I don't link red light cameras. I don't like the idea of spy drones. Every one better wake up! We will be under siege soon.
This issue has tremendous abuse possibility's. If the want to use them to patrol boarders fine they should not use them in urban areas. Its like stalking and also will be dangerous to Real aircraft. Someone will get killed.
Bob I have to say im dissapointed in this post. People fear what they dont understand, and from there that fear takes on a mind of its own. People need to realize that no police department has the budget--especially NOW in the current economy--to purchase UAVs for every man, woman and child in their jursidiction. What UAVs that are operated by police will cost money every time that they are flown. Back in my Shadow days, I did the math. With fuel, maintenance and so on, it costs Uncle Sam almost $3,000/hour in the air to operate. With that pricetag, there's no way that you are going to see UAVs swarming over cities by the thousands. They will be used for things like hostages, high speed chases, highway patrol, and providing situational awareness for things such as raids on drug houses.
As far as news media's use of UAVs go, then yes, there will be issues of personal privacy until existing laws can catch up. How many years did cell phones exist before laws were passed that prohibit texting while driving? This happens any time a radically new technology is introduced in large quantities.
In reguards to aviation safety, one must be realistic. Near misses and close calls between manned aircraft occur everyday. Actual contact also a reality when pilots are disoriented or distracted in the cockpit. While it would be great if we would never have any sort of collision or near miss between manned and unmanned aircraft, it will happen. It already does happen when military aircraft and UAVs share airspace. If I'm in the air, and I know that there is other traffic in the pattern, I establish communications with the pilot, we exchange our location and our intentions, and we work around each other. Any operator--or pilot for that matter-- worth his salt will do the same. Even all of this isnt bulletproof. I've participated in my share of HATR (Hazardous Air Traffic Report) investigations, and have known dozens of operators who have done the same. After all these years, and after all the incidences that I have seen, not one has been the fault of the operator. I would estimate that 70% of the investigations find that the pilot was wrong place or altitude at the wrong time, not monitoring his/her radio, or misinterpreting ATC instructions. The rest were atributed to lack of situational awareness by the traffic controllers themselves. I recently experienced this here at Huachuca. I called tower to announce my turn for, esentially, a touch-and-go. Tower came back with "Titan11 cleared for full stop only. Traffic is unmanned training aircraft in the pattern". That unmanned training aircraft was ME!!! There was no issue with other traffic, but its shows that the human factor is still very prevelant in manned as well as unmanned aviation. The FAA certainly will be earning their paycheck in the seperation of UAS in national airspace.
He talked about a model plane first person view flying. Line of sight. But failed to mention Line of transmiter output.
The term "line of sight" isnt restricted to visual observation. Any device that transmits or recieves a signal needs "line of sight" with its source. When your cell phone drops a call while in a remote area, its because it doesnt have "line of sight" with the cell phone tower. An RC airplane that is flown in such as way that a large obsticle passes between the transmitter and the model will lose "line of sight" and thereby lose control. Bigger UAVs that use either a sattilite system to control the aircraft or a preprogrammed flight plan does not need line of sight with its controller. Thats's one of the boundery lines that John Villasenor was refering to. Recreational RPV models are able to operate under that classification as long as it is in direct control with the modeler. The minute it is able to fly past line of sight and continue to fly, then it crosses the into the description of a UAV.
I am glad I will be dead when we become a county thats diffrent than the one I grew up in. Think of your KIDS! They will still be here.
I guess well just have to clean up the mess then. Thanks....
Topic: Rebuttle article by John Villasensor in Scientific American (Read 2796 times)
