Bought myself a drone and anorak

[clareprop]

they're a fire hazard coming down in a open barn full of bales.

I thought they only came down when the burner goes out?

[First.officer]

I noted that a bouncy castle once became airborne and the AAIB were all over the place

Well, they were far too old to have been on it in the first place....

WRT to the "Manchester Helicopter Incident" - really?!?!?

If I was a cynical sod (okay, I am!), I'd say that it was more to do with suing the manufacturer of said toy and gleaning some money than the actual "injury" caused....did the helicopter also narrowly avoid the local school?

think of the untold injury and suffering that could have happened there had the "pilot" not narrowly managed to heroically steer the craft away from disaster...oh wait, he couldn't because the massively regulated, highly expensive helicopter in question (all £29.99 of it) totally failed in it's design brief.

Lets hope the AAIB are able to fully investigate, and pull the maintenance and tech. log for this obviously poorly maintained aircraft.

[spargazer]

Cattle have been known to eat the remains and die, also several crash landed on Manchester airport and it was closed for two hours meaing hundreds of holidays were ruined,

[Dan Winterland]

I saw a DJI Phantom 4 about three weeks ago. It was at 8200ft and the fact I could identify it while passing it at 250 knots indicates how close we were!

From that comment, anyone here with a professional DJI Phantom drone will have instantly formed an opinion about you and your knowledge.

I think you missed the point. I was flying an airliner and nearly hit the thing. I recognised it as a Phantom (a mate has one - it wasn't his though), it was white with yellow features and on googling, it appears it may have bee a 3 rather than a 4. But 3 or 4, it doesn't matter. The result would have been the same had I hit it.

[Dan Winterland]

Firstly, the Phantom 4 or 3 cannot fly at that altitude due to firmware restrictions. Secondly, to be able to tell the difference between a Phantom 4 or 3 (or probably any other drone) at 250 knots is impossible.

Not so. Geo-fencing is easily disabled and so is the altitude restriction. A booster pack is available to give extended range. This encounter was just south of Tung Lung island in Hong Kong's airspace, about 1 mile south of the TD VOR, in controlled airspace. That's quite a way from the airport and I suspect it was outside the geo-fencing, but it was still in controlled airspace. Some of the terrain is up to 3000ft in that area, so the operator could be on high ground. As for being a 3 or a 4, as I said before - it doesn't effing matter. It shouldn't have been there! This incident was filed as a MOR.

In Hong Kong, drones come under the ordinances pertaining to model aircraft and are limited by law to 160m altitude. This is the fourth close miss my airline had had with drones in as many months in HKG airspace, with one at 4500ft and another at 300ft on the approach

As part of my office job, I also sit on one of the airport safety committees. Last week, the meeting spent a lot of time discussing the issue. All I can say is that further restrictions are coming the aviation authority are pressing the Government for further protection for aviation thanks to a few irresponsible drone owners.

[piperboy84]

Well I've been flying the sh$t out of my drone for a few weeks now and my verdict is they should all be banned immediately . They are a total invasion of privacy. The only people that should be allowed to use them are cops (but they must get a warrant first clearly stating the reason and need) or commercial operators under strict guidelines that they retain either a video or track log info of the entire flight that is made available to the public upon request under a FOI type deal.

These things are going to start a lot of lawsuits and arguments and probably wars between banana republics. I can see every nosey bastard, pervert and busybody getting one and annoying the **** out of people.

Ban them now.

[PDR1]

Originally Posted by TangoAlphad

Get busted looking at a hot neighbor piperboy?

I suspect it's more a matter of the full trolling value of being "pro-drone" had been consuimed, so now he's switching to "anti" to see who else he can bait.

At least that's my theory...

PDR

[PDR1]

Well there always had to be a first time...

PDR

[pulse1]

At least we no know where he lives

[PDR1]

Originally Posted by pulse1

At least we no know where he lives

It's OK - I have three drones running shifts keeping his place under surveillance in case he does a runner...



PDR

[gasax]

Well PDR1 - You are definitely breaking the law - 'cos there is no way you can see a drone in Angus from Farnham - you are a very naughty boy!