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Re:SureFly – a personal helicopter designed for safe and ea... by sp332 on Wednesday January 10, 2018 @02:07PM (#16117860)
It's much harder to hit something in the air.
Re:SureFly – a personal helicopter designed for safe and ea... by Balgair on Wednesday January 10, 2018 @11:53PM (#16121475)
As any pilot knows, the stomach unfriendly words from Tower are: "Caution, Wake Turbulence".

The air, being a sparse fluid, can change fast. Especially so if another aircraft has flown through it recently. It's not that there isn't anyone there, it's the air they left behind is all non-laminar now. Doubly being suddenly downwind of stationary objects like towers, wind farms, and mountains.

Also, quick point of caution: One reason early flyers died a lot because they flew so low. Even after a few meters of height, just about any crash is likely to be deadly. Paradoxically, the higher you fly, the better off you are (in certain cases). In flying, your height can be measured in 'mistake recovery time'. The higher you are, the more time you have before you hit the ground, the more time you have to fix a mistake. If your engine cuts out, you have a longer glide time to look for a lake. You can get a fuel pump restarted or unfrozen. You have more time to grab a parachute and bail. Etc. It took a long time and a lot of lives to realize this. As such, personal drone-choppers will be more dangerous and I fear we will have to re-learn the lesson of height being a friend in aviation.

Re:SureFly – a personal helicopter designed for safe and ea... by jimbob21 on Thursday January 11, 2018 @01:42AM (#16121869)
It comes with a parachute
Re:SureFly – a personal helicopter designed for safe and ea... by Balgair on Thursday January 11, 2018 @11:36AM (#16125234)
If anything, that makes it more dangerous. Besides a sense of 'false' security, chutes do take a certain amount of height to catch air and become safe. IIRC it's about 100m and turbulence will affect that in strange ways.

In the end, I still fear tech like this will not be as stringent as needed.

Re:SureFly – a personal helicopter designed for safe and ea... by mveety on Thursday January 11, 2018 @03:35AM (#16122277)
Which doesn't help at all when you hit wake on final. Chutes take a surprisingly long time to grab the air and slow you down.
Re:SureFly – a personal helicopter designed for safe and ea... by michaelbuckbee on Wednesday January 10, 2018 @02:21PM (#16118004)
But much easier to hit something on the ground (powerlines, houses, highways).
Re:SureFly – a personal helicopter designed for safe and ea... by elif on Wednesday January 10, 2018 @03:12PM (#16118570)
It's much easier to be cocky and negligent if the last 100 times you drove you never encountered something to hit.