The prospective Amazon Delivery Drone certainly is. . .
Posted on 09/01/2016 9:57:26 AM PDT by Impala64ssa
"It came over my airspace, 25 or 30 feet above my trees, and hovered for a second. I blasted it to smithereens."
A woman in Virginia shot down a drone flying near her property in June of this year. It's at least the third time this has happened in the U.S., with previous incidents in Kentucky and Tennessee.
Originally reported in the local Fauquier Times and subsequently covered by Ars Technica, the shooter was Jennifer Youngman, a neighbor to actor and director Robert Duvall. She had been cleaning her shotguns on the porch when two men stopped on a nearby road and started flying a drone around the general vicinity. Youngman left the drone alone while it flew around nearby fields, but prepared to take it down and ultimately did when it flew over her land.
As she told Ars Technica:
I loaded my shotgun and took the safety off, and this thing came flying over my trees. I don't know if they lost command or if they didn't have good command, but the wind had picked up. It came over my airspace, 25 or 30 feet above my trees, and hovered for a second. I blasted it to smithereens.
Shooting down drones is a bit of a legal gray area in the United States at the moment. Opponents point out that, according to FAA classifications, drones are technical aircraft and interfering with the flight of one is a federal crime. So far no shooters have been prosecuted on the federal level. In fact other drone shooters, like William Merideth, have ultimately been cleared of all charges, though the owner of that drone is still pursuing a civil suit for $1,500 in damages.
To her credit, Youngman told Ars Technica that she went about shooting down the drone with 7.5 birdshot, which is both the most effective way to take a drone out of the sky, but also ensures that the projectiles won't do any harm on the way down. The drone, however, still can. Youngman said the crash left "two punctures in [her] lawn tractor."
The best way to avoid that might be to not shoot down the thing down in the first place.
The FAA claims from the surface up. The drone is registered with the FAA. What is this airspace you claim to be yours?
Ahhhhh but of course....the Celts are the originators of all things
How about a law to keep them at least out of shotgun range. Even that would be pretty invasive, given the photographic/video resolution and distance audio-gathering apparatus tht we now have. I would prefer no drones at all. R/C mdels in select areas excepted.
On what theory? First, it would probably be deemed a trespass by them justifying her right to shoot it down. Second, even if she were found liable in a civil suit, the damages would be limited to the value of the destroyed drone - a couple of hundred bucks at most.
“The best way to avoid that might be to not shoot down the thing down in the first place.”
Thank you, Popular Mechanics.
Our caged birds thank you too.
I’m not a slave to the government.
I’m not a big fan of ANY government entity except for our military.
My space is my space, and the FAA can go —— itself.
She used #7.5 shot. I think I would go for #6 shot. My dad’s old Remington 1100 with the 30” full choke barrel would probably be good medicine for a drone.
Some privacy-loving patriot will probably do it! Great idea!! :)
Hey, if my local movie theater can have a Laser Tag room, or whatever they call it, I can only imagine how successful a Drone Skeet Shooting Range would be! I’d definitely try it!
I was at the local Food Lion grocery a few days ago, and people were standing in front of the store, staring up at the sky. I looked and didn’t see anything at first. Then, the sheriff’s deputies pulled in and went to the grassy area at the front of the parking lot. Guy standing in the grass with a controller of some sort, so it registered, drone. Scanned the sky again, saw it, quad rotor, pretty good size. They made him bring it down and leave. I don’t know what the law is regarding these things in NC, or whether the owners of the property just didn’t want him doing it there.
Yes, someone is watching her. Regardless of intent someone is just out of reach and they are watching her.
Build a Jacob’s Ladder. When the drone comes over in a manageable place, turn it on.
RF devices HATE Jacobs ladders. Go scoop it up and enjoy your new toy.
Transmitting classified government information on unsecured private computers is a federal crime.
It's much more serious, but it doesn't get prosecuted.
So, I guess they can just jam their "federal crime" where the sun don't shine.
The prospective Amazon Delivery Drone certainly is. . .
Here is an interesting article on the subject.
“two punctures in [her] lawn tractor.”
TIRES. Two punctures in [her] lawn tractor TIRES.
Sheesh...
“Normal” aircraft could do that with telescopes, keep in mind.
Drones have done for this sort of surveillance what Smart Phone cameras have done for photography. You “always” have a good camera with you so it’s much easier to take awesome pictures.
But most aircraft short of low-income hovering helicopters aren’t being used for direct high-resolution observation.
Drones, in current colloquial terms, are primarily for that purpose.
Here in California, we have problems with many folks who fly their drones into Wildfires just to snoop. This gets in the way of rescue teams and water being delivered. If more drone owners don’t start using consideration of privacy or common sense respect for others, it is a sure invitation for more Government intervention. It will start with licensing fees.
“On what theory? “
The fact that she clearly said she wasn’t sure why it ended up where it did, didn’t bother to figure it out, and then proceeded to destroy their drone after it hovered for a grand total of a second. Her whole story seemed to read like she was just waiting for any reason to fire her shotgun at it. She comes across as a nut.
Calling it “trespassing” is like calling a kid whose football accidentally went over the fence, and some yahoo next door shooting the football the moment they saw it, trespassing.
Give these guys a minute to correct for anything that might have gone wrong before you just willfully destroy stuff that doesn’t belong to you.
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