My phone runs a custom AOSP based build of Android, without gapps, and it works just great. I use F-Droid and Amazon for my apps.
Fair enough, and you can do that... but I hope you're aware that you're in the extreme minority and always will be... Your average consumer will never do that...
How about this case: The airspace above private property is private up to 500 ft, according to the FAA. If Amazon wants to do drone delivery, they will have to either stay above public land or above 500 ft until they reach their destination or they will be at risk of lots of counts of trespassing.
It isn't nearly that clear cut...
Many people want a simple black and white answer, and it never really is that simple...
Well, he approached the man in the company of police. I think he was pretty safe at that point.
Not the first time, but yes, the second time they did. Of course, they weren't going to try and beat the crap out of the home owner in the company of police either, so the home owner was pretty safe at that point as well.
If I'm by myself (or just with my wife and kids), and four people approach me and are clearly upset with me, a gun is the only thing that will even the situation out. Very, very few people could take on 4 people at once and come out on top of that fight.
I imagine that once he pointed out to the 4 men that if they came onto his property they were going to get shot, they had a healthy dose of reality, which is of course when they called the police.
The mistake the homeowner made was not calling the police first. If in doubt, call the cops. In my personal experience, whoever calls them first is the "victim". Not always of course, there are limits to that, but it helps to be the one to call them.
The law for Peeping Toms, I believe, is that you must take reasonable action to prevent someone from seeing you. Therefore if I'm on the sidewalk and you're in your own home, undressing in front of an open window, I cannot be charged as a Peep since you didn't take the reasonable measure of closing the drapes.
True, which is why the 6 foot privacy fence is the key. If you have to put up a ladder to see over my fence, then I took reasonable measures to NOT have you see me in my back yard, so going over my fence is breaking the law.
It is worth noting that few helicopter pilots own the aircraft they fly, thus get no say in what goes into the helicopter.
Companies that are not required to install such equipment rarely are going to do so, what is the benefit to the bottom line?
It is also worth noting that ADS-B only really works well with other aircraft that also have it. Having it on the drone doesn't do much if the helicopter doesn't also have it. At the altitudes being flown, the helicopter often doesn't show up on the FAA RADAR (which isn't really RADAR, since the primary systems are being shut down, they are going to secondary systems only).
That is why I talked about the cost to retrofit helicopters, because the drone is only half the picture. The helicopter needs the datalink or it is rather worthless.
Do you think that matters a great deal to those who authored the proposed regulations? Amazon is going to reserve the right to sue the parties involved, or their estates, for damages.
Sue away, they'd not likely find very many supportive juries.
On the other hand, Amazon is a nice target for lawyers suing on behalf of people killed by their drones.
The drones don't even have to hit an aircraft, even a large bird might take one out of the sky. When the drone falls on someone and kills them, the lawsuit will be expensive.
My first answer is ADS-B (both IN and OUT) required for all automated drones in Amazon's proposed "industrial" style airspace from 200ft to 400ft AGL.
ADS-B is wonderful, for those aircraft that have it. Most helicopters don't have it and nothing requires it until 2020, and even then that is not for all aircraft.
Installing ADS-B on small aircraft is expensive, mandates are expensive. Are you going to tell the guy who has a $100k personal helicopter that he has to spend $5K to install ADS-B so that Amazon can have delivery drones?
What about the company that has 10 training helicopters, that would be a $50K bill they didn't need, so Amazon can have drones. That doesn't strike me as fair or reasonable.
Where ADS-B falls apart is when depending on the old, crappy transponders that thousands of general aviation aircraft have. Due to the extreme costs of anything attached to an aircraft, many electronics on aircraft are decades out of date and at low altitudes, not that dependable.
Part of the mandate is that all drones yield to all human aircraft, with a min standoff distance of....? You sound like a pilot, you tell me what is fair.
For a helicopter? Half a mile. For an airplane? A mile.
Those are the numbers that strike me as reasonable right now. They could come down with time and experience and as equipment gets better. I think the key is to set the margins large at the start and they can be shrunk as experience and knowledge is gained.
Drones would also likely have (and could be mandated to have) collision-avoidance radar or FLIR or both, for 1 or 2 levels of redundancy.
In my experience with RADAR, it is largely useless 200ft above the ground. Ground clutter makes any returns useless.
