Hi Kat: That's interesting. The antenna coming loose? As in dropping off? That's one ballsy pilot to decide to splash the bird rather than trying to save it -- if the antenna had come loose, I suspect the pilot may not still have had control -- or am I over thinking this one? Andy.
"It didn't bother me to fly over non participating people until I thought of myself and my kids under some other persons heli.. I passed up the below job because they said they wanted the concert shot and I didn't feel comfortable flying over the crowd.. I think we should all be mindful of this before one bad move not only hurts or kills someone but gets all other forms of filming banned in the process." Well stated Cedar... I still can't believe the folks at DJI were flying the Phantom over the crowds indoors at NAB. Totally irresponsible.
Weren't they also letting people fly them in that cylinder at there booth as well? On the note of NAB I was there mainly for a shoot that happened to coincide with a grand opening of a small studio in the down town revitalization project, called Freemont East Studios. They had a party and let me put my CS on display. People saw it, and I was disturbed at a comment that I overheard between two men. One guy said, "Yeah these are not hard to fly and the guy at the booth(Not a reference to a specific vendor) was saying if you panic all you need to do is flip a switch and it come right back to you." I had to intervene and say, yes it will, assuming there are no errors in your GPS and no satellite disturbances from solar activity. Otherwise these aircraft will fall out of the sky before you know it because they can get you into trouble real fast.
Dont know if youe guys have seen this one... over lots of people inside a stadium. No excuses for this.. S800 with big carbon fiber props can easily cut someone open. Pilot got lucky and crashes into concrete wall/railing and doesnt hit anyone.. could have been really bad.
An earlier, lower quality version was indeed posted before, Nick. What I don't recall seeing was that the copter impacted in the area reserved for folks in wheelchairs. As I recall the earlier posting, the copter was using GPS and, of course, that not a good idea at all in a stadium. Being in a stadium with a crowd is an incredibly bad idea. I'm using British Understatement to describe how bad an idea it was. My preferred verbal reaction would burn into the back of your visual cortex. Andy.
Yeah i have the same feelings about it... Never inside like that around/over so many people no way to bail but on the field and even then your putting players at risk. Im just glad it landed where it did.
Much written on this on a Brazil copter forum. He admitted flying in GPS mode, lost control under the roof overhang. Allegedly had limited experience manually flying. Was soundly chastised in the media and on the forum.
Well said Cedar and all. I was on Vimeo and saw this very irresponsible FPV flying video just posted. This type of FPV flying, so close to non-participating people, should not be tolerated. This dangerous flying is what is going to get us and fuels the fire of government regulations to restrict or ban us flying our aerial vehicles.
that last video is crazy! flying super fast past kids and people riding bikes not aware of the heli!!
Do you think the video is sped up? It doesn't detract from other comments above, but it seems very, very fast....or is that just how fast something like a Team Black Sheep quad flies? Andy.
If you look at TBS videos they look the same. Everything done at full throttle. Watch the people jogging at normal speed.
Uhh, Oh yeah! good point! I guess they were just racking the craft around, probably a twitchy little Quad.
I have it on good authority from EuroUSC that Katya's information is spot on - hence no investigation. The pilot spotted the broken GPS receiver, noticed erratic behavior "toilet bowling" and dropped it into the dock which was all part of the plan in the event of an incident. So the CAA seem content that in spite of the incident, everything worked in accordance with the planning. They also gave the pilot an exemption to fly within 5m of the crowd line. I'd need to know more to be sure that was a good plan! The thing that gets me about overflying crowds is that people are taking these risks for really poor shots. I'm not for one minute suggesting that a good shot makes it worth the risk but I'd be really hacked off if I'd payed good money for those shots!
If he knew how to fly in manual that would've never been an issue if this were the case. If I spot something broken on my GPS it cool, cause its on my desk at home not on the copter!
I got the MOR from the UK CAA. Very short story and there is no planned further investigation. Make/mdl/srs: OTHER (UAV) File Number: 201304109 Phase of Flight: En-route UTC Date: 06/04/2013 Classification: Occurrence without safety effect Location: Thames Event Type:Headline: UAS loss of control and subsequent initiated ditching into river. GPS/compass antenna had become loose and this affected the stability and controllability of the device.
Relying on GPS to overfly a crowded event. "CAA seem content that in spite of the incident, everything worked in accordance with the planning". I think they need a better plan. Sigh...
With firearms the rule is "never point a gun at anything that you aren't willing to destroy." With these RC aircraft the rule needs to be "don't fly over anything that you aren't willing to destroy." It's a matter of education in both cases. I have spent the last couple of days repairing a CS8 that fell out of the sky twice. The first time the pilot turned the engines off in midair (lovely MK feature that one) and the second time there was a short somewhere that caused the main power plug solder to melt. (Probably the power distribution board was damaged in the first crash.) So I know these things can turn from aircraft to rock in a hurry.
Yeah, good points. Your copter IS going to fall out of the sky, it is more just a matter of when. I'm curious to know how hard it would be to build a 'crowdcopter' .. one that is light enough that if it fell it wouldn't kill someone and the blades and hard parts were protected in foam somehow.. I wonder if a design like that would be possible. A camera on a rig like that probably couldn't be too heavy but perhaps it could be 'good enough' for the customer who just HAD to have a crowd shot. Surely there is something that could be made that if it fell from the sky would do no more damage than being hit with a softball.