Drone thoughts. (Week 2 of one flying over our shooting spot)

[SeriousStudent]

I'll just leave this here:

[SteyrAUG]

In the same way we shouldn't ban guns because of some nut job, we shouldn't ban drones because of some ass hat. Deal with the ass hat, and leave the rest of us alone. In all my years of flying drones and other remote aircraft, I've only seen this "drone paranoia" first hand one time. I was considerate and talked the whack job out of an unfounded confrontation. I don't think I'm the exception. They are a lot of fun, and a very useful tool at times too. All this controversy about them really bothers me.

I agree.

And just like we shoot dangerous people being a threat with guns, people being jack wagons with a drone should expect to have their drone taken out. Trying to down a drone takes a lot of effort and I'm not going to even bother unless is actually, very much a problem.

That said, I'd love to have a squadron of "attack drones", reminds me of the kite fighting we did as kids.

[TehLlama]

Is there some sort of electromagnetic burst you could shoot at it - microwaves, etc.? I wonder if a good ol' CB radio with a linear amplifier could bring it down?

Day job, but pretty legit... if you have a few million to spend on the system (for now), and are talking power levels that make people wonder if you fell asleep on the zero key after typing a legitimate value.

Flying another drone into a drone is another amusing concept, that can definitely work, and has non-trivial amounts of money being thrown at it... but it's kinda hard to justify that much built-in attrition when it's hard to even identify a relevant threat in time for anything but counter-ISR.

Steyr - if you want, there's some old videos of precisely what you're talking about, and the battle octocopters people made were legitimately terrifying, in terms of how much damage they could do to each other, and these were hacked together science projects, not necessarily a well sorted out swarm with any kind of singular purpose or coordination built in.

[TehLlama]

I'm not going to paint all drone owners with a broad brush. I know there are a few clowns out there that screw it up for everyone.

As probably the biggest drone enthusiast here (I've been flying a lot under semi-lockdown, which has me down to only 37 operational FPC racing ones), this is really it. DJI have made it to where their limited automation and sensor suite can outsmart 90% of their customer base, and most of the problems (particularly regulatory, as those of us who build the things and help develop the software to run them for fun have been stuck with increasingly onerous regulation because idiots buy the things and can't be bothered to watch the tutorial video on how to safely operate a flying blender).

Practically, a wifi router and low noise amplifier might be a possible solution - realistically if it's not .gov owned, and shows up green here: https://www.faa.gov/uas/recreational...ere_can_i_fly/
There's not a tremendous amount you can do without documenting what it's up to specifically - if it's somebody trying to learn how to actually fly the thing, crashing over a shooting range is probably the least bad outcome, although it's not like you're short on perfectly good desert out there either.

VLOS with spotting is logically and legally possible to fairly hilarious ranges (not that it's truly useful, but fulfills arbitrary FAA rules) - I have stuff that will quite happily operate a 5mi, and none of mine are really intended for long duration stuff, more for chasing drift cars. Odds are you can spot which way it heads back home to land, or deduce from flight time of most Phantom models (the ubiquitous white dorky ones) where it could have come from, and see if there's something obvious nearby (AMA field, or .gov agency with free time on their hands).

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

Physically possible, but very difficult to do. They have sensors all around now that prevent you from running into anything.

I know an F-16 pilot who with the micro remote control airplanes had a hell of a time trying to “intercept“ another micro plane. It is so hard to control your plane and keep an eye on another one. If they are in separate parts of the sky it’s well nigh impossible.

[teufelhund1918]

If you do something like they did with barrage balloons by dangling some light cables from it, that would increase your ability to hit the intruder. Might actually be able to "capture" the intruder depending on your drone's capabilities... actually sound like a bunch of fun!~

[hotrodder636]

Interesting thread. I have been studying to get my FAA drone license. The DJI drones have some good capability. The one I expect to receive (from my job) is a DJI Mavic Pro Enterprise edition which has thermal imaging capability.

[TehLlama]

Interesting thread. I have been studying to get my FAA drone license. The DJI drones have some good capability. The one I expect to receive (from my job) is a DJI Mavic Pro Enterprise edition which has thermal imaging capability.

Part107 is not all that challenging (but I test well) - to me that's not enough of a barrier to prevent stupid, but in terms of ability to go do dumb things, anybody actually 107 compliant with the FAA usually has enough at stake there's enough reason for them not ot be stupid about it.

The capability is definitely there - I loathe the fully locked down software environment they operate in (again, reporting home to the ChiCom mothership with GPS and other data, inability to actually achieve full manual control in many situations, and in some instances any blip in internet connection will make airspace waivers seem invalid on their system - which is scary as crap when you're flying in and among hot air balloons and the drone decides it needs to return home with a quickness no matter what the stick inputs are)... I wish there were more domestic options on those, just because the software would actually have a user experience level other than 'for photography people'.

[eightmillimeter]

We went to drones for mapping fatal / serious crash scenes. I’ve been doing wrecks over a decade and this upgrade to my toolbox was jaw dropping.

Most of the work I do with it is done under 50 ft and goes pretty fast.

To say I’m still learning would be a gross understatement.

We are running Mavic 2 Pro.

[mark5pt56]

There was some jackass flying one over the jetty where a lot of folks fish. Low and annoying to say the least. He left when we changed rigs in hopes of catching multiple fish and the ability to cast further with extra weights.