Hello Fellow Yuneec Pilot!
Join our free Yuneec community and remove this annoying banner!
Sign up

Typhoon H spotted

Gutsy flying, hovering right above law enforcement like that, as we're not supposed to fly over such situations or in such conditions, to my understanding. Although I wouldn't do that myself due to the FAA regs, I personally have no problems with it and believe drones COULD be quite beneficial to society, given a fair chance. Being at the right place at the right time, drones could easily and subtly capture vital info on the bad guys who are out there, as well as either vindicate the innocent or help prosecute the guilty, regardless of what side of the law they are on.

Anything that happens on the public streets is fair game to film, photograph, or record. And just how many civil rights violations and crimes have been captured by casual passerby using their phones? An out of control, out-of-line officer or a dangerous law-breaking dude could be uniquely captured using the vantage points drones afford flyers, who would still be out of the way of the action. Only seems like a fair and sensible thing to be able to do as long as no one is in jeopardy of the drone. Ah, to live in a perfect, fair world that just made common sense.
 
  • Like
Reactions: QuadBart and MarioH
Flying directly over people or parts of their body's is a no-no. Aside from that, things can get kind of loose.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Had a guy one time reading me the riot act after filming some pleasure boats going in and out of a harbor. He was telling me how I was risking life and limb by flying 100' up over people. It took awhile for him to admit I was holding the aircraft at least 25'-50' off either side of the boats and that if everything stopped working it would fall straight down into open water at the speed I was flying. 5mph in a harbor for the boats, I was matching speed with the boats. Almost had to break out a dictionary for him to read the definition of "directly".


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Had a guy one time reading me the riot act after filming some pleasure boats going in and out of a harbor. He was telling me how I was risking life and limb by flying 100' up over people. It took awhile for him to admit I was holding the aircraft at least 25'-50' off either side of the boats and that if everything stopped working it would fall straight down into open water at the speed I was flying. 5mph in a harbor for the boats, I was matching speed with the boats. Almost had to break out a dictionary for him to read the definition of "directly".


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

PatR,

Thanks for sharing your experience. I believe it points out what might be obvious to some, and not so obvious to others: how we [pilots] respond to confrontations plays a very important role in how we are perceived.

Since you say "...it took awhile..." I get the impression you stayed calm and waited for the gentleman to realize on his own the folly of his objections. Good lesson for all of us. Inside and outside of the cockpit, stay calm, don't panic, and situations typically calm down on their own.

Jeff
 
Last edited:
Gutsy flying, hovering right above law enforcement like that, as we're not supposed to fly over such situations or in such conditions, to my understanding. Although I wouldn't do that myself due to the FAA regs, I personally have no problems with it and believe drones COULD be quite beneficial to society, given a fair chance. Being at the right place at the right time, drones could easily and subtly capture vital info on the bad guys who are out there, as well as either vindicate the innocent or help prosecute the guilty, regardless of what side of the law they are on.

Anything that happens on the public streets is fair game to film, photograph, or record. And just how many civil rights violations and crimes have been captured by casual passerby using their phones? An out of control, out-of-line officer or a dangerous law-breaking dude could be uniquely captured using the vantage points drones afford flyers, who would still be out of the way of the action. Only seems like a fair and sensible thing to be able to do as long as no one is in jeopardy of the drone. Ah, to live in a perfect, fair world that just made common sense.
Depends who is flying it, may well have been a police officer!
 
  • Like
Reactions: AJupstateNY
Exactly what I was thinking. I know that some police forces in the U.K. use the TH (South Wales Police being one for example)
Devon and Cornwall use inspire 2.
Personally I think they are just wasting money on drones for such purposes, flight duration etc is woefully inadequate.
Recently we had pics in the local rag (and it is a rag) of pictures taken by their inspire 400ft above a traffic jam in the dark!!!!
Now tell me if that is not lethal if it loses a motor and plummets onto traffic below, plus flying in a built up area at night.

One rule for one etc etc as usual.....
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jester
Depends who is flying it, may well have been a police officer!

You know, I would have considered that as a possibility except the OP stated in his post the drone pilot was "Some random guy (who) took his H for a ride on a standoff between carjack suspect in a van and police/swat and the curious nearby..."

