Stupid People Should Not Own Drones

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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USA Today has issued a warning for all those people that should not own a drone. People who even regularly chase airplanes have found that drone-chasing can even be more of a challenge since they are financially invested.

Check out the video.

"I tried to run after it, but you can’t run after a drone … it’s like running after an airplane," he said. " ... It’s like putting a bunch of propellers on your wallet and watching it fly away."
 
expensive lessons learned....

I like the point about filming peoples back yards.....

"It’s a piece of property," she said. "If someone’s car was left in your yard or a bike was left in your yard, you aren’t going to shoot it."

Guess again, some idiot parks his Parrot 100 feet over my backyard trying to peek in the bathroom window, it's going to eat a load of birdshot,
 
expensive lessons learned....

I like the point about filming peoples back yards.....

"It’s a piece of property," she said. "If someone’s car was left in your yard or a bike was left in your yard, you aren’t going to shoot it."

Guess again, some idiot parks his Parrot 100 feet over my backyard trying to peek in the bathroom window, it's going to eat a load of birdshot,
Yet you have some people, even here, arguing against your right to do just that. We have privacy fences and hedgerows for a reason.
 
I owned a remote controlled airplane when I was a kid, and I managed to destroy it within half an hour, running it into a light pole. Since then I have been convinced I should not use such things.
 
Lol clearly had idea clue what he was doing.....he just pushed the throttle up and didn't stop. People find more ways to just throw money away.
 
Awesome video. I fly a DJI Mavic Pro and while it is a cinch to fly you should always go in understanding the limitations of the system and surroundings. That guy didn't have a clue... He's the guy that gives the rest of us a bad name...
 
natural selection used to kill off stupid people early in the life cycle, now we just celebrate mediocrity and the pursuit of non achievement.

However, it does lend itself to endless videos to watch on the internet :S
 
People who even regularly chase airplanes have found that drone-chasing can even be more of a challenge since they are financially invested.
wut?
 
Since I don't really know what happened, and to play the advocate here, it could of been a malfunction. I do not have much experience with these things, but I've seen a couple that have a "take off" button/option that is suppose to get it up and hovering a couple of feet before handing off control, guess it helps keep people from crashing it right into the ground. Which is what he was expecting, you can here him say something about suppose to go 3 to 4 feet until... and he cuts himself off. Maybe this thing kept thinking it was less than whatever that takeoff distance was so it kept climbing.
 
According to a lot of comments in that video, those things have a habit of doing exactly that.

Dude bought a low-orbit satellite packaged as a drone. :D
 
That's not even as bad as I thought. A couple months ago, my buddy and I were sitting on the 18th floor balcony soaking in a gorgeous Hawaiian beach view, when he busted out his $400 drone. He never flew it before, but had it take off masterfully from the balcony.. within 30 seconds he tried to recall it, but it nailed the wall and tumbled 18 stories to its doom. Shattered by the pool grounds and sent debris all over the rooftops, pools, and gym areas. Lots of curious folks started poking their heads out... luckily no one was injured.
 
Mass produced low cost complex toys marketed as "So easy, anyone can do it!", are going to have a significant failure rate. Some due to stupid user tricks, others due to cheap crap not working correctly.
 
expensive lessons learned....

I like the point about filming peoples back yards.....

"It’s a piece of property," she said. "If someone’s car was left in your yard or a bike was left in your yard, you aren’t going to shoot it."

Guess again, some idiot parks his Parrot 100 feet over my backyard trying to peek in the bathroom window, it's going to eat a load of birdshot,

Either you have a massive yard, or don't realize that you'd be shooting over other peoples property if a drone at 100ft has an angle into your bathroom.

Skylight?

Also, I hate obnoxious drones and users, and would gladly shoot them.
 
I feel the guy's pain. Luckily, it's only a $100.00 "toy".

Last year, I took my Mavic Pro up to a secluded ice lake in the middle of winter. I had a predetermined flight path setup in Litchi to circle the lake, take some slow videos and return to a designate spot. I carefully calibrated the GPS and compass and launched the routine. Suddenly, the Mavic took off at full speed and literally vanished across the ice lake before I could regain control or figure out what the hell was going on. At the same time, my tablet crashed and rebooted. Talk about a sinking feeling... Luckily, I managed to bring the Mavic back on manual mode using the DJI application, but it was at <10% as I finally regained sight of it.
 
Either you have a massive yard, or don't realize that you'd be shooting over other peoples property if a drone at 100ft has an angle into your bathroom.

Skylight?

Also, I hate obnoxious drones and users, and would gladly shoot them.

Exactly. There are airplanes flying over my house daily, and sometimes helicopters. I shoot at all of them just in case they have a camera onboard - you can't be too careful!
 
Either you have a massive yard, or don't realize that you'd be shooting over other peoples property if a drone at 100ft has an angle into your bathroom.

Skylight?

Also, I hate obnoxious drones and users, and would gladly shoot them.


I have over an acre in my yard with a two story house, and the nearest neighbor in that direction is behind a hill, about 1 mile away. And my closest neighbor would be handing me reloads as I engaged the target. he's good that way. ;)

Not that I would need more than 1 round, I'm a decent trap shooter. Pull!


EDIT: made myself curious, I pulled up google earth and did a rough estimate, actually over 2 miles before I could potentially hit another house with a lot of hills in between. I need a bigger shotgun!
 
