AHEM! Sorry about the clickbait title. I'm just doing what the mainstream media always does and sensationalising out of proportion! 

Last week my Mum phoned me that she'd noticed a white plastic object dangling from one of her plants in the back garden. Upon investigation it was a Syma X5c quadrotor (drones are what the military have, with or without lethal payloads attached!). Typical link below.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Syma-X5C-Quadcopter-360-degree-Helicopters/dp/B00L54Y4X4

The lights were flashing. Must have been low battery, out of range, or both..She had brought it inside the house and found the power switch on it & turned it off. I was quite proud of her being that she isn't all that familiar with new technology (neither am I lol!). I told her to put it in a bag and wash her hands!

I mentioned that she should contact one of our neighbours as he's had a quadrotor or two and currently flies powered RC gliders. Incidentally the same chap taught me how to fly RC gliders back when I was a teenager. 

Tony put the word out on Farcebook, and sure enough there was a young lad further down the road who owned the drone. Tony returned it to him. Apparently the battery had run down so the lad couldn't bring the quad back. Did it get away from him, because by rights he should have only been flying it in his garden? Who was he spying on with the camera? Did his parents give him a damned good talking to due to the current situation? I'll never know, but a bit of level-headedness was used on our side. Nobody went absolutely batcrap over it.

A pity someone owned up as Tony was going to see if he could bind it to one of his transmitters! Finders keepers! 

 

 

Frankly, I hate these things. They are a danger to aircraft when operated by morons and and they are insidious in their capacity as tools for spying by just about anyone. As a rule, I don't care to prevent people from owning anything but these things really must go. They are certainly not kids toys. That's for sure.

Hey Jazz, what are you hiding ? Paranoid much?

 Sue

Hey, Sue...smile for the camera!   CLICK!     Ah, jammies at this time of the day??

13 minutes ago, Jazz said:

Frankly, I hate these things. They are a danger to aircraft when operated by morons and and they are insidious in their capacity as tools for spying by just about anyone. As a rule, I don't care to prevent people from owning anything but these things really must go. They are certainly not kids toys. That's for sure.

Frankly, that standpoint is somewhat akin to saying hammers should be banned because it is possible to attack someone with a hammer. The problem is not with any tool itself, the problem is with the behaviour of any person who does not use a tool responsibly. This is what really needs to be addressed, especially because it isn't possible to uninvent something.

Now I know that argument is often used by preppers to justify their desire to have a 30mm autocannon or some other mad weaponry for 'home defence', so yeah, it doesn't fit every scenario, but a bit of common sense can apply when using the argument.

42 minutes ago, Jazz said:

...and they are insidious in their capacity as tools for spying by just about anyone. 

I’d disagree, I bought a cheap one off amazon and when I tried to hover it above my hedge to check out the neighbors I couldn’t keep the thing still, and I’ve got about 18,000 hours on heavy jets.

2 hours ago, Penzoil3 said:

Hey Jazz, what are you hiding ? Paranoid much?

 Sue

I'm not hiding anything. It's about personal privacy. I shouldn't have to put up with having one of these things fly over my garden and stop and watch me smoke my pipe which has happened. And what is paranoid about being concerned about the dangers of them? They have caused closures of our biggest airports in the UK. That is an observable fact.

 

2 hours ago, Chock said:

Frankly, that standpoint is somewhat akin to saying hammers should be banned because it is possible to attack someone with a hammer. The problem is not with any tool itself, the problem is with the behaviour of any person who does not use a tool responsibly.

No it isn't. Hammers can't bring down commercial airliners by remote control nor provide a means for little Tommy Tucker to spy on me scratching may word not allowed. Yes the problem is the user but how to you prevent a terminal cretin from flying these things around Heathrow. You know, again.

If they are to stay the operators should have licenses that require formal training in aviation, it's rules and procedures and they should all be registered and tracked. Not to mention regular service checks.

But purely on privacy grounds they shouldn't be allowed. We have far too much spying going on as it is and it's word not allowed.

2 minutes ago, Jazz said:

No it isn't. Hammers can't bring down commercial airliners by remote control nor provide a means for little Tommy Tucker to spy on me scratching may word not allowed.

Nice straw man there. That's neither what I wrote, nor what I suggested at all.

32 minutes ago, Chock said:

Nice straw man there. That's neither what I wrote, nor what I suggested at all.

You must be joking? You equated these things with a hammer. These things which can not only cause the deaths of hundreds of people by hitting an airliner in an unfortunate spot but cause millions in financial damage whilst plod spends the day looking for the prat who thought it funny to go on a sortee over one of the busiest airports in the world and ruin the day for countless people.

I'd say that puts drones more in the

3 hours ago, Chock said:

30mm autocannon or some other mad weaponry for 'home defence'

category than a hammer, wouldn't you?

3 hours ago, Chock said:

but a bit of common sense can apply when using the argument

Quite.

13 minutes ago, Jazz said:

You must be joking? You equated these things with a hammer. These things which can not only cause the deaths of hundreds of people by hitting an airliner in an unfortunate spot but cause millions in financial damage whilst plod spends the day looking for the prat who thought it funny to go on a sortee over one of the busiest airports in the world and ruin the day for countless people.

I'd say that puts drones more in the

category than a hammer, wouldn't you?

Quite.

I equated the argument's stance, not the object. Can you stop with the straw man b*ll***?

Edited April 21, 20206 yr by Chock

Heck, I understand you can bring down an airliner with a laser pointer.

I cringe when I see videos about the flying car concept. The way many of these turnips here in South Carolina drive and the thought of them flying!😰

Somewhere out there, there is a video of an E190 coming straight at the camera and then passing 50 feet beneath it while making the right turn over lefferts station on the rnav approach to jfk 13L, with me behind the windshield looking right at it with my shocked face. I searched for it but so far it hasn’t been posted to youtube yet.

Edited April 21, 20206 yr by KevinAu

Unfortunately there is nothing you can do about it as long as there are idiots amongst us.  Several people have been injured by drones flying through automobile windshields.  And it's only a matter of time before a serious aviation accident will attributed to them.  Not to mention the privacy issues with drones.

I am a gun owner and if any drone was spying on me in my backyard I'd shoot it down.

Drones and guns are similar in many respects.  They can both be deadly.  In my country anybody can buy them if they have the money.  They are not licensed and there are no tests developed to test a person's competency to use them.  And no insurance or financial liability laws to protect those damaged by them.

Noel 

 

8 hours ago, Chock said:

I equated the argument's stance, not the object. Can you stop with the straw man b*ll***?

And in my opinion it was a ridiculous thing to write. Anyway, I have no wish to quarrel with you, Alan. I rather admire your contributions around here.