So unless the OP was mistaken - which I have no reason to think he was - I don't believe it was law enforcement flying the drone. Instead, it was just one of us, doing what we do, who stumbled upon the scene with his or her Typhoon and captured newsreel-quality images of a crime in progress. Pretty neat coverage, even though it was crossing the FAA's lines.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jester
Devon and Cornwall use inspire 2.
Personally I think they are just wasting money on drones for such purposes, flight duration etc is woefully inadequate.
Recently we had pics in the local rag (and it is a rag) of pictures taken by their inspire 400ft above a traffic jam in the dark!!!!
Now tell me if that is not lethal if it loses a motor and plummets onto traffic below, plus flying in a built up area at night.

One rule for one etc etc as usual.....
Totally agree with you. I think that although they do have some uses within the realms of police work, their usefulness is only limited, one of the main reasons being, as you mentioned, flight duration.

Many police forces that use drones seem to use them in circumstances and a way that seems alien to what I would consider to be appropriate for one of my flight operations. Yet they are governed by the same rules as I am. I know that it is possible to get a night time permission from the CAA and even a case by case restricted permission to conduct an operation in a crowded area on submission of a detailed safety case submitted to the CAA. But such special permissions take time and, certainly for use over a crowd, such a permission would be a one-off (in the sense that each planned flight over the crowded area would need an unique individual permission) and planned well in advance. To fly over a Traffic Jam at any time of day or night in an urban area, then, IMHO would seem to me to be illegal (if not at least questionable) since the police would not have been able to obtain an individual permission to do it from the CAA. Permissions from the CAA typically take at least a month or even more to obtain, Certainly not minutes!
 
In the U.S. public agencies are commonly issued a "special COA" that commonly have waivers for some general regulations like altitudes and separation requirements. They can be obtained in less than an hour but generally are obtained for an extended duration on an annual or semi annual basis. I believe there should be one law for all but that's not the way it works here. Law is not applied equally, which is evident in the way the law is administered.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: CC Rider
In the U.S. public agencies are commonly issued a "special COA" that commonly have waivers for some general regulations like altitudes and separation requirements. They can be obtained in less than an hour but generally are obtained for an extended duration on an annual or semi annual basis. I believe there should be one law for all but that's not the way it works here. Law is not applied equally, which is evident in the way the law is administered.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I understand.
However, so far as I'm aware and I could very easily be mistaken, in the U.K. the police and other agencies are supposed to operate UAVs according to the same rules that any commercial operator is supposed to adhere too. That is to say, then, that since I must not fly within 150m of a crowd of a thousand people or more (a football stadium, say, or a very congested traffic jam) without having obtained a single use permission on submission of a unique safety case to the CAA which typically takes over a month to obtain, then those other agencies in the U.K. can't either.

I stand to be corrected on this but, so far as I'm aware at least in the U.K. we are all (supposedly) under the same rules. If I'm wrong will someone put me right on this?
 
I believe your perception of the law, regardless of being U.S. or U.K. is spot on. Unfortunately laws are "bent" to favor those having wealth or power, with such variation applied incrementally dependent upon the level of wealth or power.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I believe your perception of the law, regardless of being U.S. or U.K. is spot on. Unfortunately laws are "bent" to favor those having wealth or power, with such variation applied incrementally dependent upon the level of wealth or power.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Amen to that. Those who have power and wealth always will, and they are not known for easily sharing either of those privileges with others. Double standards and hypocrisy are unfortunately woven into our system, with the low man on the totem pole always feeling all of the weight.

Not exactly what this nation's Founding Father's supposedly set out to establish in a land where Democracy and equal, fair treatment for all under the rule of Law supposedly flourishes. However, capitalism easily trumps Democracy in a land where money does most of the talking. To find the root of any social problem, inequity or inequality, just follow the money and power trails.
 
Depends who is flying it, may well have been a police officer!

I am hoping to start working with our local Police Dept (that I retired from) now that I have my Part 107, and hope to add a FLIR unit soon.

A good friend of mine is a NYS Trooper, just got his Part 107 and is working on a program for the State Police to add Drones to the NYS Police for accident scene investigations now and other uses as may develop.

AJ
 
Depends who is flying it, may well have been a police officer!
The story according to another UAS site was that the Inspire was a police unit being used in the investigation and the aerial shot was taken from a manned helicopter above.
 

New Posts

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
20,955
Messages
241,591
Members
27,287
Latest member
wccannabis