That being said, I've used weather RADAR in aircraft, not the target acquisition RADAR that the military uses. Keep in mind that even commercial airplanes don't use RADAR to see other airplanes, it is just for weather navigation. It takes a different type of RADAR to track other aircraft. I am open to the idea of it, but I suspect the cost and weight of a reliable and useful target tracking RADAR for a drone would make doing it pointless. But I'm open to the idea in principle.
As for the hobbyist zone (below 200ft AGL), there is already the mandate that they only operate with direct line of sight to the operator, so it is the operator's responsibility to get out of your way.
And let me just say in that case, I wouldn't be over them in general. If I'm flying at 200ft, I'm either flying over an open field, or I'm in some way aware of the situation on the ground.
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For what it is worth, I DON'T like flying at less than 500ft. If I'm at 500ft above the ground and my engine quits, I have enough room to turn 180 degrees to land if needed. If I'm at 300ft, I'm landing at whatever is in front of me, I don't have room to turn. Helicopters can glide and land engine out, but it is a very steep glide. From 500ft, we're generally on the ground in 20 seconds. Longer for some helicopters, less for others. Type in "helicopter autorotation" into YouTube if you'd like to see what it looks like.
Airplanes are completely different. If I'm at 3,000ft in a Cessna 172, I may well have 10 minutes after an engine failure before I'm on the ground. I can glide for miles to an airport or field. Helicopters have the glide profile of a brick.:)
Keep in mind that the places you likely can shoot the rockets from is Class G airspace. It is uncontrolled, so no one is talking to ATC.
Yes, there is a NOTAM, and yes, pilots are supposed to read them, but many don't. Part of the problem is there is so many of them that they become white noise after awhile. They also aren't in a very human friendly form and if you input a flight plan, you often get back 50 or more of them, many of them repeats over and over of stuff you've seen before.
Anyone who says they read every single NOTAM every time before flying is lying to you.
Which is why you have people flying over you, and that isn't likely to change.
Helicopters can fly lower than that... but there is a rule for them... The short version is, helicopters can fly at any altitude so long as they don't cause hazard to persons or property on the surface.
I asked my FAA rep about that once and the answer he gave me was this:
"If I get one phone call from one person claiming a helicopter is flying too low, I might give you a call and say 'hey, be careful out there'. If I get 5 phone calls from 5 people saying a helicopter is flying too low, then you're already guilty. Don't scare people on the ground."
And I've done plenty of aerial photography from below 500 feet, including over a major city (Dallas, TX). The key is to not linger anywhere and to not scare the crap out of people. If people come outside and wave you away or give mean looks, leave. They are right and we're wrong.
The irony is that I DID get a visit from DHS once. We were hired to take some aerial pictures of a building that just happened to be right next to a police station. This was in a commercial office area, no homes. The irony is that we were in fact at 500ft, but people on the ground can't always tell that. An over excited police officer decided we were terrorists and ran it up the chain of command. By the time we landed, 5 police cars were at the airport and we found out the military had been alerted to a possible hostile aircraft (they did not take off AFAIK). Once we provided our ID and explained what we were doing, they let us go. We got a follow up visit a week later from two men in suits who had some brief questions, but overall they were nice about it. It probably helped that we had a good relationship with the FAA and had years of experience doing this with a fixed base of operations that was well known. This was in 2007, for what it is worth.
It isn't a pretty future when you're 30 years old, being judged for the silly stuff you posted online at 15 years old...
Everyone has a chapter in their book they don't real out loud, including you. Stuff you did at 15, you wouldn't want the world to know about, yet you want future kids to lack that same protection...
Baro measurements are accurate to about 5' at these altitudes.
The altimeters in the light airplanes aren't that accurate, and that is assuming they are even set correctly in the first place.
I fly to 6000' with rockets and you know who the idiots are? The pilots. We put out a NOTAM with our coordinates and recovery space, notify all local FAA towers and get legal waivers for all flights. And in the middle of nowhere, where we fly, we get no less than 4 light aircraft fly right overhead at less than 1000' - some even doing multiple passes - just to see what we're doing.
Are you launching in Class G airspace? Those airplanes don't have to talk to ATC, nor do they have to stay out of your way. Rather, you have to stay out of theirs.
1. RC Planes are actually quite rare, but I've nearly hit them before.
They generally fly from known airfields however, so you do learn where they operate from. From time to time, people do stupid stuff and fly them where they shouldn't.
