Last Thing a Crashing Drone Sees: Itself
Gotta love the irony. Drone camera breaks off in treetop crash, captures video of now-detached drone breaking apart at 9:54. Dude gets what he deserves for being a high altitude (above clouds) hazard to aircraft. Stefan's not in the US, probably Evropa.
Comments
Multicopters are getting bad names with bad operators.
(I didn't say drones)
Except being several hundred meters up with no power and no control. I read the description and he does (now) understand the issues and states them pretty clearly. A cheap lesson that could've been far more expensive. Incidentally, here's the link if you want to read the description https://youtu.be/GfxdeRx2fLA
Ditto that...... it is a classic illegal flight. I have a difficult time believing that crashing in a park was anything other than dumb luck. Winds at different levels could have suddenly blown him elsewhere. May have had r/c control failure due to being on the other side of the clouds
What happens when on of these is sucked into a jet engine?
One might think that they would see the jet coming. But at 550MPH cruising speed, I have my doubts about the ability to negotiate avoiding a collision.
Fortunately, these don't fly in flocks.
We were all excited when Curiosity made a successful landing.
I was surprised to find that Edison had designed batteries. It was thought that they were a better solution to power automobiles. Regarding gasoline, some people asked how you would ever get people "to sit over an explosion".
I own five quadcopters and I fly them all safely.
Satellites occasionally fall out of orbit and the speed of cars caused fear in people who were accustomed to horses
A launch can go wrong though and the launcher and its payload will fall down somewhere. That's planned for in the choice of launcher location so at least for those cases where its fails just after launch the area ahead is generally clear (e.g. open water, or a non-inhabited region).
As for the balloons, I thought they required advance permit from the nearest airport and/or an airspace authority. At least that's my impression.
Well, if you are fascinated with these things -- file a flight plan, include navigation lights, and a radio beacon so that you can avoid being sucked into a passenger jet's engine. AND make sure your RC is capable of the distances involved. Also have your multicopter include a parachute deployment in case of power failure... these things shouldn't just be allowed to fall out of the sky at terminal velocity.
Even a large kite that flies high enough on a string is required to file a flight plan so that air traffic can avoid the hazard BY being aware of it. The same for balloons and rockets.
Yes, the photos are great, the audio is great -- but the airspace is shared.
Would you take a rowboat into a busy harbor and expect all the cargo traffic to just give you the right of way and make sure you are safe? While that may be the "Law of the Sea", it is not feasible. Taking a RC controlled rowboat into a busy harbor is even more absurd.
We all have to work to share the airspace and provide for the safety of people that are flying. These small multi-copters have NO rights to endanger pilots and passengers.
A parachute as part of a 'failsafe' procedure is a great idea. I've seen a video of an rc glider catching thermals. An rc craft gliding back on a parafoil could actually catch on!
I am admittedly weird. I wished I could fly like Superman as a kid. I dreamed about it.
In the late 80's I made plans to build a hang glider in my basement. My wife said "NO!". I had to settle for parafoil kites.
The rowboat in a harbor is not too far from something I actually did. In the early 90's I rowed a small inflatable boat across the Hudson river in upstate NY. My arms ached when I reached the other side and I had to go back. On my return trip there was a huge barge bearing down on me and the river was pulling me downstream. I think that was the dumbest thing I've ever done.
That would be a separate and very interesting thread we could all contribute to.
Rather than a straight jump, I did a one and a half somersault still seated on the bike to the awe and amazement of all my neighborhood pals.
A one or two would have been okay, but a one and a half landed me on my head. Luckily, I didn't break anything... didn't even tell my parents what happened.
But to this day, if I get together with those kids -- they start laughing about it... more than 50 years later.
Invention may be 1% inspiration and 99% effort, but disaster can be 99% inspiration and 1% action.
Much would depend on the size of the parachute... maybe even a blank .22 catridge would work in some tiny parachutes. There is blank ammunition used to shoot fasteners into concrete. Hilti has a gun and a range of ammunition strengths that are well calibrated. And then, blank shot gun shells come is a range of gauges - the smallest is .410, then 28 gauge and on up. These can be easily custom packed to suit your particular set up.
Try not to blow yourself up while developing a ballistic parachute to save your multicopter. There is a real need for this as a real product... worth developing.
You're not going to find passenger jets cruising anywhere near that speed at low altitudes.
None, providing they follow FAR part 101.
That most certainly is not the "Law of the Sea". Cargo traffic is not required, nor expected to give a row boat, or any small craft, the right of way.
The thing here is that 'the public' thinks that the FAA doesn't have a grip on what is happening in the air space. That is just not true. But there are people that choose not to investigate and learn how to comply.
http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?rgn=div5&node=14:2.0.1.3.15
When I was about 10 years old, I was very interested in building kites and wanted to build big ones -- like 10 feet tall, and fly them high. But it was pointed out to me that do so responsibly, I had to comply with FAA regualtions... that was back in the late 1950s.
Not sure I get your point. According to FAR 101 you could have a balloon with a payload up to six pounds and not fall under their jurisdiction - except for 101.7 which is a catch-all that says you cannot create a hazard to persons or property.
That means I could launch a 5lb balloon without notifying anyone.
When my oldest daughter was little we'd bicycle across the Newburgh-Beacon bridge fairly often.
I 'thought' rowing would not be that hard.
BTW that 'walkway' is gorgeous.