Originally Posted by
JimEli
The 2 NEST helicopters are primarily used for target monitoring/protection for large-scale NSSEs like the Super Bowl, etc. When an area search is needed, protracted monitoring, or for high exposure/risk (God forbid), drones cover greater area far more efficiently than a helicopter. It is also hard to hide helicopter/KA350ER aircraft from the public for sensitive and covert operations-imagine the panic if the public learned of a large-scale nuclear radiation detection operation. NOTAMs? Seriously.
A helicopter flying in the daytime would be a lot less suspicious than the mysteriously blinking drones flying at night, don't you think?! 99% of the sightings people have been reporting are either commercial airliners, helicopters or Venus/Jupiter. There has not been a single confirmed drone sighting by any aviation professional. Highly unlikely in an airspace as busy as NY.
We have multiple UAS NOTAMs here in NY/NJ since they do a lot of survey in the daytime for various things. Just pull up NOTAMs for either EWR or TEB and you'll see plenty
FAA NOTAM search. They've been around for the last few years and move occasionally. Funny enough those areas where they actually do operate drones people don't seem to notice because no sightings have been in those areas.