Los Angeles, CA—Officials here recently claimed that drone operators endangered lives by halting
firefighting efforts. Angry local
politicians vowed prosecution and new legislation to remedy this “huge and life
threatening ” problem.
Photographic evidence
supporting those reports is non-existent.
You’d think the crew members presumably are all armed with smart phones
would have captured images to help identify the drones to assist
investigators. There are no pictures
because this never happened! Needless to
say there are no captured drones either.
As for those helicopter
pilots making these reports they seem to forget that their massive propeller’s,
prop wash would simply blow any little cameras drones away from their aircraft into
oblivion. A near miss happened? Really?
The high cost of these camera
drones makes their owners very protective of their investments. If they are reckless and crash them, all the the fun
is over. Accordingly drone operators police themselves better than any
government agency.
New York police helicopter
pilots reported a near miss and the follow-up investigation resulted in the false arrests of two youths with a DJI phantom drone on felony charges.
The charges were dropped when
the malicious lies of the pilot cops were horribly impeached. Among things they claimed was the drone was
traveling at ridicules, impossible and dangerous speeds when that Phantom could go no faster that 35 MPH.
Cameras on the drones are the
ultimate “black Boxes” that document the drones behavior and flight in real time. The cameras have exposed lies of people
claiming their privacy was invaded or lives endangered. One sad example was the wrongful arrest of David
Beesmer who was charged with using a drone to peep into dressing rooms at the Mid Hudson Medical
Group building.
Months later after careful
examination of the drone’s video debunked the claims of witnesses and ended
expensive felony court prosecution. Bessmer was cleared but only after he spent thousands of dollars for a defense lawyer.
The drone operators I know can't wait to put their flight's video up on YouTube like I do.
It’s about art, fun, newsgathering, real estate marketing or other
positive activities. Activities that are clearly Constitutionally Protected!
I use drones for
investigation. Wow! That sounds so
ominous! The reality is that I found
that my drone can get great overhead shots of accident and crime scenes to help defense
lawyers, prosecutors, judges and juries better see and understand the layout much better than
diagrams and land based images.
Drones
can't see through window glare, curtains or walls. Surveillance is best conducted with much bigger cameras from conventional places on the ground. Drones that can transport sophisticated telephoto cameras are simply too cost prohibitive.
You can't get that close up, face shot from more than a few feet away.
I used my drone in a missing
person case to examine some rough terrain I was incapable of searching on
foot. I actually found some property
that belonged to the missing subject with my drone!
Pilot after pilot has
reported near misses with drones. These
sightings all share the same similarities.
Most glaring is there are no actual collisions, videos or still shots of
these rogue drones!
The media needs these drones
to slow down the rain of pink slips in every newsroom in America. The single most expensive cost in any TV
newsroom is for helicopter newsgathering efforts.
Are these pilots simply
seeking attention? Or could there be
something more sinister involved?
One thing for sure drones may
not threaten pilots by they are sure to take their jobs away. Why risk life with manned firefighting planes
when drones can do these jobs without risking lives?
News and police helicopter
pilots know safer drones that only cost a tiny fraction of conventional
helicopters that will be replacing them! These
guys are understandably not exactly cheering on this exciting new technology.
Sadly there are those people
that simply see a drone in the sky and can’t resist calling 911. They don’t report airplanes or helicopters,
just drones? Ignorance, fear and
loathing are in high gear spurred on by phony drone misconduct reports getting airtime
on TV.
Below is a video that
resulted in phony claims to police by a woman that a drone was actually peeping
into her single story home’s windows! Months
later the woman apparently claimed she was nearly hit by the drone! The video speaks for itself and is unedited. The video is complete from take off until
landing but for the addition of music on an audio track.
The police investigation and
report actually cleared the pilot but local prosecutors charged him as a
criminal anyway!
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