BAN ALL DRONES! - Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune

All this remind's me of back in the day when it was required to have AMA (AMERICAN MODEL ASSOS.) insurance to fly at a local public field. usually when we went flying you were lucky to have someone else there to help pick up the pieces. :gig:

 

I don't know about private airport, but for a public airport a notification to the airport manager is recommended.

 

OK, I'll ask myself

 

Let us know what the two of you work out...

 

Another solution would be for us to push for restrictive drone regulation that would result in it being cost prohibitive for anyone to even own a drone... kinda what the gov did to general aviation.

 

What airplane is your avitar?

Thanks,


BJC

 

That would be a Pietenpol!! Love that plane...

 

He is to darn hard headed to talk too. Never could get along with him.

 

Reminds me of Pippy and Pappy in the movie Bubble Boy.

It is stupid funny but I like it nonetheless.

 

I can relate to the 3 stooges.

Couple evening ago as I hand launched my RC model, I slipped in the wet grass and mud, feet went up and my head down, rolled in the water and mud. Looked up to see what happen to the model, it was climbing out at a steep angle and going somewhere fast. Then started looking for the transmitter I had in my hand before I fell. Found it and got the model to do a 180 turn. Got up and looked around to see if anyone was laughing. No one around except me. Thank God. I think I felt like Moe. This was in my front yard and after the flight I had to go in the house and get cleaned up. Flying models is tough on an old man.

 

I have two framed pieces of art in my shop... one is a large photo of the Three Stooges (I met Moe at a drive-in in the 1960's in Wexford PA) and the other is a large velvet Elvis I bought in Tijuana Mexico in the 1970's... that pretty much sums up my view of politics and entertainment...

 

At that time I was living in Monaca , PA. Short distance away.

 

It's amazing how fast those darned things misbehave as soon as you stop watching them. I usually walk backwards to get into better position to observe my models while flying and I haven't tripped or fallen down yet. One day while repositioning I felt a sharp stabbing pain in the back of my leg. I immediately landed my plane and looked down to see a nice chunk of cholla hanging on my calf. I now carry needle nose pliers in my pocket. And don't try to swat those things off with the back of your hand.......hurts really bad when pulling it out of your skin.

 

People think I'm crazy when I tell them this... but I have been attacked several times by the desert jumping cactus in the Anza-Borrego desert... walk next to those little devils and wham... right into your feet and calves... picking out needles for days.

 

http://corporate.jd.com/whatIsNewDetail?contentCode=6IhXLeeSAFLjLLlyuZatDA==

>1000 kg ?!

 

Explain to me how a dead person can feel insulted. Explain to me how the dead can feel anything... at all.

This should be rich.

Saying that people who shoot guns out of airplanes and drop bombs out of airplanes are more of a threat to public safety than people flying toys in their backyard or at an RC recreational event is not political commentary, it's a common sense argument. I know, my ancestors shot guns out of airplanes and dropped bombs. They were definitely a threat to public safety. Maybe it's something that needs to be regulated more, if you are going to regulate anything at all?

I'm just saying if you want flying things to kill less people and improve public safety, maybe you need to be pointing the finger more at those flying planes and using them to purposely kill people. On purpose. Usually, lots of people, indiscriminately.

Still not political, because I'm not naming names or countries...

Drones will be a serious threat some day, I am sure of it, but at the moment civilian drones... and I stress civilian... aren't even a spec in the statistics of people hurt by flying machines. You could ban them 100% right now and it wouldn't stop... the other guys shooting guns and throwing bombs out of airplanes. Unless you're over a completely uninhabited area, throwing anything out of a flying airplane or firing a gun out of one IRL should strike anyone as wildly irresponsible. I did it plenty inside a video game... but that was a video game. Other than some whiny little boys egos being bruised, which was quickly shrugged off by them because they had the attention span of a gnat, nobody was really hurt.

