http://youtu.be/a9KZ3jgbbmI
wow, this was excellent
thanks for pointing me to this video,
In my country drones got banned too. I'm not sure why, since model helicopters & planes are still allowed.
It's probably a bunch of powerful people afraid of being filmed by a small drone camera and then they would become accountable for their actions, how horrible would that be...
Luckily nobody cares about technology nanny laws anymore, because you can't contain technology with laws.
The only bad thing about the hobby drones is their high pitched wine that seems to piss off the dogs.
Also you can't tell me those drones are a security hazard, because I got hit in the face and suffice to say my face won, & the done lost... badly
High pitched wine? File an injunction. I like what L&W said in one of the recent teks. "We don't need more laws."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9KZ3jgbbmI
We've got some backwards drone laws in UK. I own a Parrot AR 2.0. It's basically a Wi-Fi router with propellers attached. You connect to it with a smartphone and use an app to control it (or a PS3 controller, if you are rooted and fiddle around a bit).
Basically, the law restricts take-off and landing within either 50 or 100 meters of people, myself not excluded, if I read it right. With an operating range of 40 or so meters, that pretty much prevents me from legally using it.
There's also a point in the law that says that I can use a drone to film video, but I am not allowed to use the video for commercial purposes unless I have a pilot's license. Film something and post it on youtube? Fine. Film something, post it on youtube and allow ad revenue? Crime.
And I can't operate it outside the line of sight. I'm not entirely sure what that achieves.
I don't agree that we don't need laws, but they need to be made by sensible people who understand the technology and risks involved. Someone should start by classifying drones by their capabilities. Speed, range, weight, load capacity, etc.
Drones have a lot of shady potential. I'm sure some drug dealers are already using them for drug delivery somewhere. I could also tape a sharp stick to my drone and use it to stab people I don't like remotely. Serious offensive capability is not out of the question. And is it ok for me to hover a drone outside your top floor window and watch you all day?
To end the post, I need to complain about a serious design flaw in the model that I use (Although perhaps my firmware needs updating). If the drone loses signal while flying in a particular direction - it will keep going in the same direction at full speed. This is seriously scary, especially if you are playing around near water. It could seriously just stop and hover for a bit instead. In any case, that happened near an office of a real military drone manufacturer (which shall not be named). Crashed right into their window. The military grade irony of this would've been delicious, if I wasn't evacuating my bowels at the time.
maybe the high pitched wine is just a property of the few models that are popular where i live.
why do you even care ?
all these laws are like the laws way back then that required car owners to take their car apart if it disturbed a horse.
it's a stupid over-reaction to change.
I think you can ignore them, there are constantly kids playing with quadcopers, the police around here have given up playing wack a mole.
The first step is to stop calling them drones and go back to calling them what they have always been. RC helicopters. My uncle had a gas powered one in the fucking 70's for shit's sake. I also knew of guys back in the 90's who used to attach 35mm film SLR cameras to RC helicopters to take aerial photos. This isn't some new thing. The only difference is the ease of use of what we have today, and of course the negative connotation of the word "drone" that has suddenly been assigned to them.
How about we treat them like we treat everything else related to a camera: punish people who violate other people's privacy and leave everyone else the fuck alone. Then treat the quadcopters just like we've always treated RC helicopters and planes. Don't dive bomb people or cars, and stay out of FAA airspace.
Guess that would require too much common sense though. Better to just ban everything.
It's not that I'm really worried. If I bought a drone in UK to begin with, it can't be regulated with that much enthusiasm to begin with.
I don't think the laws are stupid over-reaction to the current consumer boom of hobby drones, they must've existed in their current state since something like the sixties when drones were something only large institutions could own and operate.
I do try to check on local laws before taking it to other countries though.
Haha. I have a DJI Phantom 2 too, I have 3x Gopro Hero3 also, its very fun