Drone Hobbyists Angered by Congress Ending the Aerial Wild West

Re:Drone Hobbyists Angered by Congress Ending the Aerial Wil... by diego on Thursday September 27, 2018 @04:29PM (#18088301)

a $40 micro drone is training. It's a completely harmless toy, even less harmful than a soccer ball. This is not a $1000 hobby grade drone (for which you definitely should undergo training). A $40 drone typically has extremely weak brushed motors. You don't need training to operate a frisbee but you definitely need training to operate a discus. This comment is an example of how the general public does not know enough about the subject matter.

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Re:Drone Hobbyists Angered by Congress Ending the Aerial Wil... by kevin_thibedeau on Thursday September 27, 2018 @06:53PM (#18089591)

Why would a quad require training and not an RC heli?

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Re:Drone Hobbyists Angered by Congress Ending the Aerial Wil... by taneq on Thursday September 27, 2018 @11:30PM (#18090801)

I think the line between "r/c toy" and "drone" is long range plus camera feed enabling the pilot to fly it out of visual line of sight. Adding any kind of autonomous flight (GPS waypoints or whatnot) definitely puts it over that line. A toy quad isn't a "drone" and shouldn't be treated like one.

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Re:Drone Hobbyists Angered by Congress Ending the Aerial Wil... by dmitrygr on Thursday September 27, 2018 @06:57PM (#18089618)

So nice of you to decide that is it ok for you to endanger my life because you think that something is harmless. Thanks. Your quad will break my windscreen on short final (since i am doing 80 knots or so), distract me, and possibly make me crash on landing.

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Re:Drone Hobbyists Angered by Congress Ending the Aerial Wil... by jsjohnst on Thursday September 27, 2018 @07:21PM (#18089744)

A $40 drone is usually an under 2” device that fits in the palm of your hand with an operating range of under 100ft and barely can be used outdoors (due to wind). I’ve had similar size devices fly into me (including in the face) and I didn’t even get scratched, let alone remotely hurt.

If it hits your windscreen, you were more likely driving where you shouldn’t be rather than someone with a literal kids toy doing something wrong.

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Re:Drone Hobbyists Angered by Congress Ending the Aerial Wil... by donarb on Friday September 28, 2018 @02:29AM (#18091433)

Windscreen refers to that of an airplane, not a car. The clue is the reference to 80 knots, which is never used to measure vehicle speed.

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Re:Drone Hobbyists Angered by Congress Ending the Aerial Wil... by jsjohnst on Friday September 28, 2018 @07:29AM (#18092534)

Thanks. I meant to say flying, not driving. Swap out the two words and you’ll realize what I said makes sense as written otherwise.

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Re:Drone Hobbyists Angered by Congress Ending the Aerial Wil... by glitch003 on Thursday September 27, 2018 @07:24PM (#18089758)

A $40 quad won't fly that high or far. We're talking about something that fits in the palm of your hand, here. These things weigh like 30 grams.

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Re:Drone Hobbyists Angered by Congress Ending the Aerial Wil... by fgonzag on Friday September 28, 2018 @10:44PM (#18098426)

If you think a palm sized 50 gram toy that can fly 100 ft from the RC is as dangerous as you state then your license should be re-evaluated because you'll be facing worse obstacles while flying.

Also nobody flies those toys in airfields. They're barely suited for backyards as they are.

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Re:Drone Hobbyists Angered by Congress Ending the Aerial Wil... by fermienrico on Thursday September 27, 2018 @08:35PM (#18090082)

This is hardly a good way to argue on HN. Please refrain from calling people and instead focus on the issue at hand.

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