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so, they dont know how to use a drone, but CAN make a decent video of it.. including video from the drone itself.. to post on youtube??

something isnt passing the sniff test with this to me
 
I tried to run after it, but you can’t run after a drone … it’s like running after an airplane," he said.

Why didn't they try to jump up and grab it?
 
I got the impression that sometimes if these things get too far away they just keep going on in the last direction they were headed. I have no idea if that's true or not as I've never had a drone. I wonder, though, if it might not be smarter to design them to just come straight down if they lose control signal.

Sure it might come down on a poor, defenseless baby or the middle of a busy street or something...but it could do that anyway, and if it's falling out of the sky due to running out of charge it'd be coming down a lot faster.
 
expensive lessons learned....

I like the point about filming peoples back yards.....

"It’s a piece of property," she said. "If someone’s car was left in your yard or a bike was left in your yard, you aren’t going to shoot it."

Guess again, some idiot parks his Parrot 100 feet over my backyard trying to peek in the bathroom window, it's going to eat a load of birdshot,

Drones use wide angle lenses. They can barely see you at 100' elevation, let alone your tiny peepee.
 
Drones use wide angle lenses. They can barely see you at 100' elevation, let alone your tiny peepee.

Here's a good depiction of the vid quality from a quad model that I own - it's not me flying, just to give an idea of the video quality. This is what the pilot sees, not what a GoPro would record.

 
And this is why these things are getting regulated....

Pretty much.

As a responsible/commercial user, its frustrating seeing headline after headline about people who either haven't read the manual or fly in complete disregard to local/national laws.

I live in Los Angeles and, as most drone-users will be able to tell you, its nearly impossible to fly a Drone here without both a Commercial License and a specific use permit - though it doesn't stop idiots from going to Best Buy, grabbing a Mavic/Spark/Phantom, and flying over heavily regulated airspace. There are a few pockets of airspace where you can fly, but as more people use this technology irresponsibly, hobbyist drone usage will become prohibitively complicated and regulated.
 
Think how the people staying in the Bellagio felt when Intel launched 250 drones right in front of their hotel window!

And thanks to that shooter guy, couldn't even get their shotguns up to the room.

 
Drones use wide angle lenses. They can barely see you at 100' elevation, let alone your tiny peepee.

The fact that you know I have a tiny peepee is disturbing. keep your drone out of my yard!

Really. stop building a Strawman. My right to privacy is more important than your right to make an ass out of yourself with a drone. The height the drone is recording me is not relevant as long as it is violating the airspace I control over my property, which in the state I live in is defined as 250 feet when the new drone criminal trespass laws pass, or how far away I can knock a drone out of the sky with number 6 shot until that happens.
 
This kinda controversy is the reason I got out of flying. I was super into the long range stuff and eventually it got too scary having all that money 3 miles away, even with the autopilot that would fly it home. Losing the plane was one thing.. losing into someone's property or their face was another. Couldn't handle it.
 
I never really thought there was an advantage to living in a high wind area where unexpected gusts frequently happen not to mention those 100mph+ storms. Then the drone craze took off. Never seen a drone here never well (or not for long). OTOH I do get a fair number of jets practicing their mountain flying, can't win is seems.
 
Drones should not fly drones...

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You buy a $50 toy drone with no assists, learn to fly then move up to something bigger, there is no such thing as an uncrashable drone, especially from DJI.
 
OMFG I laughed so hard at this line I spit up my cocktail through my nose.... "It’s like putting a bunch of propellers on your wallet and watching it fly away."

Funny as hell, but bourbon up and out the nose wasn't awesome.
 
Pretty much.

As a responsible/commercial user, its frustrating seeing headline after headline about people who either haven't read the manual or fly in complete disregard to local/national laws.

I live in Los Angeles and, as most drone-users will be able to tell you, its nearly impossible to fly a Drone here without both a Commercial License and a specific use permit - though it doesn't stop idiots from going to Best Buy, grabbing a Mavic/Spark/Phantom, and flying over heavily regulated airspace. There are a few pockets of airspace where you can fly, but as more people use this technology irresponsibly, hobbyist drone usage will become prohibitively complicated and regulated.

The average person has zero idea (and I include the average drone flyer in that) about what controlled airspace is and how far it extends out from the airport. They mostly think they own the airspace above their land and can do whatever they want.

The fact that you know I have a tiny peepee is disturbing. keep your drone out of my yard!

Really. stop building a Strawman. My right to privacy is more important than your right to make an ass out of yourself with a drone. The height the drone is recording me is not relevant as long as it is violating the airspace I control over my property, which in the state I live in is defined as 250 feet when the new drone criminal trespass laws pass, or how far away I can knock a drone out of the sky with number 6 shot until that happens.

Sorry to hear that dude, dont they have surgeries for that now? ;) J/K. Above your yard within that 250 feet I agree (assuming thats the law in your state and doesnt conflict with any federal laws). But there is little you can do in most states if the drone is outside of your property and just recording your yard. You might claim its a private nuisance but youd have to prove it. My neighbor got pissed as hell when I put up a fence because he kept throwing stuff across the property line. He got even more pissed when I installed cameras to watch my yard because they also happened to be high enough that they could see into his yard as well. He very quickly found out that he had no legal recourse in this state because you have no expectation of privacy in your yard (i.e. anyone can see what you are doing).

On the other hand I was able to force him to take down a spot light that he shone at my yard and into my house. Private nuisance.
 
If anyone here hasn't seen the South Park drone episode (s18e5), it's pretty great and worth watching.
 
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