Drones

This may be of interest to folks located in the SF Bay Area: Glider pilots have a special interest in unmanned flight as we can be very difficult to "see and Avoid" by a drone... But I want a few hundred myself to locate thermals for me :-)

http://www.vlab.org/article.html?aid=463

http://www.vlab.org/article.html?aid=463

Following this link for a ways I discovered the amazing fact that you
can now purchase a complete
8 channel, GPS guided auto-pilot capable of landing, takeoff and
multiple pre-programmed waypoint flying for only $179.
This includes gyro, GPS, digital compass, accelerometer and high
performance barometric altimeter.
The software has been developed as a labor of love and is available
for free!
Not only that but the system is capable of controlling fixed wing,
rotary wing, multicopter, hovercraft and boats!
I can't imagine what could be done with this (peaceful uses only) but
it should spur some wild ideas.

http://store.diydrones.com/APM_2_5_A...r-apmpwrkt.htm

On 2/26/2013 11:28 AM, soartech wrote:

http://www.vlab.org/article.html?aid=463

Following this link for a ways I discovered the amazing fact that you
can now purchase a complete
8 channel, GPS guided auto-pilot capable of landing, takeoff and
multiple pre-programmed waypoint flying for only $179.
This includes gyro, GPS, digital compass, accelerometer and high
performance barometric altimeter.
The software has been developed as a labor of love and is available
for free!
Not only that but the system is capable of controlling fixed wing,
rotary wing, multicopter, hovercraft and boats!
I can't imagine what could be done with this (peaceful uses only) but
it should spur some wild ideas.

http://store.diydrones.com/APM_2_5_A...r-apmpwrkt.htm


Since RAS "membership" seems to contain a high proportion of technophiles,
I'll note an obvious technology-driven trend that - at the very least - will
be "interesting" to watch develop over time.

The trend is claims upon airspace "because we technologically can (play up
there)." Yeah, there's gonna be a lot of additional airspace user wannabes in
the (very near) future. Am I the only one to note the irony that "drones" will
be a huge part of the coming societal distress?

Bob - winter can't end soon enough - W.

As I understand it non-military drones are legally limited to less than 400 feet AGL and they must be within sight of the operator.

Those are of course unenforceable rules.

I'm not looking forward to the day when some cranky person mistakes a glider for a drone and tries to dispatch it with his "goose gun".

On Feb 26, 8:11*pm, son_of_flubber wrote:
As I understand it non-military drones are legally limited to less than 400 feet AGL and they must be within sight of the operator.

Those are of course unenforceable rules.

I'm not looking forward to the day when some cranky person mistakes a glider for a drone and tries to dispatch it with his "goose gun".

Apparently being shot while flying does happen. From a recent AOPA
news report:
A romantic flight over Jacksonville, Fla., on New Year’s Eve took a
bizarre turn when pilot Graham Hill realized that he had been shot,
reports AvWeb. He handed over the controls to his girlfriend while he
tended to his wound, and they made an emergency landing at Craig Field.