Oracle - I think you're dead right!
Interested by all your replies.
I can see both sides of the issue.
On one hand, RPVs like this present a great danger operating in proximity to Rotary or Fixed wing aircraft. The inherently limited field of view to the RPV pilot means he/she cannot see and avoid full sized aircraft outside of the narrow cone of vision of the camera. Also - a drone would be almost impossible for a FW/RW pilot to see until it collided with their chopper/plane - with predictably disastrous results. I wonder if it should be mandated that they have a bright white flashing strobe on them when they are operating near full sized aircraft?
Having said that, Cividrone seems to have been flying between 50 and 100 feet AGL, and his flight envelope didn't appear to be within that of a firefighting chopper - although I stand to be corrected by any rotary wing pilots reading this. I think he was probably more in danger of accidentally copping a tonne or two of water from above and being washed out of the sky!!
The reason I find this interesting is that for my sins, I have to deal with journos ocassionally. I was at a seminar yesterday where they were talking in detail about this footage, and were very excited by it. The potential of UAVs for cash strapped newsgathering operations and documentary makers is enormous, and they were clearly very interested.
Why pay $1800 an hour for a Squirrel when you can buy and fly your own machine for $10,000 and get footage that provides angles and perspectives a gyro stabilised mount or steerable camera turret never could?
CASA are going to have to wake up fast.
These things are cheap, highly capable and are coming our way big time.