2. Model rockets are even more rare than RC Planes are, and they tend to go a LOT higher than 500ft. They are normally only launched from specific known locations and ATC is made aware of this before hand.
3. A golf ball is unlikely to bring down a helicopter, it would be a one in a billion shot. Even if it hit it, it lacks the mass to do real damage. The drones that Amazon is talking about will be big enough and heavy enough to bring down some helicopters.
Baseballs and Skeet-shooting generally don't happen over 200ft either, and only a complete idiot shoots a gun into the air when helicopters are near, and helicopters are NOT quiet. There are also only a few outdoor gun ranges around here, I know where they are and wouldn't fly over one anyway.
But why should you have to buy a new computer just to run the latest version of your OS?
Because that is what people do...
Besides, if you want it to do more, then you need more power. Computers have indeed gotten much faster than they used to be...
Why should the hardware requirements increase that fast?
They really haven't moved much since Vista came out. It is the other stuff that people want out of a computer. Faster storage (SSD), USB 3 support, display port, etc. Those things can be added to an older computer, but people don't tend to modify their computers, they buy new ones, use them for awhile, then give them away or sell them and buy something new.
Why do people accept so easily that upgrading Windows includes upgrading their hardware?
What makes you think that people do that so easily? Lots of people were perfectly happy on XP, but at some point it was time to move on.
My Mother uses Windows 7, she doesn't see a reason to move to Windows 10 any more than she sees a reason to move to Linux. Windows 7 works just fine. Of course, since Windows 10 is now free for her, she asked me if she should make the move, to which I replied, "give it three months, let everyone else work the kinks out first".
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It is worth noting that Windows 10 actually runs quite well on a 8 year old computer. Stick a SSD in a Core2Quad and it is amazingly responsive to basic computing tasks. I have such a machine running as a test bed and frankly for what most people use their computer for, it is just fine. 4GB of RAM and a 180GB Intel SSD and it is a great machine for Windows 10.
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My phone runs a custom AOSP based build of Android, without gapps, and it works just great. I use F-Droid and Amazon for my apps.
Fair enough, and you can do that... but I hope you're aware that you're in the extreme minority and always will be... Your average consumer will never do that...
You joke, and you're of course right to a point, but there comes a point where you have enough IP addresses for every grain of sand on Earth.
We likely won't care within our lifetimes :)
Yes, but there really isn't, since large chunks of those IP addresses aren't being used...
And that is the problem with the system, lots of IP blocks are taken, but unused and hard to get back.
Frankly, this is all pointless, IP6 fixes this for... more or less, ever...
How about this case: The airspace above private property is private up to 500 ft, according to the FAA. If Amazon wants to do drone delivery, they will have to either stay above public land or above 500 ft until they reach their destination or they will be at risk of lots of counts of trespassing.
It isn't nearly that clear cut...
Many people want a simple black and white answer, and it never really is that simple...
Perhaps you need to learn how to select NOTAMs.
Perhaps you need to learn how to not lie...
Either you fly 4 times a year and you spend more time preparing for the flight than the duration of the flight, or you're lying.
That was 7 pages of NOTAMs, for a short simple flight.
Try pulling it up for a flight from Texas to Florida with several fuel stops, you'd be reading all morning.
Total utter bullshit. I read every notam associated with my anticipated flight.
No you don't. It would take you an hour or more to read them all for many flights, maybe more.
This is a list of the current NOTAMs for a simple flight from Dallas to Austin. There is zero chance that you read all that before such a flight.
