Posted on 04/26/2014 6:36:57 AM PDT by servantboy777
MCSO DRONE CRASHES INTO LAKE CONROE Friday morning, during training exercises with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Drone, something went wrong and it crashed into Lake Conroe. Divers from the Montgomery County Precinct 1 Dive Team spent much of the day searching the bottom of Lake Conroe for the almost $300,000 drone helicopter.
The drone which was purchased by Montgomery County in 2011 was almost entirely funded by Homeland Security Grants which were specifically designated for the purchase of drones.
Yea...protect and serve.
Looks more like assault and destroy.
>>Is that why they need speed traps and such in order to collect money and buy toys such as this? Ridiculous.<<
No..you missed that the drone was a $300k grant from the feds.
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Drones are nice in that they can put eyes in the sky and give the operator the tactical picture on the ground. However, things can and do go wrong. The operator can screw up or the electronics fail and the drone will crash. That is a hazard that any radio control aircraft operator faces. Yes, the MCSO found it is expensive to lose a drone, but it is cheaper than a manned platform.
These copters come in either electric or gas engine types and range from palm-sized micro copters to large, multi-channel birds. The larger and more complex your copter is, the more expensive it is, and also more difficult to fly. Whoever the deputy is that gets the job of drone operator, he or she had better practice and gain RC experience with the smaller, cheaper, and simpler helicopters before graduating to $300,000 specimens. It's the only way the county will ever get any use from its expensive tech toys.
>>Yes, the MCSO found it is expensive to lose a drone<<
This is the 2nd drone they’ve crashed...at $300k a pop. Now a few grand in repairs...provided they find it.
Since this was a DHS grant...the rest of y’all good hard workin Americans helped us pay for them.
D) Made in China.
Gremlins i say, size makes no difference, they get into everything.
Nice to know high tech still has a common fault.
Human input.
I guess my whole rub is that the sheriffs office is taking money from the feds. When you receive anything from uncle sugar...there are strings attached.
Looking at the pictures of the swat guys in front of the armored vehicle with military grade equipment and weaponry, just looks like trouble.
What in sam hell are they anticipating? Folks see this sort of stuff and they in turn run out and purchase a couple thousands rounds of ammo, AR-15/multiple mags, red dot sites and network with other folks that are just as frightened by the show of force.
Juss sayin.
Maybe the third one will be the charm. Besides, it’s government money, so it’s not like it cost anyone anything. What’s almost a million dollars anyway? /s
After crashing two $300,000 drones, even DHS will question the ability of the MCSO deputies to fly them and they won’t dole out any more replacements. Bureaucrats don’t like such blatant and public waste of tax dollars that’s so obvious to all. Why? Because it negatively impacts the DHS bureaucrats’ PR image and makes them look stupid.
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