DO NOT FLY DRONES HERE

I know....I draw the line at rousing a bunch of rebels and ending up at best a martyr or worse ineffectively dead. So we plod forward, impotent and futile, meekly obedient in the worst ways, while our leaders march us down the path to stagnation and ruin. A story told too many times in history. Oh well. If we could but harness the founder's bodies to turbines, we'd have an energy glut, they are spinning so darn fast....

I look at the big map and at least in Florida the no fly zones are airports. OK I can totally agree with that, that's very logical. The funny thing about all of this to me is that if people would just stop calling them "drones" a very military term, for what in reality is little more then an RC Quad Copter usually... Stop calling them drones, start calling them RC planes and I think the whole idea of them will switch gears dramatically fast. The RC plane gas or electric powered to my knowledge has never been harassed or miss treated. In fact allot of them can carry a payload much much larger then the Phantom or any of these others. I mean think about it if you wanted to do real damage you could, more easily as with a gas powered unsteady full on RC gas powered plane. How this ideology has escaped the masses I will never understand. A camera mounted on a quad is not effective, a bomb on an RC gas powered plane however could be.. Yet that has never once been an issue in the past... I think it's all terminology, stop calling them drones, start calling them any thing else, non military terminology and the harassment should end.

Fly your tool box.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eibyRBcmLvc

Totally agree Bryan. Remote control powered and sail planes fly all over the country in every environment with no problems. In fact the government and FAA has allowed the RC community to basically self regulate. The term drone is far too misleading and inaccurate. In fact most if not all military drones are controlled from thousands of miles away, well out of sight. A couple years ago the government tried to give "drone" pilots combat hero medals. The backlash from real soldiers who put their lives in danger was so strong the award was cancelled. Many "combat" drones in Iraq, Afghanistan etc etc are flown via satellite from Nellis AFB, Nevada.

I have fun flying my remote control quad copter ;)

Here is the other part that I don't seem to understand, why are people worried about them falling out of the sky? Not military drones, like camera quad copters? What's the weight on one like 10 pounds and plastic? I'd try and catch it so the poor guy didn't lose all that money. Or heck move over 1.5 feet...

Sure if your flying directly over traffic and one hits a windshield, that's bad news, so basically don't be an idiot? Flying it in big crowds of people, just don't do it... Or fly it low enough so that if it did crash into someone it wouldn't be the end of the world. Don't fly it over a field of infants, if you happen to find a field of infants...

So Don you own one set me straight is there much if any thing to fear if one comes falling out of the sky, is it going to be fatal or just kind of piss you off getting hit by one? My guess is it's just going to be mildly annoying at best.

If my fancy new Matrix-E quadcopter fell out of the sky it could kill you. Easily break your windshield. Cause you to smash into oncoming traffic. Chop your ears off, put your eyes out, lacerate your face, etc. It's heavy. The flight battery weighs near 2.5 lbs. It's a brick. That's why I won't be flying it above you. These things are not flight stable. Some RC choppers, like the real ones, can at least auto-gyro .. that is, a semblance of glide - like an RC plane, but a quadcopter becomes an uncontrollable aerial rototiller if one motor or ESC fails. Even a Phantom can do damage...they are a fraction of the weight. I practice flight with a Walkera Ladybird. It is annoying, even hurts a little with 2" plastic props. It weighs a few ounces. It "could" put your eye out, but basically it's a great way to prevent marital bliss. (good thing it's cute) The Matrix, with 15" carbon fiber props, is a BEAST, and all operations need to be approached with no uncertain professionalism. I wasn't going to go public with this, but for this forum, here ya go. Understand I turned the volume WAY down on the Matrix sounds. This thing has real power, and is NOT a toy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pb6B2Re69A

So I'm reasonably cautious and careful, especially since I spent a lot on something I "hope" to possibly fly my AX100 with. What about the voyeurs, yahoos, kids, and evil people? That is what we, as an RC community, have to self-regulate and help forge a way to do so, so that we don't ultimately get shut down, or have regulations so harsh we can't operate.

Falling out of the sky like the F-15 fighter jet or Malaysia Airlines or any of the hundreds of RC airplanes that crash every week. Indeed, when I was flying the F-4 Phantom II jet we were very concerned about a bird strike. Hitting a seagull or duck at 540 Kts could be very deadly with it coming thru the windshield.

Bryan, at full speed in no wind I have had mine at 35 mph. Even if the blades don't cause damage the impact at that speed can really hurt someone. I have had mine fall out of the sky from about 40 feet up due to turbulence from it's own prop wash. It is easy to hit your own prop wash by descending straight down too fast. Luck once was in trees and the other on a soft lawn. Both times no damage to machine and I don't thing it falling would hurt someone but it sure would scare the heck out of them. Hitting a car driving down the road would not be a good result.

It's about common sense; which is why there is problem. The 99%+ of the operators of these things are good its the usual 1% or less that can cause endless amounts of red tape to be written in order to use or operate something. If you're allowed at all.

OK yeah that first one I wouldn't want to get hit with. It sounds like you could chop down a tree with it, and you say you turned the sound down...

The Phantom though I think even at 35 MPH as long as it wasn't TO THE FACE, lol it would be OK. It wouldn't be the most fun you could have on a Friday night but less serious then the media makes it seem.

I totally agree zanyzeus, it's the 1% that act stupid and ruin it for the rest of us. Or the rest of you guys I don't own one of these, yet or maybe ever I have not decided. I'm just very against peoples freedoms and rights being stripped away over a label. Plus commercially I think they could have allot of uses.

Given the chance to go wrong at some point small flying machines will cause damage. Maybe the flying machine will develop its own mind and leave its master and do damage, or a terrorist / wacked high school kid with a grudge will attack a teacher. What about the remote forest fire starter? These are all things that will happen. I say they will because they already do in some form the unnamed flying machines will just expand the horizons. The cat is out of the box already.