I expect there to be some tweaking of the law when everyone & their brother owns one.

You should never fly a quadcopter over groups of people. If you lose control or it malfunctions the potential to hurt someone is very high.

He deserves to have his quadcopter damaged for being stupid.

A Couple of things:
This occurred in a public place so the personal space protections are different than for instance in your own yard.
The article states that Pollard threw a T-Shirt, Pollard states the thing was "In front his face and he reached out and smacked it" I have serious doubts about his version. My quads have propellers on them that spin several thousand RPMs and are basically flying razor blades of death. You put hand out there and your going to draw back a very damaged nub.
I think he threw the t-shirt and there was no reason for it.

That said, No indication was given on whether the owner had permission from the powers that be to fly and film the crowd and even at that flying close enough to the crowd to get hit with a t-shirt is not very smart, spinning razor blades and all that.

Pollard got lucky in that he did not cause someone else to get hurt, he would have been liable for that too.
These things are still pretty pricy, I have over a grand in my 450 and the more serious aerial photography Hex's and Quads go to $3k or $4k.
Article doesn't say what class the bird was.

Gets down to this, if it isn't yours and its not on your property, leave it alone.
Your out in public and have given up any rights you may think you have as to privacy, there is no difference between an air borne photography platform and someone with a video camera or an iPhone other than the angle of the photo. You cannot go around damaging peoples video cameras because they took your pic on the street, its no different if he did it with a "Drone"

Someone/s needs to get on the ball and legislate these fuckin' things. I think this father had every right to shoot it down. It's bullshit that they are allowed to invade one's personal space.

A father shot was arrested after shooting down an $1,800 drone that was hovering over his sunbathing daughter.

William H. Merideth, 47, from Kentucky was charged with first degree criminal mischief and first-degree wanton endangerment.

The owner of the drone claims he was only trying to take pictures of a friend's house, when Merideth shot at the device, sending it crashing into a field near his yard last weekend.

My daughter comes in and says, 'Dad, there's a drone out here flying,' ' he told WDRD.

'I went and got my shotgun and I said, 'I'm not going to do anything unless it's directly over my property,' ' Mr. Merideth said, noting that the drone briefly disappeared when his daughter waved it off.

'Within a minute or so, here it came. It was hovering over top of my property, and I shot it out of the sky. I didn't shoot across the road, I didn't shoot across my neighbor's fences, I shot directly into the air.'

Story

What's privacy? Is that something they had in the olden days?

IMO:
F.U. is a responsible gun dealer, and conducts his business responsibly, with decorum, and follows the rules as required. Therefore, there is no problem with guns getting into the wrong hands that he is involved with.

Similarly, the same decorum and responsibility must apply to owning and operating drones. As a responsible drone owner/user, Six operates his drone responsibly, and with decorum, so no problem. While unfortunately many other drone users, not so much! There in lies he rub, drones in the wrong hands!

Case in point of irresponsible drone user! (In news today.)


A Delta pilot flying into JFK airport in New York spotted a drone off its right wing as it approached the runway, the Federal Aviation Administration said today.

The plane, an MD88 with five crew members and 154 customers on board, did not take evasive action and landed without incident, according to the FAA.

“About a mile back, there was a drone flying just on the southwest side,” the pilot tells Air Traffic Control, according to audio provided by LiveATC.net.

“At what altitude?” the controller asks.

“I’d say 100 feet below us, just off the right wing,” the pilot responds.

“JetBlue, use caution,” the controller then warns another plane. “The one that’s ahead of you reported a drone.”

Drones drop drugs in prison yard.

MANSFIELD – The package dropped by a drone at Mansfield Correctional Institution last week contained 144.5 grams of tobacco, 65.4 grams of marijuana, and 6.6 grams of heroin, according to JoEllen Smith, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction


link

^ That's kinda clever, actually. I'd never thought about how effectively drones could be used to carry out non-traceable crimes. Now that I'm thinking about it, it's a little disturbing.

If the convicts hadn't started fighting over the drop, I wonder if the prison officials would have even known about the contraband.

The linked article says that Amazon has plans to use drones for future deliveries. If it ain't the damned immigrants, it'll be the blasted non-humans taking our jobs!!

I'm reminded of Max Headroom for some reason. Downloading a conscious into a computer.

(08-04-2015, 12:21 PM)Maggot Wrote: MANSFIELD – The package dropped by a drone at Mansfield Correctional Institution last week contained 144.5 grams of tobacco, 65.4 grams of marijuana, and 6.6 grams of heroin, according to JoEllen Smith, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction

Good! I hope it happens a lot more and then maybe some decisions will be made regarding air space and drones. I don't want those fuckin' things hovering over my house and many other people share that opinion with me.

Drone video of surfers at Pismo beech oblivious of the 10ft shark swimming around below.

I've really enjoyed most, if not all, of the drone videos I've seen and I think they are a very cool piece of technology, my only issue with them lies in the personal space I've heard of them invading.

Attack of the Drones Vs the Audi, think I'll get an Audi!

An eagle took out a drone. Hehehe. The eagle is fine, the drone, not so much -

I've never noticed one out hovering around. I'm looking forward to watching some of those videos (later...gotta go).

However the stupid things are interfering with the efforts to fight fires out here. Plus I've heard they're being spotted near arriving/departing airplanes (at airports) etc. Fuck that. I already have a fear of a goose flying in to the engine or something; I don't want to have to worry about an idiot operating a drone. I think they need to be regulated.

Phelan, California (CNN)Of all the elements they must battle in a wildfire, firefighters face a new foe: drones operated by enthusiasts who presumably take close-up video of the disaster.

Five such "unmanned aircraft systems" prevented California firefighters from dispatching helicopters with water buckets for up to 20 minutes over a wildfire that roared Friday onto a Los Angeles area freeway that leads to Las Vegas.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/18/us/califor...eway-fire/

I wonder if there is a way to jam the frequency of the drone. Militarily it would be a disaster.

(08-13-2015, 01:35 PM)Maggot Wrote: I wonder if there is a way to jam the frequency of the drone. Militarily it would be a disaster.

Of course there is. They are controlled by a simple (sortof) radio link between the transmitter on the ground operated by the pilot and the receiver on the aircraft.
A transmitter on the ground with a Beam type antenna (Yagi) with a power level higher than the pilots trans could easily kill control. Now all that said that doesn't mean it will crash or die. Mine has a pretty good flight controller on it, if something happens to the active control: Jamming, transmitter dies, any kind of interference for more than 10 seconds It will immediately rise to 20 meters and return to where it took off from and land itself.

Keep in mind that the transmitter and receiver are "bound" together. That keeps the smartass next door from trying to steal your control over your bird.

That's interesting.

I think they should easily killable or out right banned from private ownership. They're not a neccesity and they and they can cause a world of problems.

Similarly I don't think semi automatic weapons are a necessity though either.