The Orange County Register has just published a slide show of 50 aerial shots taken over Orange County, California from an unspecified quadcopter. While they are beautiful and very nicely done, quite a few are counter to FAA guidelines. Some are just downright boneheaded (Flying over freeways? Really??).
There are a number of shots taken over crowds and dense urban areas. The images of the Orange County Fair are all less than a mile from the very busy John Wayne Airport and appear to be directly under the airport's traffic pattern for the westerly runway. The night time image of Angel Stadium in Anaheim is a violation of the 3 nautical mile radius Temporary Flight Restriction that would have been in effect during that night game.
It could be argued that expecting a major (?) newspaper to know these constraints is asking a bit much. However the text accompanying the slide show states the photojournalist who did all the shots is a licensed private pilot!
Comments
I do not know for sure, but it seems unlikely, especially in the case of the TFR in place for the stadium. If permissions were obtained (what agency is empowered to allow flight over freeways?) one would think that would be a pretty important bit of info to include in the story. Otherwise the MWMs (Morons With Multicopters) reading the story would think, "Gee, that looks really neat, I'm going to try that too!"
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