Posted on 11/24/2007 1:02:06 PM PST by stevie_d_64
Stealth technology must not be a part of this particular unmanned aircraft. ; )
They are not the first cop shop to look at these and will not be the first to get shut down. They CAN NOT operate it legally as currently defined by the FAA since it can not see and avoid other traffic like helos and light planes.
PR stunt and nothing more.
They can not operate this legally, even in uncontrolled airspace since it can not “see and avoid”. It also lacks lighting requried for night time operation. Its a threat to helos and light airplanes. Other police interest in them has been shut down for just that reason.
For now, they are not going to happen.
Depending on the UAV, it either continues its preplanned route or goes to command lost state. The latter tends to be climb and cirlce until the link is re established. Note that the current command frequencies are not authroized for police use in this country.
This is showboating. Other attempts to do this by police have been rightly “shot down” by the FAA.
The Predator can be operated....but I am guess this is a cheap UAV
The Department of Homeland Security will have a say so in how these operations, and the data collected will not have any significant oversight because of the ability to classify beyond the local governments ability to provide said oversight...For what that could be worth (not much anyway)...
So why give them the ability to do so???
The Federal government has never given a rats about local Law Enforcements air surveilance and support operations before all of this nifty neato technology that ohhhh, and ahhhhs all the local nitwits into thinking this could really solve a lot of problems...
Until recently...When the idea of having state of the art technology, war proven operations techniques, that bring HOME the kind of surveilance that once needed significant local government oversight, budgeting and operational transparency...This goes way beyond what is effective (for what thats worth) right in your own backyard!
So why do I need to say this is a pandora’s box that needs to stay shut, and not let that jeanie out of the bottle!
It doesn’t need to be brought to our homes!
Did you look at the “Intuit” companies website at the “news” tab???
They have had seminars to “instruct” (not asking, telling) the FAA how to work with these UAV flying around in their airspace...
THe FAA has already been told to shut up and accept this “new” thing, and find ways to wrap around the idea...
So dig a little deeper, and you’ll find out who’s pulling those strings and legs and other apendages, and what funds that sideshow...
Its going to get where circling the wagons would be a bad thing to do once this gets into full swing...
Oh well...Not like we’ll be able to fight it anymore...geesh...
Only by the military and Homeland Defense and only in airspace they control.
There has been some interet in using them along the southern border, but that is a Federal use, and the Federal gov can control the airspace (NOTAMS, Restricted areas...). Cities can not.
Currently the FAA is gathering information about how the military UAVs work and is trying to find a way to work them into the civilian airspace. groups like AUVSI that are working the issue effectively, not some 3rd tier UAV supplier out of the 100s that are out there. Right now, even the FAA is clear that there is no readily apparent solution out there. This has been in work for years, with no closure date on the horizon.
I work with UAVs, and civilian LEO use is far from a done deal. At least one other cop shop has given up on them due to the difficulties in getting them certified for use in the current airspace system.
As for the rest of your comments...
Its Insitu, not Intuit, the later makes Quicken and Turbo Tax
The press release you refer to is almost funny. They got a couple of the inspectors to take their operator course for familiarization. Those are not the people who make policy or provide certification. Inspectors are the grunts of the FAA. They also do not control airspace use. That happens at the national level with lots of other players, including airlines, and commercial/general aviation.
The answer may lay in electronics, mandatory transponders and such. Also the control consoles will need to have considerably more situational detail to protect other users from UAVs. Its going to be a while coming.
Patrol cars are roughly equivalent to any other motorist in where they can go and what is visible to the operator(driver);aircraft give the ability to look(spy) on areas not normally considered to be public,i.e. the backyard,inside fences enclosures,and areas distant from the public roardways.
Under one ruling ,as long as the police maintain 500 feet above ground level,anything they spot is considered to be in public view.Binoculars and image stabilized camcorders bring that distance down to arms' length.
I know;"if you've got nothing to hide,etc."
Just YOU try flying your spy in the sky over Teddy Kennedy's compound or G>w> Bush's ranch and see what happens.
All animals are equal;some are more equal.
HPD has some new toys. Somehow I don’t feel one iota safer.
