It is a bit disheartening that pilots like this one are gonna ruin this hobby for the rest of us. This was posted on a facebook page promoting long range efforts. This flight occurred in Florida. Cmon people.....stop this nonsense. There is no purpose for this flight other than bragging rights.
Bill W.
Yes my fellow members, this is idiotic, showboating, and no doubt has violated many laws. Interesting, I'll have to look up resources to see if there are any title 18 sections with elements, or ? In regards to laws we have Federal Title 18, State Penal Code, County Ordinances, and City Municipal Codes,
Note: within State and County, there are Health & Safety, vehicle code, and other code books. So do you see the complexity of enforcement? Because there's also the issue of jurisdiction. As in crime sprees (or illegal long range autonomous flights), there is the initial start of the crime, then travel to the next crime scene while usually breaking other laws (such as crossing state lines with a kidnapped subject, where the felon gasses up and to stop noise in the trunk, commits mayhem by cutting fingers off); (Or in the example of a long range flight, one can argue that planning the flight falls under conspiracy, then after launching the UAV, LOS, altitude or other airspace busting maneuvers are additional crimes. If the planner is man A, and man B uploads the flight plan/POIs, and Man C takes off w the UAV and initiates the Long Range Flight). OH MAN, CAN YOU SEE HOW CONVOLUDED THIS CAN GET?
What federal agency will be officially tasked with enforcing the multitude of laws? This is important as it will be tasked w investigations like the aforementioned FaceBook post. But look at the process of investigations, an investigator will have the FB user data, the files and META data, and all other IP and network data that will be able to nail the *** hats that are giving our hobby/ work a bad name.
Just wait for the first flight such as this, collide with a aircraft that typically flys at lower altitudes. I.e. There are helicopters involved in low altitude ops. There are small trainers, for example, I was in a C172 and while flying over a sparsely developed area, my instructor pulls my throttle to idle. He says, you just lost your engine, what now? Well I climb to bleed off speed for altitude which then I maintain a specific speed that gives me the longest time in the air, but I told him that I'd put it down in that open dirt area, he said ok, and I continued found the wind dir n speed, and got down to 300' agl before my instructor said ok, you would've made it. So if I was flying like I did during the simulated inflight emergency, on my climb out, if I hit a drone, who knows what could happen.
It could go from nothing but a dent, to severing an antenna for nav/comms, to damaging a pitot tube; which can turn a flight fusarium real fast, to the pilot seeing the drone and taking immediate evasive action that could over stress the craft, or put the craft into an unusual attitude that may be unrecoverable if a trainee was involved.
But after all this babble/text, it boils down to the fact that evidence is being uploaded, and a designated agency will ultimately be tasked with this job. If they were smart, they would also create a public portal for the public to assist with an investigation.
Are you still awake? Oh well, just take from this info what you like and think of a solution to start and then build and sell it. Or?
