Near Misses...

[Chuck Spaulding]

Originally Posted by Warren Kawamoto

Did you know that there were 418 US military drone crashes? I didn't...and these are professionals!
When drones fall from the sky | The Washington Post

Crashes mount as military flies more drones in U.S. | The Washington Post

‘Stop saying ‘uh-oh’ while you’re flying’: Drone crash pilot quotes unveiled - The Washington Post

You and the Washington Post are digging deep for this crap. They wrote that article sighting a 2011 study that also went on to say "Since 2009, as the Air Force has become more experienced at flying drones, the mishap rate for Predators has fallen to 4.79 Class A accidents for every 100,000 flight hours. Air Force officials pointed out that the crash rate for Reapers now approaches the standard set by two fighter jets, the F-16 and F-15, which over the past five years have posted Class A mishap rates of 1.96 and 1.47 respectively, according to statistics from the Air Force Safety Center at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico."

And this was for all drone flights since 2001!

This guy said it best:

dduggerbiocepts
6/22/2014 5:35 PM PDT
While the accident descriptions are remarkably detailed, when estimating the total population of military drones, the best the author could come up with was "about 10,000 - and that apparently is the number over a decade." Again a remarkable lack of precision compared to the crash descriptions. In any case it isn't the number of drones the military owns - but rather the number of drone flights over a given period of time compared to the their failure rate that produces a meaningful statistic. I'm guessing the author is completely clueless regarding the number of drone flights made annually and the percentage that result in a failure or crash and or how that compares to piloted reconnaissance flights on similar class missions. Smells strongly of bias and agenda.

I'm not sure if your trying to point out how unsafe drones are but your doing a great job of making the argument for how quickly these things are becoming safer., Of coarse you realize that non this has anything whatsoever to do with the purpose of this part of the Flying camera's thread.

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by John Nantz

Drone used by a Peeping Toms:

A woman in an apartment on the 26th floor of a high-rise building in Seattle was videoed by a couple guys using a drone.

One pays big bucks for an apartment like this because of the great view.

Unfortunately, she had just got out of bed and when she went to the window to look outside, what did she see? A drone with a video camera staring at her!!!

On this morning's news: Seattle woman sees drone peeping into her apartment window | News OK

So now what are these two guys going to do with their video? Post it on some voyeurism web site?

So, besides the noise, the danger of spinning blades, there is also the privacy concern.

You assume they were peeping into her window. The article never states that. They also had a tripod and camera on the street. Why? When I saw this story on national morning show, it was pointed out that they were doing aerial photography and not necessarily taking video of the woman inside her apartment.

One must always be prudent of media hype and sensationalism. We should not use this forum to help them in that endeavor.

-gb-

[John Nantz]

Greg -

Realize that the lady too[k] a picture of the drone with her cell phone or camera. The picture clearly showed a view angle looking slightly UPWARD and the underside of the drone can be seen.

The picture shows a lot of blue in the background. Either this is from a window reflection of the sky (no window frame in picture) or it is sky (looking between or over an existing building). If the drone was anywhere near street level, from the 26th floor there would have been asphalt, concrete, or other buildings in the view.

The backstory (several days later) once all the facts were in is that the guys were, in fact, doing what they said they were doing, and that is planning for a new skyscraper.

And yes, one needs to be careful what the media puts out. And this was a very sensational news item. My post was right after the morning news so I didn't have the hindsight of what they found out several days later.

[Paulo Teixeira]

I don't know if this was posted before but it's something I just read.
Crazed Woman Attacks Man for Flying Camera Drone over Public Beach in Connecticut (Updated) | Photography is Not a Crime: PINAC

[Rob Cantwell]

yeah mentioned here

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/flying-c...ml#post1848592

just some of the risks connected with photography/videography

:-)

[Warren Kawamoto]

More recent near misses with commercial airlines
Close encounters with small drones on rise | The Washington Post

[Warren Kawamoto]

Recent near misses with commercial airlines
Close encounters with small drones on rise | The Washington Post

[Dave Partington]

All the more reason for the authorities to pull their head out of the sand and introduce some proper, realistic, governing rules about their use. No one likes having more rules and fewer freedoms, but at least if you know what the rules are you can fly with more confidence (assuming you're within them).

If everyone (including amateurs / hobbyists) had to adhere to the rules, such as those laid down by the CAA for air work in the UK then there would be far fewer incidents. While ever amateurs/hobbyists have few (or no) rules then they will continue to assume it's Ok to do what ever they want, when clearly it isn't.

Every drone should be accompanied by such 'rules of the air'. If you break the rules you get fined, go to jail and/or banned from flying, just like you do when driving a car dangerously.

There seems no reason why people should be flying these things out of sight (above the clouds) or even anywhere near that high, nor in to controlled air space or in the middle of crowded cities. It's crazy.

[Warren Kawamoto]

...and of course since it's the 4th of July, I had a hunch people would be flying around fireworks displays. What I didn't expect was trying to go THROUGH them.
Flying A Drone Through Fireworks May Land You In Prison - Forbes

[Dave Allen]

Had he not recorded the treachery, he would have been arrested for the claimed sexual assault. It's pretty sad when the police always believe a woman over a man. She was a total basket case, misandristic psycho with delusions of grandeur.

[Dave Allen]

Idiotic article by Forbes trying to garner headlines with false titles and flawed logic. A whole lot of maybes. What if a bullfrog had a glass ass?

I thought it was spectacular aerial footage.

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Rob Cantwell

yeah mentioned here

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/flying-c...ml#post1848592

:-)

Merged that thread into this one. Trying to keep all of the "incidents" together.

[Chris Hurd]

Headline: "2 drones in near-miss with NYPD chopper"

Two drones nearly took out an NYPD chopper over the George Washington Bridge on Monday, and cops arrested the wayward devices’ operators, law-enforcement sources told The Post.

The chopper tailed the drones north as they landed at the corner of Audubon and Fort George avenues, near Fort Tryon Park, at 12:35 a.m., sources said.

The chopper cops called NYPD Patrol, and officers were dispatched to nab the suspects.

Remy Castro, 23, who lives on nearby West 193rd Street, and Wilkins Mendoza, 34, of Post Road, were both arrested.

“It’s just a toy,” Castro said later at Manhattan Criminal Court, where they were arraigned on felony reckless endangerment charges and released without bail. “The copter came to us.”

Mendoza said the drone experiment was just fun and games.

“We were just playing with it,” he said. “It’s crazy.”

Their lawyer, Michael Kushner, said the incident was not as serious as authorities allege.

“This vehicle can’t go above 300 feet,” Kushner said. “They did nothing more than fly a kite.”

But a friend of the pair, Jonathan Reyes, 27, said Castro told him they have flown them as high as 5,000 feet.

There's more. Full story at 2 drones in near-miss with NYPD chopper | New York Post

[Warren Kawamoto]

Meanwhile in Australia, a triathlete went down when she was hit on the head. Authorities have finished their investigation and may prosecute.

Drone operators involved in athlete's injury referred to Director of Public Prosecutions

[Warren Kawamoto]

Another one between full size helicopter and drone, in Florida.

Near-Collision Between Drone and Helicopter Rattles Pilots | NBC 6 South Florida