Drone Article From a British Perspective

[Robert Zambelli]

From Air & Space magazine.

[Fredvon4]

Senior Telemasters have been used for decades to transport and air prop or land with medical supplies (legit) and drugs (illegal)

All a "drone" really does is either add AI, GPS, AUTONOMOUS waypoint preplanned flight AND usually STOL/VTOL capability......any doubt some day a stupid (full autonomous) LYFT or UBER will not be hacked into a terror weapon....   the way our world society is heading right now.....I am amazed how little imagination terrorists and bag guys have

[Mike Griffin]

Bob,

I have been flying with the Civil Air Patrol as an observer and aerial photographer for a few years now.  I think most people know that the CAP is an auxiliary of the Air Force.

Just recently, orders came down to develop a minimum of 6, two man drone crews by the end of the year within the Louisiana Wing.  The teams would consist of a FAA registered pilot which requires part 107 and a technician, who can also fly the machine if the pilot is present.  Since I have not taken the FAA test for the part 107 yet, I signed up for the technician on the crew.

The Air Force sent us the DJI Phantom 4 pro machine and this thing is incredible and considered state of the art in this area.  I carries a 4 K camera onboard and you can program it to fly waypoints and about a million other things.

These machines will never completely replace a flight crew in a Cessna but, they can do things that a full sized aircraft cannot.  We will be deploying these machines in certain search and rescue scenarios and expect them to be a valuable tool in that respect.

I plan to take the part 107 as soon as I can ( it costs $150.00 ) and simultaneously Mark (the other member of our drone team in CAP) and I are starting our own commercial drone services business in the New Orleans area and have ordered a DJI Mavic 2 machine to do mapping and photography with.  There are a few out there already but the opportunity and areas that can be served are tremendous.

I guess  my point being with this is that, yes, there are nefarious uses being employed with these machines but there are many valid and productive uses for them as well. 

The biggest drawback of drone use is the limited battery life, you only get about 20-25 minutes out of a battery until you have to bring them back and change batteries. 

Our Wing will also be receiving a fixed wing drone in the very near future and we can get 90 minutes flying time out of it without having to change batteries which is much better.

Mike

[Steve Helmick]

If evil people need inspiration for doing evil, they only need to rent a DVD from the video store or buy a ticket to the movin' picture theater at the mall. The sooner we put Hollyweed out of business, the better. Just say "NO!" to Hollyweed's movies and crazy "actors" who make million$ on violence and then want everybody else to give up their right to self-protection. All while they have trained and armed bodyguards watching their asses.  Steve