I’ve been reading more and more of people finding these drones flying over there backyard taking pictures and I wonder, has anyone encountered one yet? Did you know who was flying it? What did you do?
I saw a guy flying one over the Merrimack River taking pictures of the giant snow piles this winter. I went over and said “Cool quad copter. Is it a Phantom? Do you worry about what happens if it goes into the river? What’s the battery life? Where can I see your videos?”
At a recent LARP event, we heard an odd noise during a fight, and a quadcopter came buzzing in through a break in the trees. We ignored it, and a minute later, a guy followed it and asked if we minded him recording the game for a bit. We said it was fine and got on with whacking each other with foam swords.
Someone was going to get a link from him, but I haven’t seen it.
I found a note taped to my door saying that some guy had lost control of his very expensive toy somewhere in our neighborhood.
Don’t know if he ever found it…
Saw a quadcopter a couple months ago, flying over one of our local parks when the Firebug and I were there. I’m guessing it was 75-100 feet up.
Gotta say, it looked like lots of fun. I wouldn’t mind having one.
There was a guy who’d always go up on a hill at SCA events and play the bagpipes at sunrise, but I don’t think that’s what you’re looking for.
I only saw one man using one to get some pictures at a Boy Scout event. It seemed like a good idea. I can see people into photography using them.
Once the range gets better we would like to get one for our farm so we could send it out to check on some remote parts of the fields and fence lines.
I’ve seen a local firm use one to make a visual inspection of the roof and gutters on a three story building. Much easier and quicker than messing about with roof ladders.
My family and I were up in Mt. Laguna (San Diego County) and we were overflown by a pilotless jet aircraft. I couldn’t get pictures, but it was clearly a jet, and almost big enough to have been a piloted military craft. Just…no cockpit windows, and not quite big enough to carry a pilot.
It ripped right over a grassy meadow and off out of sight again.
I wrote to the Air Force to ask what it was, and they said to write to the FAA. I wrote to the FAA and got no answer.
My raw-ass guess is that it was surveillance for evidence of smuggling, either illegal immigrants or drugs. Anyway, whatever it was, it’s got pictures of me staring at it in astonishment.
ETA: Heh! Technically speaking, it was a UFO!
I have a Blade 350 QX3. It has about a 1 mile range. I have it set up with a Gopro 3 attached with a 3 axis gimbal, and a 2 watt 5.8 gigahertz video transmitter. The tech on these drones is amazing. It has gps, and if it losses radio contact it will return back to the takeoff spot and land without any intervention on my part. Or I can flip a switch and it will come back and land itself.
Just about anyone can learn to fly one with minimal instruction. In fact, I learned to fly mine by watching YouTube videos. There is no real skill involved. Its not like a remote control helicopter where you have to control every aspect of flight. You just basically control the up, down, left, right, and rotation like you would on a remote control car. Everything else is automaticaly controlled by the flight controller. In fact, it is so stable that when you let go of all the controls, it will stay wherever it’s at, even with a good breeze blowing.
I fly mine mostly just for fun, but I have made a few bucks with it. I have a friend who owns a construction business. Whenever he has roofing jobs come up he has me go record HD video of the roof for him. It saves him from having to send guys out with ladders to give an estimate.
A week ago I saw an article warning of the dangers of filming fireworks with a drone. Seemed like a great idea to me, and I almost bought one.
Have the parachute folks have them yet?
Much easier to get a shot of you on your first jump with a drone instead of another jumper in such close proximity.
BASE jumpers and bungee freaks should love them.
All of the complaints remind me of the people who would accost Google Glass wearers to demand that they not photograph them. Ummmm… “Why would I photograph you?”
Really folks, not everything is about YOU! :smack:
My neighbor thought he lost one in my back yard a while back. He called and I went outside and looked for it but didn’t find it. He bought a slightly larger one with live first person video and flew the damn thing in my yard several times a day for at least two weeks. I guess he didn’t believe I looked for the one he lost?
I don’t think I own everything above my lot to outer space or anything but hearing a loud clang and looking out the window to see that a drone just crashed into my charcoal grill under the patio next to my window definitely feels like an invasion of privacy.
I don’t think most drones have the speed necessary to keep up with sky divers, but they could be used for some great shots while bungee jumping.
The terminal velocity of a drone is probably much lower than that of a human. The drone would have to fly upside down in order to descend fast enough.