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US firefighters have condemned drone owners who flew their craft near forest fires and grounded helicopters being used to douse flames.
Lives were put at unnecessary risk because helicopters could not fly, said fire department officials. The helicopters were helping to contain a large wildfire in San Bernadino county over the weekend. Five drones spotted hovering over the fire were thought to be shooting video for their owners.
The activity of the drones meant helicopters were grounded for about 20 minutes, Eric Sherwin of the San Bernadino fire department told CNN.
[...]
"When a hobby drone is flown into a fire area, incident commanders have no choice but to suspend air operations and ground aircraft until the drone is removed from the area," it said.The fire department issued images that were shared on social media, warning drone owners to stay away from fires. "If you fly, we can't," they said.
US rules governing drone use mean any pilot caught flying their craft over a disaster area that has temporary flight restrictions in place could be fined up to $25,000 (£16,000). It is not clear whether the FAA is going to investigate who was piloting the drones over the Interstate 15 fire.
Drones have hindered firefighters in California at least four times before now, sometimes stopping flights for up to 90 minutes.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday July 21 2015, @03:09PM
I'm not so sure that this is FUD. Any joe six-pack can buy a cheap quadcopter for as low as $60 with a camera. Decent ones are a few hundred. RC planes and helicopters are totally different beasts. A traditional aeroplane isn't suited for photography or videography as they can't hover. RC helicopters behave just like a real helicopter: they are not as stable and require more skill to pilot (did a quick google to confirm that last bit). They are also not easy to build. Just think about the complexity of the helicopters rotor design which needs to pitch each blade while rotating. Comparably, quadcopters are braindead in terms of design.
One reason for the "angle" is that drones, and by drone I mean something like a quadcopter, are more accessible to the general public. They are also much more easy to pilot. Add to that all the media buzz surrounding them which makes them much more visible to the general public. The easy piloting of the quadcopter and their multirotor brethren lends itself well to the DIY crowd who are awash in cheap Arduino's and other powerful microcontroller/sensor platforms. They are also very easy to build compared to a plane or helicopter requiring just a few motors, propellers, battery pack, a board with motor drivers, a microcontroller and two pieces of balsa wood in a cross shape.
So put all that together and you can clearly see that there is no angle. It's just easily accessible technology.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Kromagv0 on Tuesday July 21 2015, @04:25PM
I loved my old RC helicopter and yes they were a bitch to operate until you got good at it. Unfortunately it got knocked off of the shelf on to a chair and then my wife set some heavy stuff on it not thinking. So that was the end of that, I'm not entirely sure this was an accident.
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