More drone drama from the media, Los Angeles District.

Projeffrey11 · Oct 28, 2015

Drone downs power lines in Hollywood, hundreds affected for a few hours

And more Drone drama

Judge says drone was invading the privacy of the man who shot it

User Name · Oct 28, 2015

Ugh... this isn't going to stop any time soon, so the bumpy ride is far from over.

On the power line, wow, it sure seems like it was the drone since it was apparently crashed right at the location of the power line break. On the other hand, it's hard to imagine a quad, even one the size of the Inspire, could take down a powerline. Almost every winter, we get large tree branches falling on powerlines, and rarely do they actually break them.

On the second, what a terrible, terrible president to set - allowing someone to fire a gun blindly into the air. I don't care if the drone WAS invading his privacy, it still doesn't justify the danger posed to the general public by firing bullets into the air. Mark my words, we're going to have many more reports about drones being shot out of the sky now. But one question remains - there's a dispute over the altitude of the copter. Does the Phantom not log altitude information for each flight? If it did, it should be trivial to show exactly where and at what height it was at any point in the flight.

Projeffrey11 · Oct 28, 2015

User Name said:
Ugh... this isn't going to stop any time soon, so the bumpy ride is far from over.

On the power line, wow, it sure seems like it was the drone since it was apparently crashed right at the location of the power line break. On the other hand, it's hard to imagine a quad, even one the size of the Inspire, could take down a powerline. Almost every winter, we get large tree branches falling on powerlines, and rarely do they actually break them.

On the second, what a terrible, terrible president to set - allowing someone to fire a gun blindly into the air. I don't care if the drone WAS invading his privacy, it still doesn't justify the danger posed to the general public by firing bullets into the air. Mark my words, we're going to have many more reports about drones being shot out of the sky now. But one question remains - there's a dispute over the altitude of the copter. Does the Phantom not log altitude information for each flight? If it did, it should be trivial to show exactly where and at what height it was at any point in the flight.

Things are only going to get worse before they get better I'm afraid.

Chuck · Oct 28, 2015

About the time things simmer down a bit, the idiots rear their jello filled heads. Anybody with a lick of sense would not fly in that area of Hollywood. I hope they somehow trace him down and charge him with the max they can. As for the other incident, if I had proof of flying at 200ft at the time of being blown out of the sky, I would take it to the highest court I could. Whew, it feels better to vent...

PdxSteve · Oct 29, 2015

Just wait til the skies are filled with delivery drones all these companies keep talking about.

GoodnNuff · Oct 29, 2015

Someone hung their Inspire up in the power lines here in Seattle this summer.
They were flying over Lake Union (houseboat community - think Sleepless in Seattle) and the houseboats when they hit a power line. This was 150 feet above the water. The drone stayed there for about a week. You could hear it sizzle during the day and at night it glowed and arced sparks every once and a while. In the meantime it was causing repeated brownouts to the houseboat community below. The power company had to get a crane on a barge to remove it and repair the lines. The cost was over $15,000.
Seattle hates drones. The city just announced last night that they are prosecuting the Phatom 3 pilot that hit a parade goer in the head this summer, knocking her unconscious. They are charging him with reckless endangerment and he is facing up to a $5,000 fine.

Projeffrey11 · Oct 29, 2015

GoodnNuff said:
Someone hung their Inspire up in the power lines here in Seattle this summer.
They were flying over Lake Union (houseboat community - think Sleepless in Seattle) and the houseboats when they hit a power line. This was 150 feet above the water. The drone stayed there for about a week. You could hear it sizzle during the day and at night it glowed and arced sparks every once and a while. In the meantime it was causing repeated brownouts to the houseboat community below. The power company had to get a crane on a barge to remove it and repair the lines. The cost was over $15,000.
Seattle hates drones. The city just announced last night that they are prosecuting the Phatom 3 pilot that hit a parade goer in the head this summer, knocking her unconscious. They are charging him with reckless endangerment and he is facing up to a $5,000 fine.

Wow.