starcrafttom":303ha7p5 said:Well I took a look at the app again and its kind of a joke, or the rules are. My house sits at the cross road of 3 " airports" 5 mile ring. Two of the so called airports are PRIVATE HOMES that have helicopters. How some rich guys private runway that gets used twice a month in the summer rates as a do not fly zone at my house is beyond me. But how we have to be licensed , controlled and restricted to fly a Drone when for the last 50 years or more people have been flying radio controlled planes, choppers and gliders all over the whole country with out one accident involving a radio controlled object and a real plane is beyond me and common sense.
I hear ya Tom! I've been flying R/C aircraft and helicopters since the 1980s and my dad before me since the 1960s (in fact in the 1970s he and a friend built an early version of a "drone" which was a twin engine biplane rigged with a servo-actuated 35mm camera or a 8mm movie camera... I still have some of those B&W areal shots of the flying field, my dad may even still have the movie reels too).
Anyway, the big difference between those RC hobbyists of years past and the present day is that prior to about 15 years ago and the introduction of inexpensive micro electronics, better battery technology, and fly-anywhere "park flyers", the RC craft of yesteryear were almost exclusively flown at dedicated flying fields, where all pilots are required to have club memberships, demonstrate competence through some sort of training and solo program, and to purchase insurance through the AMA (Academy of Model Aeronautics), which has its own set of strict flying rules to ensure public safety. But, nowadays anyone can pick up a drone and fly it from anywhere or anything, and too many people have done so without any common sense or courtesy of others, thus ruining the fun for everyone and potentially threatening the entire hobby.
Personally I find the drones intriguing because I love taking photos on the water, but even though I'm an experience RC pilot, I'm still reluctant to consider flying one from a boat, knowing how easy it is to have a glitch of some sort or a failed battery send it crashing into the water, as seen in one example on Sam's video. But I keep looking at them and hope to try it someday before they are banned altogether!
-Mike