Quick drone video shot at my weekly local show

[yellowmxwheels23]

My car is seen top left at 1:58
http://youtu.be/nYLw4Vy4xR4

[ccurzio]

What did you use to shoot this?

I've been looking at possibly getting a Phantom 2 Vision, but I've heard one too many stories about them having a defect causing them to malfunction and fall out of the sky.

[Michael]

I have been an avid rc enthusiast for going on 20 years now. I see a very big liability problem using these park flyers over crowds. You could literally loose everything you own if it were to hit someone. There are a lot of people shooting video with these quad copters who couldn't even fly a 3 channel plane let alone a helicopter without the aid of gyros and stabilizers. At a 5k race I was running in, the videographer they hired thought it would be cool to buzz the crowd, little did he know those props spin around 1,500 to 2,000 RPM and that can rack up one hell of a hospital bill if it were to go wrong. The rig he was using weighed about 2 lbs, imagine the possible injury of a 2 lb brick falling on the crowd. These quads have no auto rotate capabilities and they certainly can't glide. Once something happens they fall like a rock.

The only place I fly is a model airport and I carry AMA (academy of model aeronautics) insurance which covers me, but only if injury happens at an AMA approved site. Even at an approved flying site, the cardinal sin is never never never fly over people.

To each his own, just be prepared for the consequences.

[yellowmxwheels23]

What did you use to shoot this?

I've been looking at possibly getting a Phantom 2 Vision, but I've heard one too many stories about them having a defect causing them to malfunction and fall out of the sky.

a DJI S800 Evo was used.
Here's a demo video shot around San Diego and Gordons well.


http://youtu.be/27BnPwrDSI4

[Rich_NYS]

I see a very big liability problem using these park flyers over crowds. You could literally loose everything you own if it were to hit someone.

I've thought the same thing...glad I'm not the only one. A friend of mine has one; something broke on it, so now when it gets to a certain height it flies out of control (or falls....don't remember which.)

I'd still like to get one 'cause I think they're really cool!

[Michael]

I've thought the same thing...glad I'm not the only one. A friend of mine has one; something broke on it, so now when it gets to a certain height it flies out of control (or falls....don't remember which.)

I'd still like to get one 'cause I think they're really cool!

Looking at my quote I see spell predict/correct got lose and loose mixed up.


I am still waiting for some idiot to fly on in the middle of a NASCAR race, knowing he is going to lose it, but think of the headlines of a stock car hitting a UAV at 180mph. What about a press conference, or a football game? I got into these things about 6 or 7 years ago before quad copters were even mainstream. We just affixed a camera to our RC place and used a 900mhz transmitter to give a live feed back to a home base and a pair of video goggles. I would fly the plane just as if I were sitting in the cockpit. The thing is that's a lot of electronics and if just one thing went bad I lost my video feed, and my plane would be way beyond vision limits, well you could just kiss the plane goodbye unless you had a return home feature and autopilot. That's great unless something went wrong with the plane, a battery failure, ESC, servo, radio problems, motor problems, the list goes on. Now multiply that by 4 to 8 motors, esc's, and all the gyros needed to keep a 4 to 8 bladed copter afloat. These setups were pretty pricey 7 years ago but now they are much easier to get.

I still say that it's just a matter of time before some dumbass flies one of these into Atlanta Motor Speedway.

[Jonathan]

Good point. On both the certainty of soon hearing of where one went down and flew into a car, kid, window, whatever... and also the "these are cool" part.

Someone had one above a homecoming show I was in a couple weeks ago and I didn't even realize it was up there. It got some great photos and no doubt many people (like myself) got thinking about where to use one. I live in a beach community and flying over the volleyball courts or a summer concert or whatever sounds like a great idea.

Until you see that they are only a couple hundred dollars now to buy and I'd imagine to make them cheaper to afford, they made the product cheaper too. I don't have a clue how to fly any of these things, but they won't ask you that at the check out counter so long as you have the money.

Remember the owner just a few weeks ago mentioning the tent blowing over at the car show and damaging another owner's car? These helicopter camera things flying into someone or something unexpected will overshadow that story pretty quick.

I'd imagine this will get changed only after a huge problem somewhere that forces the laws to change. Like it is with putting a 4-way stop in at a busy intersection only after some kid gets killed. Or that fumbling with your phone/camera while driving is just as dangerous as driving when drunk...

[Spittybug]

Not illegal to carry a bb gun and that's all it takes to have a little fun..............

[Timebender]

Is that yours and was that the one I saw at the show about maybe 6 weeks ago or so? Big octocopter?

[mluder]

The FAA has some new and pretty restrictive rules for UAVs. For one, I don't believe you are allowed to fly in or over an area where there are people.