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More media sensationalism giving our hobby a bad name

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dflash

Member
Read this article in the local10 News down in South Florida. I tried getting the actual video interview of the pilot but it has not been posted yet. Clearly the reporter was reached by the full scale helicopter pilot that is being investigated by the FAA for reckless behavior chasing a quad through the city's sky, to turn this into a media circus. No one ever mentions the thousands of Mylar balloons and Japanese lanterns that people release every year, even the proximity of airports. I understand there are many people flying quads out there that have no knowledge of what they are doing. But footage and interviews where clearly cut and edited to create panic and friction around the topic.

http://www.local10.com/news/florida...one-incidents-last-year-records-show/31393462
 
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jamboree1

jamboree1

Active member
Typical bad investigation with no facts or supporting evidence. I see what you meant about the video cut and paste special to make something out of nothing. Food for thought, I don't care how big a multi rotor is, it won't stand up to the rotor wash from a real helicopter
 
IFlyRCstuff

IFlyRCstuff

Flyer Of Many Things
Wow, that is just, wow. The 500 ft rule seems okay at first, but if you are like me and pretty much fly off a gigantic hill tat is pretty dang steep, suddenly 500ft is at eye level and not so far out. I mean really.
 
brettp2004

brettp2004

New member
Ross Palombo, you sir are an idiot. This is the most poorly written article I've ever read. I'm not a journalism major but this is terrible. I hate the media. I guess since they aren't picking on gun control as much they have to find something to complain about. Might as well be this "drone" problem. Clearly, what we need are more laws... (<----sarcasm)
 
makattack

makattack

Winter is coming
Moderator
Mentor
It's hard to say, but one could also surmise that this pilot had an ax to grind with the drone operator due to the fact that his own commercial interest is threatened, which might have motivated him to pursue UAV over a densely populated area at low altitude, with passengers...
 
PHugger

PHugger

Church Meal Expert
Same thing happened at the George Washington Bridge last year.
Chopper pilot (cop) chases drone and then claims it was coming straight at them.
This clown from Florida tries the same thing except he isn't a cop and apparently doesn't have friends in the FAA.
What are the altitude rules for the chopper? He seems to feel he owns the sky.



Best regards,
PCH
 
Stradawhovious

Stradawhovious

"That guy"
There are two problems here...

First off, the media. Bunch of assclowns. Take a seed and let it blossom into half-truths and publicity spins.

Second, behind almost every one of these stories, there is a UAV pilot doing something stupid. Whether or not it gets blown out of proportion is irrelevent if the act could have been avoided in the first place.

I'm the first one to come to the defense of our hobby, but I must admit that when someone is doing something stupid with a UAV, it's basically a flying cuisinart.

For example... I was at a beer festival not too long ago where someone had a DJI Phantom they were buzzing about 10 feet over the heads of a crowd of almost 3,000 people. If one motor were to fail, one ESC cut out or the pilot dumb-thumb even a little, someone in the crowd is getting REALLY hurt.

Granted, the guy at the sticks was at least flying line of sight, it still made me really nervous. Add to that the idiots that are trying to ground it by tossing rags, shoelaces and beer cups at the props, and you have a recipe for a real problem.

I'm not saying that the bad press about our hobby would stop altogether if people didn't do stupid things with these craft, but with a lack of fresh targets it sure would slow down.

Sure, you can't fault good people for the actions of idiots, but without the idiots it would be a lot easier to be good people.
 
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dflash

Member
makattack said:
It's hard to say, but one could also surmise that this pilot had an ax to grind with the drone operator due to the fact that his own commercial interest is threatened, which might have motivated him to pursue UAV over a densely populated area at low altitude, with passengers...
Click to expand...


I was thinking the same thing. He obviously runs a business shooting areal footage for events. If all of the sudden, UAV are allowed to commercially do this job, he will have to sell his heli. This almost sounds like a personal favor from the reporter to make this guy's case public, since he was grounded by FAA for reckless behavior with a far more dangerous flying machine. Who knows, maybe the old people that said they where scared, meant actually of the heli flying so low in a populated area so early in the morning playing cat/mouse with a quad.
 
PHugger

PHugger

Church Meal Expert
I'm not sure in the Florida case that the drone pilot did anything wrong.
How high was he flying?
He had lights on his craft that attracted the attention of the chopper who then chased him.
I agree that the Chopper Pilot's days as a Photo/Video platform are numbered and he is trying to protect his cheese.
If the drone pilot was stupid - all bets are off and he deserves whatever he gets.



Best regards,
PCH
 
K

Kanifee

Junior Member
I live in the UK and have just entered the hobby so I have made my self familiar with what guidelines and regulations we have here in place to help protect us, the hobby and the general public.
On our side of the pond the guidelines in place all just boil down to common sense, it seems that on your side you have a little more leeway with how you can use your multirotors/rc equipment, when all is said and done 99% of the time problems are caused when idiots do not use common sense and that goes for both members of the community AND the public on lookers with misinformation or some kind of axe to grind.

All we can do is hope that enough of the people like the users on this board and other countless RC hobbyists around the world can prove that we and the hobby are a benefit and cherish the privilege we have.
 
A

airhawk

Crashing Ace
some guy just asked me while i was flying "are you licensed to fly that" now everyone looks at me im just flying on my front yard minding my own business really. also a guy started yelling at me saying your to young to be flying a weapon that's when i yelled go away
 
AkimboGlueGuns

AkimboGlueGuns

Biplane Guy
Mentor
"If that thing hits my tail rotor, I'm going down on top of them."

Stop right there. Ask yourself if that hex is stronger than the tail rotor of a helicopter. The answer is most likely no, right? So is it a real threat to the helicopter?Also, the hex would have to go through the rotor wash of the main and tail rotor, and there is no way it's making it through that.

I'm really glad that news people always have their facts straight so we have a good and accurate knowledge of something before making any judgement. <slow clap emoji>
 
Christopher14

Christopher14

Driftin' with the wind...
airhawk said:
some guy just asked me while i was flying "are you licensed to fly that" now everyone looks at me im just flying on my front yard minding my own business really. also a guy started yelling at me saying your to young to be flying a weapon that's when i yelled go away
Click to expand...

"Flying a weapon" huh, that guy must watch to much Sci-Fi, lol.
I have flown in a park in Utah, and have had several onlookers, and all they did was stand back with awed expressions and swivel their heads side to side watching my 55% Spit zip up and down the field.
I live in the far reaches of Northern Idaho, and where I live is composed of vast forests, mountains, and the occasional farm field. My yard happens to be quite sizable, and I fly there all the time. The nearest neighbors are a good quarter mile away.
I wonder if people are just used to seeing fixed wing aircraft, and a RC plane flying is just fine in their book because it is something that there are full-scale versions of. Whereas multirotors are foreign to them because there are no full-scale versions of those. I wonder if it was the opposite way around, fixed-wings would be considered unsafe because they can't hover?
 
AkimboGlueGuns

AkimboGlueGuns

Biplane Guy
Mentor
Flying a weapon! Huh? That has got to be the most ridicules thing I've heard regarding the hobby. How in any way is a multirotor or RC plane a weapon. The only way a "drone" could be a weapon is if the USAF is operating it. There are NO accounts of an FPV plane or multirotor being used as a weapon, so this genius has no platform to shout that from.
 
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