Los Angeles, CA—Technology
has brought us unmanned, remote controlled aircraft. These things have been around for decades.
Expectedly they have been engineered for surveillance and combat by military
contractors.
More recently GPS advances
and really great and diminutive cameras such as the GoPro has brought us an
affordable civilian drone that has been thrilling photographers such as me.
The vast majority of the civilian
camera drones are weighing in at between one and three pounds and can be safely
operated from as much as a mile away.
They can capture stunning images at much lower altitudes than
helicopters without the risk of death and destruction.
There are larger and more sophisticated
drones that handle the bigger cameras used by the film industry and require very
solid piloting skills.
One thing for sure civilian
drone operators don’t want their devices endangered or the subject of adverse
police scrutiny.
I have two camera drones my
least expensive is worth $1,000.00 and my better one cost me $2000.00. Needless to say I’d be very unhappy if it
were destroyed or confiscated by authorities.
The Turf War has begun!
Police and TV news helicopter
pilot’s careers are suddenly in serious jeopardy because of the drone
technology. They are antagonistic and
understandably hostile to this drone technology.
Every year in America several
helicopters crash, lives are lost along with millions in property damage. The reason is most often pilot error. The civilian multi-rotor camera drones have
never been involved in a single death or remarkable injury.
The civilian drones can
operate in much tighter spaces making them more versatile in search and rescue
operations at least in regards to finding people, pets and property. Of course the little drones cannot evacuate
people for medical trauma or from precarious mountainsides.
The civilian drones cannot
cope with police car chases like helicopters but can provide excellent images
of crime, accident, fire and other disaster scenes for TV news.
The L.A. Department of Water
and Power is demanding two new helicopters to inspect their assets, equipment
and property. Let me be the first one to
say that they can now get by with only one!
They simply need a qualified camera drone operator that would cost a tiny percentage of the price of a second helicopter. It may be possible to jettison the second
helicopter with a small fleet of drones!
TV news operations can save
millions and avoid the risk of deadly crashes altogether!
The drones will have
causalities for sure. They are the
helicopter crews and the maintenance support staff will be looking for work.
As for the future of manned
helicopters that is in doubt two because technology may create the accident
proof drone helicopter. This may not be
far away.
One last thing, today’s big
drone story in New York is the arrest of to camera drone pilots for criminal
endangerment.
I call bullshit on the helicopter
cop’s claims that the drones were aggressively chasing them. I guess the cops overlooked that the two
drones have the ultimate back boxes onboard!
They have the SD Ram cards with a full visual record of the flights
involved.
The police should have their
own unedited video and examination of the three combined videos should reveal
the unvarnished truth.
In any event I hope that
civilian drone photographers are not subjected to violation of their civil
rights under color of law in order to score points in a turf war.
The biggest motivating factor
for safe and law abiding operation of the new civilian camera drones is the
value of the devices and cameras.
Existing law covers any issues of dangerous or criminal mischief.
Civilian drones have their
new place in the sky cut out for them.
The benefits far outweigh any potential liabilities.
The issue of licensing for drone
pilots is under review and discussion and my sources are telling me that drones
weighing more than 55 pounds will be targeted for regulation. The multi-rotor pilots like me with small
devices will be free from special attention from the FAA.
State and local legislative
bodies will be looking to create all manner of bans and new laws. Let’s hope they all think about the safety
and benefits before they act.
I expect to see thousands of
new jobs for small drone photographers in news, movie making, farming, real
estate, insurance adjusting and many other industries.
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