerPPC]

Sounds waaay more fun than clay target shooting

 

 

[Phil Perry]

My father was a radio repair man when I was a kid, I remember his 'CRO' he had in his little shed and other at the time fancy stuff like valves, large capacitors power supplies and several soldering irons all which would barely fit in a suitcase! Today's technology is amazing but as you would know the basic principles are still there, radio waves which can still be interupted

Analogue waves certanly can Wally. But at least digital packet 'Pulse Trains' will continue to repeat until they get through, though this is of course small comfort f the interference happens at a time critical moment. . . RF radiation is almost like a solid force at short distances, All Hail the Creator ( PBUH ) for the inverse square law eh ?

 

 

[Phil Perry]

ON Topic. . . Another 'Near Miss' report. . .I DO SO WISH. . .this term was replaced with 'NEAR COLLISION' . . .makes a crapload more sense IMV. . .

 

An AIrbus A319 was tracking across Central London ( Direction not reported at 5,000 feet, ( Hard to believe this height ) when the crew saw TWO Drones. They took slight avoiding action to preserve separation. . . . Another flight reported a single Drone in the same area on the same day. The collision risks were both rated 'A' ie, serious risk of collision.

 

The 'News' reporters may well have got the height a little 'Out' as I'm not sure that many Drones could attain 5,000 feet and remain within range of the controller. ( Droneys may know better. . .)

 

I can't remember the news wire where I read this, the incident(s) were dated a few months ago, along with another one, A320 in late landing phase at Edinbugh Airport, the handling pilot said that there was zero chance of avoiding action as the aircraft was on short final with all it's draggy bits hanging out. . .

 

No drone operators have been identified with regard to the above incidents.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Sounds waaay more fun than clay target shooting

Blimey Dinger. . . I hope that you always wear Kevlar underpants when you're flying that Aerial Nightshirt thingy mate,. .

 

Just in case some bloody half blind gamekeeper has a go at you with his 12 bore. . . .

 

 

[Phil Perry]

It is a real concern this sort of stuff. It's not possible to operate a drone at that distance legally. Once established on final you where committed unless a stand go-around could be performed but certainly no violent maneuvers to avoid a drone or even a bird. I've been hit numerous times by Lasers, it's only a matter of time before we get an impact with a drone that makes the headlines, I only hope I ain't at the wheel when it happens as a bird is bad enough, scares the crap out of ya!

Jeeze yes Wally, . . them birds scared the crap out of 'Sully' too . .if you read the book ( ! )

 

I've only ever had One birdstrike, why the prop didn't get damaged is beyond my engineering ken. It was in an ancient C-172. It was one I hired regularly from an importer of American aircraft, as it was 'El Cheapo' He hired them out to 'Friends' for low prices, so long as you didn't complain about the condition too much ! ! The strip was 850 metres of concrete and had been an old WW2 RAF station called Prees Higher Heath ( Glider tug training base )

 

I was on base leg and had pulled the rpm back to 1500 and then suddenly, loud bang, with blood guts and feathers over half the screen. I was stunned for a few seconds and decided to continue the approach. I shut the engine down and declared a Pan. I still had way enough height to make the runway by cutting the corner, and was concerned I might lose the prop. In my well shocked 'Jelly like' state, I then did the worst landing I'd ever done,. . .well no, to be fair, that ANYBODY has ever done ! Bounced like a beaudy mate. . .

 

It is interesting to note that the CAA showed not the slightest bit of interest, because No crew nor passengers were injured and the aircraft had sustained no discernable damage. My mate Andy, the only passenger was psychologically damged though, the poor bugger has never flown since ! One of the guys at the parachute club said that the feathers were from some kind of goose. . .

 

Another one, on the Air Ground radio for the parachute club said. . . "Ere . . .what does 'PAN PAN' - PAN PAN - PAN PAN' mean Phil ?' . . .

 

Sorry for the topic digression here. . .when I remember stuff, I have to spit it out quick, before I forget again. Another pilot friend said that if I'd been flying G-BURD ( another of the hire 172s, ) IT MIGHT HAVE MADE A BETTER STORY ! !

 

I can only guess what sort of damage a drone would cause to an LSA hobby aircraft propeller, let alone your RPT turbine fans at the speed they operate. . .

 

 

[Phil Perry]

During my foray into Antipodean communications this afternoon, I was rudely interrupted by my Business Oppo Stevie. He asked what we were 'Chatting' about, and when I mentioned 'Shooting' I started him off. He has attended many national championships for clay pigeon shooting, and shoots around four times per week. He gave me a good idea for the best time of year to shoot down a drone. . .he reckons that early November in the UK, Guy Fawkes night, being on the 5th, would be a great day, should an annoying flying robot spoil your peace.

 

His rationale is that, for around two weeks prior to, and two weeks following the 5th, bloody larrikins are letting off loud fireworks day and night, and nobody bats an eyelid. . .he told me a story about a poor elderly guy who lived alone in a tiny house near here, he was diaagnosed with a terminal disease. He waited until the evening of Nov. 5th ( this is 25 years ago ) and then put a shotgun in his mouth. The note he left said that he didn't want to disturb the neighbours. . . .His body was not discovered for a couple of weeks. Steve and his wife were told this story when they went to view the house with a view to purchase it.

 

So there you have it,. . .the Sikh Diwali festival always attracts many bangs throughout that week, so there's another opportunity folks. . .

 

 

[SDQDI]

Here is a couple of videos that show where drones can go, now these were just the first couple I spotted on YouTube there are hundreds of examples of drones well over 500ft