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Data Current as of: Wed, 29 Jul 2015 23:43:00 UTC
DFW DALLAS/FORT WORTH INTL !DFW 07/584 DFW TWY F EDGE MARKINGS BTN TWY A AND TWY WQ EAST SIDE NOT STD 1507292112-1509302359 !DFW 07/582 (KDFW A7460/15) DFW TWY R BTN APCH END RWY 31R AND TWY P CLSD 1507291813-1508292359 !DFW 07/580 DFW TWY B CL MARKINGS BTN TWY F AND TWY E NOT STD 1507291800-1508292359 !DFW 07/578 (KDFW A7452/15) DFW TWY R3 CLSD 1507291436-1508282359 !DFW 07/577 (KDFW A7451/15) DFW TWY R2 CLSD 1507291435-1508282359 !DFW 07/576 (KDFW A7450/15) DFW TWY R1 CLSD 1507291433-1508282359 !DFW 07/557 (KDFW A7416/15) DFW RWY 13L/31R CLSD 1507291100-1508282359 !DFW 07/551 (KDFW A7409/15) DFW RWY 13L RWY END IDENTIFIER LGT OUT OF SERVICE 1507291200-1508282359EST !DFW 07/550 (KDFW A7408/15) DFW RWY 13L PAPI OUT OF SERVICE 1507291200-1508282359EST !DFW 07/549 (KDFW A7407/15) DFW RWY 31R PAPI OUT OF SERVICE 1507291200-1508282359EST !DFW 07/548 (KDFW A7406/15) DFW RWY 31R ALS OUT OF SERVICE 1507291200-1508282359EST !DFW 07/547 (KDFW A7405/15) DFW NAV ILS RWY 31R OUT OF SERVICE 1507291200-1508282359EST !DFW 07/492 DFW TWY P CL MARKINGS BTN EAST AIR FREIGHT RAMP AND RWY 13L/31R NOT STD 1507252327-1508252359 !DFW 07/491 DFW TWY N CL MARKINGS BTN EAST AIR FREIGHT RAMP AND APCH END RWY 13L NOT STD 1507252326-1508252359 !DFW 07/489 DFW OBST TOWER LGT (ASR 1042525) 330019.80N0965859.70W (7.0NM NNE DFW) 1026.9FT (503.9FT AGL) OUT OF SERVICE 1507251419-1508090400 !DFW 07/477 (KDFW A7262/15) DFW TWY E BTN TWY WL AND TWY WM CLSD 1507241430-1508312359 !DFW 07/421 (KDFW A7180/15) DFW TWY E5 CLSD LGTD AND BARRICADED 1507230027-1508312359 !DFW 07/362 DFW OBST TOWER LGT (ASR 1015399) 324842.00N0970030.00W (5.3NM SSE DFW) 692.9FT (212.9FT AGL) OUT OF SERVICE 1507201343-1508031819 !DFW 07/344 (KDFW A7043/15) DFW RWY 17R/35L RWY STATUS LGT SYSTEM OUT OF SERVICE 1507182148-1507312359 !DFW 07/288 DFW TWY Y EDGE MARKINGS BTN RWY 17R/35L AND TWY M NORTH SIDE REMOVED 1507162158-1507312359 !DFW 07/251 (KDFW A6904/15) DFW TWY WR BTN RWY 18L/36R AND RWY 18R/36L CLSD TO B747, A380, AN24, C5, C17, B461, B462, B463 ACFT 1507152046-1508082359 !DFW 07/198 (KDFW A6809/15) DFW TWY E6 CLSD LGTD AND BARRICADED 1507132032-1508312359 !DFW 07/085 (KDFW A6616/15) DFW TWY L3 CLSD LGTD AND BARRICADED 1507070924-1510052359 !DFW 07/070 (KDFW A6589/15) DFW TWY L BTN TWY K9 AND TWY K10 CLSD 1507061524-1510122359 !DFW 07/068 (KDFW A6585/15) DFW TWY L4 BTN RWY 17R/35L AND TWY L CLSD 1507061239-1510122359 !DFW 07/066 (KDFW A6583/15) DFW TWY EL BTN TWY K AND TWY M CLSD 1507061221-1510122359 !DFW 07/041 DFW TWY EM EDGE MARKINGS BTN RWY 17R/35L AND TWY M REMOVED 1507032247-1507312359 !DFW 06/625 (KDFW A6461/15) DFW TWY EQ EDGE MARKINGS BTN RWY 17R/35L AND TWY M NORTH SIDE REMOVED 1506301438-1507312359 !DFW 06/582 (KDFW A6375/15) DFW TWY Y EDGE MARKINGS BTN RWY 17R/35L AND TWY M SOUTH SIDE REMOVED 1506271433-1507302359 !DFW 06/572 (KDFW A6361/15) DFW TWY Z EDGE MARKINGS BTN RWY 17R/35L AND TWY M NORTH SIDE REMOVED 1506270803-1507312359 !DFW 06/571 (KDFW A6360/15) DFW TWY Z EDGE MARKINGS BTN RWY 17R/35L AND TWY M SOUTH SIDE REMOVED 1506270801-1507312359 !DFW 06/557 (KDFW A6341/15) DFW NAV ILS RWY 36L CAT 2 NA 1506261313-1601042100EST !DFW 06/435 DFW OBST CRANE (ASN 2014-ASW-5508-NRA) 325206N0970125W (1.9NM SSE DFW) 729FT (150FT AGL) FLAGGED AND NOT LGTD 1506222008-1510152359 !DFW 06/434 DFW OBST CRANE (ASN 2014-ASW-5507-NRA) 325206N0970121W (1.9NM SSE DFW) 729FT (150FT AGL) FLAGGED AND NOT LGTD 1506222003-1510152359 !DFW 06/433 DFW OBST CRANE (ASN 2014-ASW-5505-NRA) 325209N0970125W (1.8NM SSE DFW) 729FT (150FT AGL) FLAGGED AND NOT LGTD 1506222002-1510152359 !DFW 06/432 DFW OBST CRANE (ASN 2014-ASW-5506-NRA) 325209N0970121W (1.8NM SSE DFW) 729FT
Well, he approached the man in the company of police. I think he was pretty safe at that point.
