Droning Along Singing A Song Side By Side

[aeroscout]

The FAA estimates there may be 10,000 drones flying around the airspace. And by drone, I don't mean lazy pilot, I mean remotely or automatically flown aircraft. I don't like it, not at all. What are your thoughts ?

 

http://cnsnews.com/blog/joe-schoffstall/faa-predicts-10000-drones-could-be-skies-2020

[Dreamin of a Commuter 2B]

I don't like the Idea of having to dodge these damn things. I am sure they will use this as an excuse to limit more G.A. sport flying.

[Fred0311]

As an rc plane guy I'm interested in what the implications will be to them since that's what most of these drones basically are. It may sounds silly but I see a lot of grey area between the two. Now a quad copter that used to be considered a toy is called a drone.

[Nomad110]

Aren't these things flown by a human beings in some military base thousands of miles away? Why can't that human make a radio call remotely when transitioning an airspace like on a CTAF in class E? They can't just be flying around in the blind...

[Gomer Pylot]

Yes they can. I've seen a couple up close - closer than I wanted to be. Some of those things are as big as a helicopter, but much harder to see, and it's not fun to suddenly see one on a collision course to you, and not talking to anyone.

 

The biggest users of drones will likely be police departments, both state and local, with little actual experience in using them. The Montgomery County, Texas sheriff's office already crashed one of them, but happily the only damage was to some of their police vehicles. These aren't all little toys. Some of them are the size of manned aircraft. The kicker is that the FAA cannot regulate public use aircraft.

Edited March 26, 2013 by Gomer Pylot

[Wally]

Birds have superb visual systems, survival at stake and yet- bird strikes are a significant hazard to ALL aircraft.

UAVs are a freakin' nightmare for helos.

Edited March 26, 2013 by Wally

[Fred0311]

I didn't mean to say they're all toys but that I think that's where the 10000 number is coming from. Although I'm sure there's more than enough of the bigger ones out there.

[SBuzzkill]

We share the skies with the big (10,000lb 65' wingpan, 260kt) drones all the time in controlled airspace. They make radio calls and fly patterns like any other aircraft.

 

It's the little drones that I would be worried about.