The Media War on Drones

Myself ^ | 8/18/2015 | Megan C

[MeganC]

The last few weeks I've noticed a new fad or trend in the media and that's reporting on the 'dangers' of so-called drones (which are actually just RC helicopters).

In each case there's been some sort of breathtaking disaster that *almost* happened or else a disaster was blamed on a drone. Like the fire in California that burned so fast it overtook traffic on an Interstate highway and a bunch of cars were burned. So the fire burned so fast that cars going 70mph couldn't get away but someone had the time to unpack, set up, and fly a drone to video record the disaster. And fire department helicopters couldn't help anyone because of the drone.

Uh-huh.

But in this age of You Tube narcissism has anyone seen the video that was taken? Where is it?

And then there's the stories out of New York City of airliners NEARLY CRASHING!!! because of drones flying near them on approach to an airport. And, once again, there's no video, no radar track showing the drone, just an audio recording that breathlessly tells of a 'near disaster'.

Add to this the myriad stories of non-stories that include someone LEGALLY flying a drone and some nitwit shooting at it or calling 911 to report a non-crime.

And this all got started in the media in just the past few weeks.

To me this sounds an awful lot like something we've seen before, "Journolist". It just seems too coordinated for so many stories to suddenly appear on this topic.

So maybe it's just a media fad. Maybe it's something else.

[Crazieman]

An RC quadcopter less than a foot across is called a drone.

Conflating in the consumer’s mind an equivalence to say a full sized, hellfire toting predator drone.

[ladyellen]

Even Drudge seems to have a steady stream of anti-”drone” articles up quite frequently. Never any of the positive stories.

[Paladin2]

Aren’t most of the LSM themselves drones?

[familyop]

The war against renegade toy aircraft with spy cameras will be going well shortly.

My Homemade 40W LASER SHOTGUN!!!!!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3297960/posts

[Excellence]

At the speeds a helicopter or small plane travel, much less a jet, a drone hitting the windshield would be like someone dropping a boulder from an overpass while you drive underneath at highway speeds. Never mind a drone smashing into a control surface. All drones are to pilots are flying rocks.
And do you really expect people to drive through fire? Of course they’re going to stop, and everyone behind them would stop. That fire was traveling through drought-parched vegetation, push by the high wind that is so common in the Cajon Pass.

[TChad]

The war against renegade toy aircraft with spy cameras will be going well shortly.

That just might do the job, but it would help to be able to lock the beam onto the moving target.

[familyop]

"That just might do the job, but it would help to be able to lock the beam onto the moving target."

That's a good consideration, and the small equipment to do so could be cheap. Correspondence courses in robotics should still be available for anyone interested.

[JPX2011]

I live in San Bernardino County. I'm also a licensed pilot. I can tell you that the aerial firefighting efforts for the Lake fire in the Big Bear area were impeded by recreational drones. The entire fleet was grounded for several hours. There is a reason why there was a temporary flight restriction imposed on that area. Something your average jerkoff quad copter hobbyist knows nothing about.

Same goes for the fire on the I-15. Requiring several tankers to abort their runs and dump their foscheck loads in order to land. This is not a journolist-inspired media conspiracy. But a legitimate threat to public safety.

If you've ever piloted or flown in a small aircraft you know that an aircraft of similar size just a mile ahead of you looks to be about the size of a bird. Good luck keeping a constant visual on it. God knows if a pilot can even see a drone that isn't following any standard traffic patterns or semblance of communication.

[MeganC]

“God knows if a pilot can even see a drone that isn’t following any standard traffic patterns or semblance of communication.”

That’s kind of on my point here. I keep hearing about how these pilots are getting crystal clear views of these supposed drones when they’re passing them at 200 knots and simultaneously looking at their instruments in preparation for landing or approach to a target.

Too many of these stories don’t match up with the reality that you observed here! Like at the I-15 “North” fire - it was so smoky and it was also VERY windy and that kind of wind makes it impossible for garden variety quadrocopters (like the popular Phantom) to operate. The very conditions that make wildfires uncontrollable also make them inhospitable to the operation of consumer varieties of quadrocopters .

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/06/flying-and-crashing-a-1300-quadcopter-drone/

That’s what I mean when I say these stories are not making sense. There’s a lot of reports, sure, but so far I am not seeing a lot of evidence. Correction: I am not seeing ANY evidence to support this sudden storm of anti-drone stories.