Montalvo told reporters the unmanned aircraft would be used for "mobility" or traffic issues, evacuations during storms, homeland security, search and rescue, and also "tactical." She admitted that could include covert police actions and she said she was not ruling out someday using the drones for writing traffic tickets.
Why can’t they use some of that $60million to test the ranks of HPD for steroid use?
I keep hearing how bad they are and those officers don’t appear to be healthy but they sure are beefed up.
Wouldn’t want to encounter an officer undergoing ‘roid rage.
How about just giving a Christmas bonus to the tax payers?
You sure Eaker didn’t buy hisself an early xmas present to recon his own neighborhood with ?
Me either.
Ohhhh, good one!
Thats the “peeling the corner of the envelope” syndrome...;-)
The local Texas Air National Guard wing (the 147th) thats been here since dirt, lost its bid to stay at Ellington field to cover the gulf coast and the petrochem industry right next door...
We no will have them deployed to San Antonio or some other fall back that doesn’t make sense at all...BUT!
We will replace the F-16 manned aircraft with....wait for it...
Predator drones that can be used (for what, they have not said as a replacement for the F-16’s) but it has been said by Govenor “Good Hair” Rick Perry that they can be used to “monitor” the border...
Now...Monitoring is fine...We’ve been doing that for years...To varying degrees of failure and success...You still going to have to have boots on the ground to handle the failures of the “vitual fence” the freakshow is talking about these days...
But to have to fly (or deploy) them out of Houston is fairly logistically stupid...
But then again I have not been asked (or been paid any kickbacks to rah rah this idea) to evaluate this particular aspect of the project...Or anyone I know.../sarc
Maybe they can be protected better up here away from the drug cartels and mexican military from having to be stowed for any length of time down closer to the border...(this maybe why)
But anyway, these Intuit drones are strictly urban eyes in the sky...They cannot be weaponized very well, nor would I in my wildest hallucinations think that could really work well...They are small and telling the FAA to sign-off on these systems has met some resistance, but that is only as good as the FAA can hold its ground...I seriously doubt the FAA is going to say no much longer...The movement, meeting and seminars to get them to at least “try” (the first step in how the government gets its own to change their organizations major policies) to find a way to work with these neato mosquito aerial drone systems...
You know...I’m looking to find a way to modify an “AirHog” R/C helicopter to maybe fly above 100 ft or so...They are pretty cheap...;-) I’m such a stinker!!! It would probably only be a bug on a windshield type encounter, but it may smudge the lenses...hehehe
Shhhhh, using Eaker and recon in the same sentence is dangerous!!!
hehehe
Besides his hand/eye coordination stinks outside of sitting behind a buttstock and a scope...
(Steve runs for effective cover! hehehe)
Yep, I was thinking about taxes and got locked on the name by mistake...Muh bad...Intuit, Insitu...uggg...
But when you state that the FAA is mearly gathering information about how it is working in an entirely different realm of airspace and its controlled environment...Not a lot of civilian traffic in Iraq or Afganistan...Its pretty much all military, and handled as such, even if there are civilians (and possibly non-military cargo) aboard those flights...
Like I said in some of the posts above, the FAA is getting chipped away at by this industry, on a lot of different levels...You are right, it is only a matter of time...
Whether it is a premier UAV company or a smaller market start up organization, doesn’t make much difference...Everyone wants to niche out a piece of the pie here...And thats capitalism at its finest...I have no quarrel with that...
Just because one “cop shop” has given up on them tealls me that the effort is just not at the government level...
Somebody is putting the bug in certain people that this is a fabulous idea...And the mnore they keep pounding this into peoples thick skulls of mush, the more chances they will get to try and sell the idea...
I appreciate your inside knowledge and correcting me on some points...No skin off my back at all...
Question though...Lost signal protocols seem to have an industry standard flight profile that forces them to gain altitude and orbit to re-aquire the control signal(s) inputs...
I assume that that program can be adjusted to work withing the FAA guidelines around their airspace???
Which means the control signals would have to be trunked through other transmitting sites arouns the country right???
Succeptable to interception and spoofing??? Possibly???
Just curious...
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