Not the first time, but yes, the second time they did. Of course, they weren't going to try and beat the crap out of the home owner in the company of police either, so the home owner was pretty safe at that point as well.
If I'm by myself (or just with my wife and kids), and four people approach me and are clearly upset with me, a gun is the only thing that will even the situation out. Very, very few people could take on 4 people at once and come out on top of that fight.
I imagine that once he pointed out to the 4 men that if they came onto his property they were going to get shot, they had a healthy dose of reality, which is of course when they called the police.
The mistake the homeowner made was not calling the police first. If in doubt, call the cops. In my personal experience, whoever calls them first is the "victim". Not always of course, there are limits to that, but it helps to be the one to call them.
The law for Peeping Toms, I believe, is that you must take reasonable action to prevent someone from seeing you. Therefore if I'm on the sidewalk and you're in your own home, undressing in front of an open window, I cannot be charged as a Peep since you didn't take the reasonable measure of closing the drapes.
True, which is why the 6 foot privacy fence is the key. If you have to put up a ladder to see over my fence, then I took reasonable measures to NOT have you see me in my back yard, so going over my fence is breaking the law.
Without the fence, I'd have far less of a case.
It is worth noting that few helicopter pilots own the aircraft they fly, thus get no say in what goes into the helicopter.
Companies that are not required to install such equipment rarely are going to do so, what is the benefit to the bottom line?
It is also worth noting that ADS-B only really works well with other aircraft that also have it. Having it on the drone doesn't do much if the helicopter doesn't also have it. At the altitudes being flown, the helicopter often doesn't show up on the FAA RADAR (which isn't really RADAR, since the primary systems are being shut down, they are going to secondary systems only).
That is why I talked about the cost to retrofit helicopters, because the drone is only half the picture. The helicopter needs the datalink or it is rather worthless.
Do you think that matters a great deal to those who authored the proposed regulations? Amazon is going to reserve the right to sue the parties involved, or their estates, for damages.
Sue away, they'd not likely find very many supportive juries.
On the other hand, Amazon is a nice target for lawyers suing on behalf of people killed by their drones.
The drones don't even have to hit an aircraft, even a large bird might take one out of the sky. When the drone falls on someone and kills them, the lawsuit will be expensive.
My first answer is ADS-B (both IN and OUT) required for all automated drones in Amazon's proposed "industrial" style airspace from 200ft to 400ft AGL.
ADS-B is wonderful, for those aircraft that have it. Most helicopters don't have it and nothing requires it until 2020, and even then that is not for all aircraft.
Installing ADS-B on small aircraft is expensive, mandates are expensive. Are you going to tell the guy who has a $100k personal helicopter that he has to spend $5K to install ADS-B so that Amazon can have delivery drones?
What about the company that has 10 training helicopters, that would be a $50K bill they didn't need, so Amazon can have drones. That doesn't strike me as fair or reasonable.
Where ADS-B falls apart is when depending on the old, crappy transponders that thousands of general aviation aircraft have. Due to the extreme costs of anything attached to an aircraft, many electronics on aircraft are decades out of date and at low altitudes, not that dependable.
Part of the mandate is that all drones yield to all human aircraft, with a min standoff distance of ....? You sound like a pilot, you tell me what is fair.
