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On September 21, 2017, just as dusk fell, Vyacheslav Tantashov launched his DJI Phantom 4 drone from a spot near Dyker Beach Park in Brooklyn, just southeast of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Tantashov wanted to see some spectacular views, he said, and he flew the drone nearly 280 feet up in the air and well out of his line of sight. The drone hovered over the shipping channel near Hoffman Island, some 2.5 miles from the launch site. Tantashov maneuvered the craft a bit, watching the images displayed on his Samsung tablet, and then punched the "return to home" button. The drone, which had a rapidly dying battery, made a beeline back toward the launch site.
But it never arrived. After waiting 30 minutes, Tantashov assumed there had been a mechanical malfunction and that the drone had fallen into the water. He returned home. On September 28, Tantashov received a call at work. It was an investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), calling to asking if Tantashov was the owner of a Phantom 4 drone. He was, he said, though he had lost it recently near the Verrazano Bridge.
Would Tantashov be surprised to learn, the investigator asked, that his drone had not crashed into the water? And that it had instead slammed into the main rotor of a US Army-operated Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter that was patrolling for the UN General Assembly in Manhattan? And that it had put a 1.5-inch dent in said rotor and led to the helicopter diverting back to its New Jersey base? Tantashov was surprised, and he agreed to a one-hour interview the next day, during which the full story came out.
[...] Tantashov didn't know about more detailed flight restrictions, such as the [temporary flight restrictions (TFRs)] around Manhattan and Bedminster, New Jersey, where the president had been staying. "He said that he relied on 'the app' to tell him if it was OK to fly," the investigator noted. "When asked about TFRs, he said he did not know about them; he would rely on the app, and it did not give any warnings on the evening of the collision. He said he was not familiar with the TFRs for the United Nations meeting and Presidential movement." (Both TFRs were apparently violated by the drone flight.)
(Score: 0, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 01 2018, @12:42PM (10 children)
This story is about a feminist queen bee, who wants to do away with drones?
(Score: 3, Funny) by LoRdTAW on Monday January 01 2018, @03:42PM (9 children)
Whaaaaaat? Dude, are you in California right now?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 01 2018, @05:08PM (8 children)
*checking thermometer*
Don't think so. The temperature is 19 degrees F, and it's not supposed to go above freezing today.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday January 01 2018, @05:15PM (7 children)
Duuuuude! That's some seriously good stuff you must have bought there!
Joking aside, stay warm. It's 16 F here in NYC and I'm working in an uninsulated attic doing some electrical wiring.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday January 01 2018, @05:27PM (5 children)
https://www.inverse.com/article/23990-what-temperature-too-cold-phone-work [inverse.com]
Keep your head in the game!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 01 2018, @09:23PM
I never gave a thought to cellphones and cold - but my landline has cut out twice today, for some strange, unknown reason. I suppose that somewhere, there is some water in a box, it's frozen, and expanding, causing a contact to lose connection. And, of course, it's a holiday, and the phone company isn't answering. Lovely, huh? I could live without the telephone, but my internet goes through the phone line. Just lovely.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday January 02 2018, @03:20AM (3 children)
Ha! Only the other week did I find this out. Came into work and it's been below freezing around here and left my phone in the car. Realized it an hour later and came out to find that it was dead. Huh? Just charged the damn thing. Go inside and plug the phone on my charger and it says full battery. What? Power the phone up and all was fine. I couldn't figure out what the hell happened until I did the same thing two days later. So I'm thinking, man it's super cold out and the phone was brick (slang for cold as fuck) when I retrieved it. I tried to power it up but it flashed and shut off again. Hmmmm. I looked up if freezing temperatures shut down phones and sure enough, it does! Not sure why after years of owning one have I only just found this out.
(Score: 2) by sgleysti on Tuesday January 02 2018, @04:53AM
If I'm outside in winter with my phone, the phone is in my front pants pocket, and I'm wearing a big coat that extends below my pants pockets. As far as I'm aware, this always keeps the phone above freezing. A Li-Ion battery I used in a project recently is rated for discharge at -20C-60C (-4F-140F) and charge at 0C-45C (32F-113F).
Performance really suffers at low temps, even when an Li-Ion battery is rated for them. See these
typical discharge curves [richtek.com] from this page [richtek.com].
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday January 02 2018, @04:32PM (1 child)
Cold temperatures don't literally kill phones; they just drastically reduce battery efficiency.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:00PM
Yea, I didn't go into detail but the cold increases the resistance of the electrolyte causing voltage to drop fooling the battery management into thinking the cells are low and shuts the phone down.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday January 02 2018, @01:35AM
We've been hitting -10F in MN over the weekend. It was literally colder than Antarctica (it's summer there).
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek