Drones

Moose · #1 (**permalink**) 12-10-2012, 12:54 PM

A friend called me today to tell me he saw the fire earlier today in Somerset at a strip-mall on Hamilton St. He said he saw a drone flying over the fire scene. Said it appeared to be operated by an outfit called SkyVue. Anyone know about this? Were they there surveying the fire for the FD or was it part of a news outfit?

~~kb2vxa~~ · #2 (**permalink**) 12-10-2012, 4:43 PM

SkyVue makes videography equipment but has nothing to do with drones. As a matter of fact the FAA hasn't approved them, your friend probably saw a news helicopter. FYI the Welsh Farms store at the far left end of the strip mall was completely destroyed and the fire wall protected the rest.

Moose · #3 (**permalink**) 12-11-2012, 4:50 AM

Hey Warren, glad you made it through the storm. If you mean news helicopter as in the standard size helicopter, no. This was a remote controlled hover type drone. From the picture he sent me it looks to be slightly larger than a basketball.

Skypilot007 · #4 (**permalink**) 12-11-2012, 9:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moose

Hey Warren, glad you made it through the storm. If you mean news helicopter as in the standard size helicopter, no. This was a remote controlled hover type drone. From the picture he sent me it looks to be slightly larger than a basketball.

Post up the pic....lets see it.

~~kb2vxa~~ · #5 (**permalink**) 12-11-2012, 11:09 AM

It's impossible to determine scale without a point of reference but I'd still like to see what that UFO looked like.

W2SJW · #6 (**permalink**) 12-11-2012, 3:44 PM

Here you go:

It's called a BlackMagic heli-cam.

~~kb2vxa~~ · #7 (**permalink**) 12-11-2012, 6:03 PM

Thanks Scott, Bruce PMed me and said he'd post his tomorrow so we'll see if it's the same type.

wingmaker · #8 (**permalink**) 12-11-2012, 6:51 PM

Someone say UFO

Wow that is pretty cool though. LOVE AND BLESSINGS

Moose · #9 (**permalink**) 12-12-2012, 5:45 AM

Ok guys, here's the pictures.......

KB7MIB · #10 (**permalink**) 12-12-2012, 6:00 AM

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; U; en-US) Gecko/20081217 Vision-Browser/8.1 301x200 LG VN530)

That's the BlackMagic Helicam that W2SJW posted a pic of 3 comments above yours

It looks like it'd be a fun toy to play with lol

Moose · #11 (**permalink**) 12-12-2012, 8:32 AM

I'm sure there are a lot of police departments that would love to get their hands on one. I imagine in the future... a call comes into police headquarters about a situation and there are no officers available at that moment to respond. The desk officer then programs the location into the onboard GPS and the drone lifts off and heads to the scene and immediately begins to feed video back to headquarters and to video screens in patrol cars. There could be a built-in PA system where the desk officer can broadcast a message to the effect that police are on their way. I believe they have already been used in some countries to monitor and photgraph large groups of people engaged in protests.

a388sig2 · #12 (**permalink**) 12-12-2012, 8:38 AM

Was it SkyCamUSA's hexacopter?

fxdscon · #13 (**permalink**) 12-12-2012, 8:43 AM

Those have been around for a while, and are pretty amazing machines:

The Hexacopter: Awesome flying machine. [VIDEO]

hexacopter - YouTube

902 · #14 (**permalink**) 12-12-2012, 9:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moose

I'm sure there are a lot of police departments that would love to get their hands on one. I imagine in the future... a call comes into police headquarters about a situation and there are no officers available at that moment to respond. The desk officer then programs the location into the onboard GPS and the drone lifts off and heads to the scene and immediately begins to feed video back to headquarters and to video screens in patrol cars. There could be a built-in PA system where the desk officer can broadcast a message to the effect that police are on their way. I believe they have already been used in some countries to monitor and photgraph large groups of people engaged in protests.

Nifty to be sure, and I can see it giving situational awareness to an incident commander, but imagine in the future the building inspector or tax assessor has one of these and steers it above people's back yards looking for violations and things that could raise their property taxes. Cut your tree down? Did you get a permit to remove it? Did you hire a licensed contractor ('cause the tree guys gave to the councilmen's campaigns and now the ordinances say you're not allowed to do it yourself)? With how towns are these days, they'd consider it a means of collecting more revenue and it would be encouraged. One worse than that - the doozlebirds on the subdivision board get one because the geezer with the clipboard who drove around in his Cadillac writing people up for having boats in their yard or antennas on their house died. Their use is not regulated and that pretty much means anyone can do whatever they'd like with them until a judge says they can't. I'm not sure I weigh in on the side of using these things.

I'm pro-law enforcement and would prefer one of these things in a hazardous environment over putting officers or firefighters into harm's way, but for any other time, our legislators need to look at this issue and people's privacy. No way I think we should be using these to justify less cops on the street or boosting revenue because of poor municipal planning/budgeting (think red light cameras, more or less the same issue). I used to be an early adopter of technology, but the older I get, the more convinced I am that technology is not our friend.

Skypilot007 · #15 (**permalink**) 12-12-2012, 11:16 AM

If I saw one of them hovering over my house the rifle would be coming out.

fourthhorseman · #16 (**permalink**) 12-12-2012, 11:43 AM

sure enough youll get a bill from the city for destroying it...lol...still...may be worth it!

~~kb2vxa~~ · #17 (**permalink**) 12-12-2012, 6:10 PM

Yup, that's the one in Scott's photo for sure, turns out he was right. Methinks it was at the fire scene as part of News 12's ENG taking aerial video, flight control being in the SkyVue truck. If you've ever seen the inside of an ENG truck you'd see nowhere to put anything more.

I can see a practical use for law enforcement, in limited instances it is far less expensive than an air unit to operate. I say limited because of limited operational range, the ground operator would have to be close by plus it only has a daylight camera or FLIR, not both due to weight restrictions. No way a Night Sun can even be considered. Still like robots already in use it has a practical application.

e911god · #18 (**permalink**) 12-12-2012, 6:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skypilot007

If I saw one of them hovering over my house the rifle would be coming out.

LMAO !

I could imagine that thing flying around Newark....they already took pop shots at the red light cams !

a388sig2 · #19 (**permalink**) 12-12-2012, 6:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by e911god

LMAO !

I could imagine that thing flying around Newark....they already took pop shots at the red light cams !

People shoot at the red light cameras? That's outstanding!

KB7MIB · #20 (**permalink**) 12-13-2012, 4:43 AM

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; U; en-US) Gecko/20081217 Vision-Browser/8.1 301x200 LG VN530)

A guy here in AZ was arrested for murder when he took a pot shot at a speed camera mounted in an occupied vehicle and killed the operator in the vehicle

so no, it's not awesome. Any stray round can kill an innocent bystander a long ways downrange.