Drones: love 'em or hate 'em ...

[arthurking83]

In general, I hate drones. Just the name conjures up thoughts of evil forces of the future .. kind'a thing!

But when the idea/tech was new, it was interesting.
Then they were everywhere, and banality, unoriginality, me too syndrome .. and all round annoyance generally set it.

BUT! .. when they reinvent ways to use some invention in interesting ways .. I'll like the invention again!

ps. I love the idea of drones again(until some other idiot comes along and copies this video I'm linking too )



Note: I'm not all that interested in drones myself, so don't really gravitate towards drone related news/articles. So I'm not sure if this is a new idea in itself, or not. It's simply done brilliantly tho!

[Gazza]

A good find -
Thanks for putting it up so we could all see and enjoy. By far the best use of a drone yet



Cheers ...

[ktoopi]

WOW!

[feathers]

Close encounters of the drone kind:

[Glenda]

That's awesome - thanks for sharing.

[mikew09]

That is just simply amazing - I had to watch it a number of times

[tandeejay]

Stunning! You'd hate to get some interference that screwed up your communication with your drones. They were all being very tightly controlled by the computer systems on the ground knowing precisely where each drone was, so if you lost contact with one drone, it could create a disaster

[I @ M]

Thanks for that AK, brilliant bit of tech stuff.

[Steve Axford]

Very cool.

[MissionMan]

I think where this is going to be incredible is the movement to passenger capacity drones. There is a company in china who are already taking orders for a $300K drone that will take a passenger 100km's, no pilots license required.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vGd1Oy7Cw0

They are apparently safer than helicopters because they can still land with one prop although its a spinning bumpy landing but thats still better than a crash where you die. (obviously there are autorotations in helicopters but not every situation will allow for them)

[Colonel]

Thanks for sharing. All that time I was hoping they would play the iconic melody from Close Encounters of the Third Kind!

[ricktas]

It reminded me of the kinetic light sculpture

[Liney]

Fantastic images, the things that some people can do with the technology is amazing. I don't have any problems with drones, but what I do have a problem with is the fact that any muppet with enough cash can buy one and fly it....

[arthurking83]

Fantastic images, the things that some people can do with the technology is amazing. I don't have any problems with drones, but what I do have a problem with is the fact that any muppet with enough cash can buy one and fly it....

.. similar concerns to mine.
And what that usually means(and no disrespect to those sensible types that can afford them!!) .. is that inevitably those muppets abuse the freedom of such an interest!

Remember the doofuses that couldn't resist the urge to fly their drones into a (bush)fire zone (I think) out in Eastern Victoria .. not too long ago!
With helicopters trying to come in to waterbomb the area, it made for a possible dangerous situation.
Whether it was dangerous or not isn't the point .. the possibility of some incident unfolding when the conditions are already dangerous is the point here.

People just can't help themselves due to indefatigable selfishness! The unrelenting need to serve one's own interest seems to be the force majeure of the world today!
Forget about cataclysmic earthquakes, avalanches, tsunamis or global warming as the issues for 'end of the world' events .. human stupidity is surely going to kill off all life on Earth long before any other event will.

ps. apologies for the tirade, just saw an article on Petapixel (about the baby dolphin) that must surely rank as one of the worst instances of human(selfishness) behaviour ever!

So what the world really needs is another new toy for those selfish types to allow them to wreak havoc on the world!

[Liney]

With helicopters trying to come in to waterbomb the area, it made for a possible dangerous situation.
Whether it was dangerous or not isn't the point .. the possibility of some incident unfolding when the conditions are already dangerous is the point here.

Agree. I spent many years in the aviation world, and the amount of effort that goes into ensuring that engines are bird strike resistant shows how seriously the natural air users are taken. With even helicopters travelliing at speeds measured in hundreds of km/h, even running into a little drone at that speed has the potential to cause significant damage which could result in the loss of the aircraft. Don't get me started on idiots flying drones into the approach pattern of airports....

I saw the same story on the dolphin selfies, just what sort of future generations have we unleashed on this world?

[arthurking83]

....

I saw the same story on the dolphin selfies, just what sort of future generations have we unleashed on this world?

my reply(and I assume many others replies) would be heavily censured(automagically) by the site's software!

[spootz01]

Remember the doofuses that couldn't resist the urge to fly their drones into a (bush)fire zone (I think) out in Eastern Victoria .. not too long ago!
With helicopters trying to come in to waterbomb the area, it made for a possible dangerous situation.

As a Firefighter, drones are our best friends and our worst enemies. There are plans in the works here in SA to implement drones as a way to conduct an initial assessment of a structure fire without actually sending in a firefighter to do the same thing (as we do now). The theory is that they will be controlled by operators in the Communications centre and can be on scene and making initial assessments prior to the first crew arriving.

The flip side to that is that if a drone is spotted on a fireground, all aircraft are grounded immediately which makes our job as boots on the ground that much harder. And that's just at bush fires. I've heard stories of drones overheating while flying over house fires and just dropping out of the sky. But I guess it's just another occupational hazard...

Cheers,

S.

[Mark L]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-1...nberra/7185202

As a Firefighter, drones are our best friends and our worst enemies.

I think they certainly have some advantages to get an initial visual sitreps. Quicker and cheaper than getting a manned aircraft in the air.
In N.S.W. there's been a couple of times all air opps were stopped at big fires because of a small mind with a small drone.