For a helicopter? Half a mile. For an airplane? A mile.
Those are the numbers that strike me as reasonable right now. They could come down with time and experience and as equipment gets better. I think the key is to set the margins large at the start and they can be shrunk as experience and knowledge is gained.
Drones would also likely have (and could be mandated to have) collision-avoidance radar or FLIR or both, for 1 or 2 levels of redundancy.
In my experience with RADAR, it is largely useless 200ft above the ground. Ground clutter makes any returns useless.
That being said, I've used weather RADAR in aircraft, not the target acquisition RADAR that the military uses. Keep in mind that even commercial airplanes don't use RADAR to see other airplanes, it is just for weather navigation. It takes a different type of RADAR to track other aircraft. I am open to the idea of it, but I suspect the cost and weight of a reliable and useful target tracking RADAR for a drone would make doing it pointless. But I'm open to the idea in principle.
As for the hobbyist zone (below 200ft AGL), there is already the mandate that they only operate with direct line of sight to the operator, so it is the operator's responsibility to get out of your way.
And let me just say in that case, I wouldn't be over them in general. If I'm flying at 200ft, I'm either flying over an open field, or I'm in some way aware of the situation on the ground.
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For what it is worth, I DON'T like flying at less than 500ft. If I'm at 500ft above the ground and my engine quits, I have enough room to turn 180 degrees to land if needed. If I'm at 300ft, I'm landing at whatever is in front of me, I don't have room to turn. Helicopters can glide and land engine out, but it is a very steep glide. From 500ft, we're generally on the ground in 20 seconds. Longer for some helicopters, less for others. Type in "helicopter autorotation" into YouTube if you'd like to see what it looks like.
Airplanes are completely different. If I'm at 3,000ft in a Cessna 172, I may well have 10 minutes after an engine failure before I'm on the ground. I can glide for miles to an airport or field. Helicopters have the glide profile of a brick. :)
I totally get your frustration...
Keep in mind that the places you likely can shoot the rockets from is Class G airspace. It is uncontrolled, so no one is talking to ATC.
Yes, there is a NOTAM, and yes, pilots are supposed to read them, but many don't. Part of the problem is there is so many of them that they become white noise after awhile. They also aren't in a very human friendly form and if you input a flight plan, you often get back 50 or more of them, many of them repeats over and over of stuff you've seen before.
Anyone who says they read every single NOTAM every time before flying is lying to you.
Which is why you have people flying over you, and that isn't likely to change.
Thank you for being a responsible RC pilot. We need more people like you!
they started toward me and I told them, 'If you cross my sidewalk, there's gonna be another shooting.'"
Bless him... Too many people think they can do whatever they want...
The drone operator was probably not even considering the risks of approaching a man who just used a gun to shoot his drone out of the sky. Idiot.
Technology has made it less obtrusive than erecting a ladder to peek into an upper-story window or over a fence.
Actually, that is illegal most places, they are called peeping Tom laws.
No, you can't put up a ladder to look over a fence into someone's bedroom window.
Actually, those numbers are for airplanes...
Helicopters can fly lower than that... but there is a rule for them... The short version is, helicopters can fly at any altitude so long as they don't cause hazard to persons or property on the surface.
I asked my FAA rep about that once and the answer he gave me was this:
"If I get one phone call from one person claiming a helicopter is flying too low, I might give you a call and say 'hey, be careful out there'. If I get 5 phone calls from 5 people saying a helicopter is flying too low, then you're already guilty. Don't scare people on the ground."
And I've done plenty of aerial photography from below 500 feet, including over a major city (Dallas, TX). The key is to not linger anywhere and to not scare the crap out of people. If people come outside and wave you away or give mean looks, leave. They are right and we're wrong.
The irony is that I DID get a visit from DHS once. We were hired to take some aerial pictures of a building that just happened to be right next to a police station. This was in a commercial office area, no homes. The irony is that we were in fact at 500ft, but people on the ground can't always tell that. An over excited police officer decided we were terrorists and ran it up the chain of command. By the time we landed, 5 police cars were at the airport and we found out the military had been alerted to a possible hostile aircraft (they did not take off AFAIK). Once we provided our ID and explained what we were doing, they let us go. We got a follow up visit a week later from two men in suits who had some brief questions, but overall they were nice about it. It probably helped that we had a good relationship with the FAA and had years of experience doing this with a fixed base of operations that was well known. This was in 2007, for what it is worth.
its still murder, though.
