Animal rights group: Hunters shot our flying camera http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/201...l-rights-group-hunters-shot-our-flying-camera This is an unsettling development, but one might ask, "you knew people (maybe even somewhat unreasonable and even illogical people) with weapons were up there, and you thought it was OK to fly your octocopter up there to disrupt them?" Remarkably, the copter made it back, albeit with what appeared to be at least one LiPo on fire. I'm not sure our little hobby/enterprise needs this particular brand of PR. Your thoughts?
I'm amazed at how stupid some people are. I say they 100% deserved it...what did they think was going to happen? You're spying on hicks with guns who are shooting at birds.
I might know something about this. A few corrections: 1. Not really a new development, this is the 3rd year these shoots have been filmed from the air. 2. No disrupting going on, just documenting. At the time of the shooting, the 8-hour shoot was over and most of the participants had left. 3. Rifles and shotgun pellets larger than 4 shot are banned at this location - it's a semi-populated area, @400ft AGL a shotgun would be ineffective. A reasonable person might think they would be OK. 4. Remarkably only one cell of one lipo was punctured and it burned itself out. 5. Contrary to the story headline this isn't hunting - just using birds released from boxes as live targets. Primarily for gambling purposes - all the dead birds are just thrown away. Maybe 15% of the birds escape unharmed, about 45% are killed or injured and recovered and killed, the remaining 40% are injured and escape and die slowly in the surrounding area. They can go through a few thousand birds at a larger shoot. Searching YouTube for pigeon shoots brings up lots of videos. As far as bad PR for the hobby/enterprise you very well may right. But it's a tool that's out there and as long as it is used safely and legally, an argument could be made it's negligent not to use it. Of course that doesn't preclude some from considering the users to be a-holes and idiots, but such is life. It's a charged issue on a few levels. Feel free to speak your mind though, my feeling won't be hurt.
@SteveWilson, thank you so much for the additional information. I will avoid the assumption that you are/were directly involved in this, although that seems possible. Not that it matters. I'll hold my tongue WRT the obvious political debate that could rage here (and hopefully won't). I just think it's an interesting development, and also has a fascinating old world/new world angle to the story.