Drones and Common Sense Rant

wheelsup said:
The vast majority in the west are started by lightning strikes, a completely unpreventable event. 200+ years ago they would burn and put themselves out. Fires are a normal event in forests, and help rejuvenate the land.

There are of course fires that need to be controlled when they threaten large population areas.
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Just as a note, I have no idea what the causes may be in other states out West, but in California (and this has been the case for many years), the majority of wild fires are caused by people...either arsonists or careless people who start/cause them in a variety of ways. They are hardly "natural" in their occurrence. While we do have some that are caused by lightening, that tends to usually occur in Northern California. Only 5 of the 20th deadliest fires here were caused by lightning. Cal Fire alone responded to some 2,100 wildfires in 2014, and 90% of them were caused by people.
 
A Life Aloft said:
Just as a note, I have no idea what the causes may be in other states out West, but in California (and this has been the case for many years), the majority of wild fires are caused by people...either arsonists or careless people who start/cause them in a variety of ways. They are hardly "natural" in their occurrence. While we do have some that are caused by lightening, that tends to usually occur in Northern California. Only 5 of the 20th deadliest fires here were caused by lightning. Cal Fire alone responded to some 2,100 wildfires in 2014, and 90% of them were caused by people.
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Upon more research I'm finding you're correct. I saw a map and it was obviously incorrect in what it was trying to state, unfortunately I can't find it again.
 
scoobs said:
I know nothing about Drones. How are they operating drones out of sight? With a GPS or computer?
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I have a DJI Inspire, the Phantom's big brother, MSRP $2,900. It has a remote controller with joysticks, several controls, and a bracket to mount a tablet. I use an iPad as my visual interface, connected to the controller with a Lightning-to-USB cable that provides a real time HD view of what the camera sees. The camera shoots 12MP stills and 4k/30fps or 1080p/60fps video. The display provides real-time flight telemetry including elevation & lateral distance from launch point, battery, satellites and camera settings, there is an inset map which can be swapped with the FPV (first person view) screen, and a "radar" depiction showing the UAV's distance, bearing and direction relative to the remote controller. The Inspire has a telemetry & control range of 2km. FAA requires all UAV operators to keep their aircraft within visual line of sight (VLOS), but you see how such a great video feed can temp some to operate far beyond VLOS. Hope this helps you guys better understand.
 

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Now I'm curious...
Can you attach altitudes to the waypoints on the GPS flight plans? Are the altitudes AGL or MSL? How does the system handle vertical navigation while transitioning between programmed altitudes?
 
Waypoint navigation can be used with the Phantoms, but manufacturer DJI hasn't made this available for the Inspire yet. The launch point altitude is 0, and each waypoint may be given an assigned altitude in AGL. When the UAV flies between waypoints of differing altitudes it should steadily climb/descend from one to the next. There is neither collision avoidance, ground proximity detectors or geocached obstacles - if there's an obstruction between waypoints you're going to nail it.
 
tomokc said:
Waypoint navigation can be used with the Phantoms, but manufacturer DJI hasn't made this available for the Inspire yet. The launch point altitude is 0, and each waypoint may be given an assigned altitude in AGL. When the UAV flies between waypoints of differing altitudes it should steadily climb/descend from one to the next. There is neither collision avoidance, ground proximity detectors or geocached obstacles - if there's an obstruction between waypoints you're going to nail it.
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At launch, it climbs vertically to 25-30 feet before it heads to the first waypoint.
 
tomokc said:
Waypoint navigation can be used with the Phantoms, but manufacturer DJI hasn't made this available for the Inspire yet. The launch point altitude is 0, and each waypoint may be given an assigned altitude in AGL. When the UAV flies between waypoints of differing altitudes it should steadily climb/descend from one to the next. There is neither collision avoidance, ground proximity detectors or geocached obstacles - if there's an obstruction between waypoints you're going to nail it.
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Surprised about the Inspire. Any reason, or was it just product release timing?
 
Looks like it happened again. Fast moving wildfire burned across I-15 near SBD, catching over 20 cars stuck on the interstate and burning them to the ground in a traffic jam that ensued.

Helicoptes and other air assets were not able to engage the fire, due to the numerous drones overhead the fire taking video.

One of these days, a life or more will be lost because of this.

Link here:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/18/us/california-freeway-fire/index.html
 
This entire scenario with the drones has gotten way out of control. The exact same thing played out a week ago with the Mill Creek Canyon fire. Homes were threatened, water and phoschek dropping aircraft had to be temporarily grounded with the drone in the area which hovered around and over the fire for some 30 minutes.

The fire yesterday was bad....we had heard about it on talk radio on the way home from PT and then turned on the local news to watch once we got home. It was very hot, and windy up at the pass and the brush, scrub trees and grass around there is so dried up, it was like a torch went off. It jumped the freeway in minutes. Drivers were caught totally off guard. People exited their vehicles and were literally running for their lives. The smoke was really dense and they had breathing issues as well. The smoke got blacker and more acrid as vehicles started to catch fire. The Highway Patrol and the Sheriff's Department came out in force to try and round them up, get others to leave, make sure no one had stayed behind in their cars and help them. Homes and some 22 vehicles including a big rig and a car carrier were lost and many other cars were damaged. The freeway pavement itself sustained severe damage.

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Here is one of the helos making a drop

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Here is one of the tankers

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Hella job.....our heros

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Pilot Fighter said:
Why haven't they jammed the hell out of these drones?!?
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Why have they not found, prosecuted, and hung a couple of these punks out to dry? A few in jail very conspicuously would attenuate the problem fairly easy.
 
ATN_Pilot said:
More importantly, why have these drones not been outlawed entirely. It's the only real fix.
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When is the last time you heard of a HAM radio operator or high-powered rocket enthusiast present a safety hazard? It's rare. I think that 95% of the problem could be eliminated by licensing it in someway similar to a HAM license. I think that most of those that have presented a risk have been folks that didn't see any negative consequences to their actions.

License it and establish harsh penalties.
 
scoobs said:
Why didn't remote control planes have the same controversy? Are drones that much more sophisticated?
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In a word, YES!

Out of the box my DJI can be flown in three modes, direct control within visual range, direct control beyond visual range using an onboard camera with video and telemetry streamed back to my iPad in real time (2k range), and it can fly autonomously beyond visual range using programmed waypoints.

With a battery life of 15-20 minutes and a top speed of 25-30 (guessing), they have considerable range when operated autonomously.

Search YouTube for DJI Vision 2+
 
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Pilot Fighter said:
When is the last time you heard of a HAM radio operator or high-powered rocket enthusiast present a safety hazard? It's rare. I think that 95% of the problem could be eliminated by licensing it in someway similar to a HAM license. I think that most of those that have presented a risk have been folks that didn't see any negative consequences to their actions.

License it and establish harsh penalties.
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I'm okay with strict licensing and harsh penalties as an alternative to criminalization.
 
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