No, it is homicide... if it is a criminal offense depends on a whole lot of factors, including where you live...
Murder is always a crime, homicide is not...
It is a shame that you were modded up so fast...
It isn't a pretty future when you're 30 years old, being judged for the silly stuff you posted online at 15 years old...
Everyone has a chapter in their book they don't real out loud, including you. Stuff you did at 15, you wouldn't want the world to know about, yet you want future kids to lack that same protection...
That is a shame, but you're right...
Baro measurements are accurate to about 5' at these altitudes.
The altimeters in the light airplanes aren't that accurate, and that is assuming they are even set correctly in the first place.
I fly to 6000' with rockets and you know who the idiots are? The pilots. We put out a NOTAM with our coordinates and recovery space, notify all local FAA towers and get legal waivers for all flights. And in the middle of nowhere, where we fly, we get no less than 4 light aircraft fly right overhead at less than 1000' - some even doing multiple passes - just to see what we're doing.
Are you launching in Class G airspace? Those airplanes don't have to talk to ATC, nor do they have to stay out of your way. Rather, you have to stay out of theirs.
EMS has to reimburse Amazon for damage to the drone and reimburse the customer for the lost package. Easy.
Cute reply... lets try reality...
Drone is 25lbs, 5lb package, 20lb drone with engines and fuel. It brings down EMS helicopter killing 4 people on board and 2 people on the ground...
1. RC Planes are actually quite rare, but I've nearly hit them before.
They generally fly from known airfields however, so you do learn where they operate from. From time to time, people do stupid stuff and fly them where they shouldn't.
2. Model rockets are even more rare than RC Planes are, and they tend to go a LOT higher than 500ft. They are normally only launched from specific known locations and ATC is made aware of this before hand.
3. A golf ball is unlikely to bring down a helicopter, it would be a one in a billion shot. Even if it hit it, it lacks the mass to do real damage. The drones that Amazon is talking about will be big enough and heavy enough to bring down some helicopters.
Baseballs and Skeet-shooting generally don't happen over 200ft either, and only a complete idiot shoots a gun into the air when helicopters are near, and helicopters are NOT quiet. There are also only a few outdoor gun ranges around here, I know where they are and wouldn't fly over one anyway.
That all sounds great, except that helicopter often operate at less than 500 feet above the ground.
What happens when EMS is flying at 300ft and crashes into their delivery drone?
What about law enforcement? Powerline and pipeline patrol? Aerial photography?
All of these things can and do happen at less than 500ft above the ground.
In the North East, they even harvest Christmas Trees off the side of the mountain using helicopters, and that is well under 500ft.
It may eventually be deemed to be unconstitutional, but it is allowed by law. Here is the relivant law:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
You may not agree with it, but as judges have ruled on it, it is a matter of law.
So was slavery, once... does that make it "right" at the time?
Would you hang all those who helped slaves escape?
If it is wrong, then it is wrong, and no law makes it right.
But why should you have to buy a new computer just to run the latest version of your OS?
Because that is what people do...
Besides, if you want it to do more, then you need more power. Computers have indeed gotten much faster than they used to be...
Why should the hardware requirements increase that fast?
They really haven't moved much since Vista came out. It is the other stuff that people want out of a computer. Faster storage (SSD), USB 3 support, display port, etc. Those things can be added to an older computer, but people don't tend to modify their computers, they buy new ones, use them for awhile, then give them away or sell them and buy something new.
Why do people accept so easily that upgrading Windows includes upgrading their hardware?
What makes you think that people do that so easily? Lots of people were perfectly happy on XP, but at some point it was time to move on.
My Mother uses Windows 7, she doesn't see a reason to move to Windows 10 any more than she sees a reason to move to Linux. Windows 7 works just fine. Of course, since Windows 10 is now free for her, she asked me if she should make the move, to which I replied, "give it three months, let everyone else work the kinks out first".
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It is worth noting that Windows 10 actually runs quite well on a 8 year old computer. Stick a SSD in a Core2Quad and it is amazingly responsive to basic computing tasks. I have such a machine running as a test bed and frankly for what most people use their computer for, it is just fine. 4GB of RAM and a 180GB Intel SSD and it is a great machine for Windows 10.