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In England there has recently been a horrific tragedy that resulted in a 16 month old child losing an eye after a drone crash landed on top of them. This is a terrible event but it isn't the first time someone's drone went kill all babies. Actually this isn't the second time a drone did this either: it is the second time an irresponsible pilot is screwing up remote control flying machines for the rest of us pilots and it got into the news. It is very problematic that babies are much more cute than the average remote control helicopter and most of the population likes babies more than flying pieces of plastic and metal.
People are dumb with these devices and lack respect; this is getting out of control. If bad pilots keep hitting babies it'll be impossible for anyone to get their hands on a remote control airplane, helicopter, or what most people would call a drone, unless they get licensed first. That isn't a registration: licensing. I don't even like the registration requirements the FAA has recently proposed. However I'm a practical person and soon a giant backlash is going to come and it will sweep up the good and bad pilots. Whats worse people are engaging in conversations about "fixing" this drone problem and they have no clue what they are talking about.
[More after the break.]
Some ideas I've seen: Put prop guards on it so the props can't ever do this again. Nope that won't work on anything but the smallest devices and it is also unproductive weight for most flying. Performance flyers will clip the things off because they are used to modifying their gear all the time. You probably won't find them in a park though so you'll never know about it. Only allow small drones. This won't really work either: it's not like the eyeball is going to weigh the drone at the moment the propeller strikes it. The micro and nano sized drones can destroy an eyeball too. I doubt if the registration requirements are going to help much.
Any flying remote control device is dangerous. Hobbyists know this and the injury rate has remained low considering we all deal with unreliable machines carrying liquid fuel or explosive batteries, one or more blenders attached, and a horsepower or more on tap, being controlled with a device that itself has a lot of single points of failure. As a pilot to be surprised that one of them falls out of the air is irresponsible. Unfortunate things happen but this one never should have.
A few days before this event I published four rules of quadcopter safety as a joke in my journal. Here is a copy of some common sense things that would have stopped this from happening. From what I can tell the person was also flying illegally as the machine shouldn't have been that close to any person even if they are a baby.
- All quadcopters are always dangerous.
- Remove the throttle lock or arm the craft only immediately before takeoff.
- Be sure of your airspace and what is under it.
- Never point the camera of your quadcopter at something you are not prepared to defend yourself in court against.
(Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Wednesday December 02 2015, @04:23PM
The Blade Helicopter you have is unlikely to be piloted by an idiot though, because they are not easy to fly. They take lots of practice, crashing, and repairs.
I agree an idiot won't pick up a 200 SR X but it is not because they are hard to fly. They won't pick up a 200 SR X because there are not any of them in the news. The 200 SR X as a trainer includes a full self leveling capability and two flight envelopes. One of them keeps the craft from going at extreme angles and the other is unrestricted.
There is no position hold on the 200 SR X - it would not surprise me if these pilots were constantly relying on position hold instead of using it as a crutch to learn. That could be a significant difference. Repair on the 200 SR X after a crash can be more difficult but can also be less so. I've crashed my monocoque bodied 350qx quadcopter many times and almost every time it leads to structural failure. DJI phantom and most turnkey drones use the same monocoque design. Changing the body on the 350qx takes 2 hours, half a six pack, and the second thing to do is remove about 32 case screws.
I can change the props and linkages on the 200 SR X a lot faster than that.
(Score: 2) by Snow on Wednesday December 02 2015, @04:34PM
Agreed.
You should check out the Blade MCP. Instead of being self-leveling it's gyro controlled, so you can set it to a 45degree angle and it will slip all the way to the ground. It's quite stable. I was flying it in the park across from my house and sent it into the chainlink fence at almost full speed and it stuck in the fence. I pulled it out, straightened the blades back out, and it was good to go. It's a tough little guy.
(Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Wednesday December 02 2015, @04:47PM
You should check out the Blade MCP.
My neighbor has one of those and they are really neat! It is a very impressive machine for being so small. My tiny outdoor fun flier is a 180qx which I have a blast with. Last year I started flying it around the r/c truck race track we installed at my neighbors house and only a foot or so off the ground. It is so low I have to increase altitude to clear the jumps. Following the jumps and coming fast into banked turns and keeping the thing inside the track boundaries has been really really good practice. Every once in a while it would plow into the ground face first. I just made sure to use not brand new props before I'd do that.
Now I fly my 180qx around with the self leveling off all the time. I can do flips and rolls with out stopping but I have not yet successfully done a roll while moving and circling my ham radio antenna. I did stop crashing into the ground when trying to attempt it but so far every single loop winds up before or after it. I'll get there!
I've got about 3 hours on my 180qx with the leveler off now and I hardly crash anymore; it is pretty much only if I decide to push the limits to get more skill with the extreme stuff. I think I'm going to pick up a ~500 class heli with collective pitch but I have not yet decided which one.