Wow! I don't know about being illegal, but that is 100% awesome!!! If I had not already spent thousands on trains, I might have to take up drone flying. Yep, I briefly looked into it, but a nice drone is pricey.
prrhorseshoecurve posted:I am curious as to where this was shot and what was that set of tracks at 0:22-0:24 seconds into the film. It looks like some sort of long trestle.
I think I recognize the location. If I'm not mistaken, it's on the UP transcon between Truckee, CA and Reno, NV. The road is I-80, and that's the Truckee River. The train appears to be eastbound (downgrade). Clearly, he's parked on side of the freeway. I suspect he flew some distance west of where he parked and waited for the train, then just followed it down, landing at his feet.
I believe the trestle is part of the historic right of way, now abandoned.
I think some of you are missing the point entirely. None of what he did would actually cause anything horrible to happen to the train, property etc. No Michael Bay explosions or loss of limbs.
What does and will happen from people who pull this crap is further rules and regualtions levied against those who use drones responsibly for recreation and business.
Its actually the freakey outy, over the top, complete over reactionary people that are the reason for all those stupid rules. Nobody was in in danger, no property was at risk, there was no harm done, no harm that really could be done and no malicious intent. Its a pretty cool video albeit a bit dizzying.
Matt Makens posted:Its actually the freakey outy, over the top, complete over reactionary people that are the reason for all those stupid rules. Nobody was in in danger, no property was at risk, there was no harm done, no harm that really could be done and no malicious intent. Its a pretty cool video albeit a bit dizzying.
I promise you morons with drones played just as large a part along with the freaky outy people.
I don't disagree with anyone that it was harmless. Most here just don't understand the current state of affairs with drones and the regulations being made. Videos like that are fuel to the fire.
I don't see anything reckless or irrational or illegal. That was an amazing video by a talented individual. I bet it took a lot of planning. Good work!!!
Got bored with it after about a minute and a half. Too much "fancy flyin'" and I don't care for the Go-Pro type wide angle distortion.
Rusty
His flight skills are impressive, but his judgement is questionable at best. He definitely intruded onto railroad property when he flew low enough to look at the conductor through the window and also potentially put a train crew traveling on the other line at risk of getting a drone through the windshield. The flight under the hopper and into the box car were just plain stupid. Hopefully he'll get a "talking to" by the FAA.
My wife even enjoyed it! :-)
Matt Makens posted:Here's the rules
Don't see how anyone could operate on of these under these rules anywhere except a big open empty football field. Certainly the one's I've seen flying are violating a number of those rules, like not flying over people and keeping it in visual sight at all times, and so on.
My biggest fear of the drone craze is that we get a huge bureaucratic morass of laws to regulate them because of the actions of the masses.
If we haven't already, we could simply extend the private property laws to include air space limitations for drones and that would solve the issue of danger.
The whole thing with drones is a tough one, because frankly the rules are unfolding as we speak. We already have seen, for example, where some idiot was flying a drone spying on someone's house, and owner of the house knocked it out of the sky and he got in trouble for doing it. The FAA was going to clamp down on drones, worried about safety and other issues, but the industry basically pressured congress and they backed off. The irony is they have tighter regulations on model airplanes and helicopters then the do drones, you are limited how high you can fly and where you can fly them, they don't really have those rules for drones, including where the right to privacy begins and ends, and it bothers me, if someone hovers a helicopter over your house and videos you (assuming they aren't law enforcement), that is illegal and the FAA can go after you from what I recall, do it with a drone, it is fine.
As far as what this guy doing being harmless, I don't doubt that if the drone hit the train very little would happen to the train, but people are leaving something out. It is one thing to fly a drone and simply observe the train going along, but for example, buzzing the engineer could distract him, and lead to a potential accident, what if the drone bounces off the window, the engineer reacts, and something happens? a Blackhawk that was providing air cover for the UN opening of the general assembly was hit by a drone over Staten Island, while apparently it caused no or little damage,but I suspect whoever did it is gonna be in hot water.
I don't know if this video is illegal under current regulations, but I would love to see guidelines that for example forbids drone operators from getting closer than X feet from a moving train, that it is illegal to buzz the control cabin or otherwise distract the operator of a moving vehicle of any kind (train, car, truck, bus, boat, I don't care), because drones can cause problems up to the things causing injury or death. I also would like to see some kind of personal protections around these things,but that is a different issue. Like any kind of thing in our society, there needs to be a balance between having fun, and where that crosses a line and where there needs to be rules. The drone industry has literally outflown regulations, the makers don't want to give up all that money, people buying them at least sometimes lose common sense, the result being they are not very strictly regulated, other than some regs I suspect were copied from radio control aircraft regulations.
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I know someone who got his house buzzed by one with a go-pro in it. It went right up to the windows of his house. He thought fast and turned on the lawn sprinklers (from a valve inside). It went down right away as burst of water hit it from behind. He then went out back, picked it up, taped down the rotors and wrote a sign, saying, "You can pick this up at the police station," and drove it over to the cops. Nobody ever came looking for it there but the police apparently never could confirm who owned the thing. Nobody ever came knocking at his house looking for it, either, and he's always assumed they must have been up to no good.
It might not be legal, but you always run the risk of someone opening up with AAA on the thing.
Doesn't anyone here recall the time a drone hit a steam-powered excursion train the UK? How mad would you be if you were running that, or were chasing it and a stupid drone hovered right in the center of your shot?
You know what'll change the take on drones? The first time someone with an unhealthy interest in children is caught stalking kids with one with a camera on it.
How about doing absolutely positively nothing? No "line" was crossed. Creating new regulations on the basis of this perfectly legal video that neither harmed or endangered anyone is the perfect solution to which no known problem exists.
Nonsense on buttered toast.