I don't even fly RC... :-/ I do question though these guys who fly bigger and bigger RC planes at shows... are they exceeding good judgement? Any one of those quarter scale planes with whirling props crashing into a little kid in the crowd as a spectator could kill them. Maybe some reasonable judgement should be employed not to fly these large scale aircraft before crowds of the public. I kind of feel the same about aerobatic airshows. Some onboard part flakes out and it could become like Nascar when the car jumps the barrier and plows into the bleachers full of people...

If you really want to nail drones to the wall right now as a danger to public safety, talk directly about the military ones... don't pretend they are invisible. Pass more little rules regulating... THOSE... if not outlawing them completely.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_combat_aerial_vehicle

I myself am against all rules... it's on you, use your head and your common sense, don't abrogate your freedom to decide everything for yourself by having someone else tell you what you can and can't do with pat little laws and rules. They are inflexible and fail to take into account every situation or human condition... human kind is a wild, crazy, diverse, and magnificent bunch made of star stuff.

If you must make rules, use them as if they were a guide or advice, not this set in stone inflexible ten commandments punish people if they disobey mentality. Punitive justice is an unmitigated disaster for a philosophy. Those that make rules die, and then their descendants are burdened with these rules that no longer serve them well, and then what you have is effectively the dead ruling over the living.

 

BJC

 

I can't disagree with your assessment, BJC, but petulant is the word that came to my mind.

Clearly ol' Chops is just trolling. I won't give him the satisfaction of responding to #496 since this isn't what HBA.com is about.

 

That would work. I had several others in mind, but, since I started the "Decorum on HBA" thread, I thought that it would be poor form to use them.


BJC

 

Are rules good? My grandfather fought in two world wars, unfortunately for the wrong side, looking back in history. Do I insult him if I say war is bad, and shooting each other is despicable? I don't think so. Was it his choice to fight? Definitely yes in WW1, not sure in WW2. I know he didn't join the NSDAP, but he joined the army again. I think things in Germany went so bad because no one dared to question the rules, even when they became really extreme and discriminating. It started with an exaggerated sense of patriotism, of duty and loyalty. Later probably it was mostly fear of Gestapo, SS, SA, whatever else. That's why it made me very uneasy when I lived in the USA every time I saw all this flag waving on certain holidays, like "we are the greatest country on earth", and now all this spying on everybody, like in Orwell's 1984. And when you speak out, you are hunted down. However, I feel in U.S., U.K. and Australia people would stand up if things went too far, whereas in some other countries, they may not. One common symptom is there is always a scapegoat to justify all these regulations. One thing to keep in mind is all the terrorist actions are always the action of very few extreme minds, often the worst ones are homegrown.
However, it's also laziness and lack of a sense of responsibility that leads to bad things. It's always easier to look away then to take a stand. It's like these people that hit someone with their car and then drive off, these kind of characters need rules to punish them. Anyway, all these thousands of road fatalities still happen with all the rules in place, and it's almost always human error or irresponsible behaviour, which needs rules.

With regards to RC flying, this is also true. We have a guy in the club who's very capable but also reckless. On last years Open Day he pushed his 18kg F16 to the point where one wing folded up, the hot turbine set the whole thing on fire on impact and he nearly caused a bush fire.

The new information technology, including drone tech, is currently merging with manned transport on the ground and in the air, as common sense demands, and it will greatly reduce this chaos. There are always people, also on this forum, who apparently think these new driving or flying machines will/should never succeed because they won't fit in current regulations and take certain freedoms away. Quite an irony, because these people ignore all potential benefits and would not be flying today if the Wright Brothers and other pioneers of flight had had this mindset. Of course one needs to ask the critical questions, but it's important to always move forward, not cling to and glorify only old or status quo stuff, but this is easier said then done...

BTW, MCrae, I think chopper girl really is a girl, the " Other than some whiny little boys egos being bruised, which was quickly shrugged off by them because they had the attention span of a gnat" is a giveaway...