I know I'm probably going to get some heat for posting this, but some of you may enjoy a little collage of a "day in the life of a BlackSheep" nonetheless
If it helps, all approvals necessary were obtained, an army of ground helpers were available, as well as constant communication with the heliport tower to stay in the loop about incoming traffic.
Comments
@David, thanks for your post that brings a bit of perspective here.
Your comments remind me of the case of a boy who was flying a helicopter in a public park, directly over the heads of people otherwise using the park, and in fact harassing a girl he knew by buzzing her. He lost control, and hit her and injured her badly. He picked up his heli and fled the scene without rendering aid of any sort.
Despite that completely lack of common sense, the police couldn't charge him with anything.
That is the state of the law.
Thanks for posting that helicopter video. I already posted that somewhere else on this site as an example of something that is REALLY dangerous. It's funny how different people percieve danger differently. Some people think I'm bad because I bought my son a motorcycle (Suzuki JR50). Yet I think Child Protective Services should investigate that father who stands watching the spectacle with his little boy.
@Robert, average person at a "safe" spot at an airfield is aware of the fact he is at the airfield, there are aircrafts flying around, and watches the planes that come close to him. This way he has some reaction time, and as it was mentioned before chose to accept this risk. Average person on the street is not aware of RC aircrafts flying above their heads, is not expecting anything to fly there and thus reaction time easily can be 0.
The fact that Trappy's not in jail proves nothing. How do you know he has insurance? How do you know he has permission from the land owner? How do you know he's talked to a lawyer? This is all speculation based on him not being in jail? It's going to take a knee jerk reaction from politicians an unelected officals like the FAA before he sees jail time.
@david i think the problem is that it is dangerous and the idiots in the video you posted will see this stuff and think it is okay. if you look at some of the comments we get on these posts you will see that even the diyd resellers are saying it's cool. so there is no hope for any voices of reason and safety it simply needs to be banned
@Fab, please determine the dimensions of a typical airflield, and where the "safe" places are in relation to the aircraft, and then compare that to the distance to people in this video. Any airfield I've been to has maybe 50 feet between spectator areas and the flight line, and certainly no phyical barriers. I think the distances are fairly close in the video.
Just for argument's sake, let's assume it's 50 feet at an airfield but only 20 feet in the video. 45mph is 20 m/s. If an aircraft should suddenly loose control at that speed, it can travel that 20 feet in about 1/3 of a second, which is not enough time to react. Now, assuming they were at a "safe" airfield, they would have about 1/2 second more to react. Still not enough time to do anything.
Yet, R/C airfields are perfectly legal. Not government licensed either. You consider airfields to be safe, but I'm not entirely sure why you think they are safer than shown in the video.
I think a lot of the problem that this group brings up is that most of us in the community are very safe fliers. We never really fly over civilization or attempt any of these stunts. Then we see the trappy videos......
Trappy does stuff that most of us would never dream of doing, but which is "fairly safe" considering what people already do. Don't forget, Trappy has also has been involved before in litigation and his group actually has an actual knowledge of the law as it applies to RC aircraft. This means that they, unlike most of you, have actually talked to lawyer. Remember how he didn't get arrested for the NY stunt or any of the European flying? I know for a fact people on RC groups contacted law enforcement about his flying. He is still free and as far as I know he hasn't paid a fine to date.
As a collective, the majority of RC pilots are completely ignorant of the law and how lax it really is. The problem is that as a community we generally practice "self policing", which means that we stamp on anything that we see as "obscene". We then use "observe and report" to try and punish the offending party in the hope that we can stop people doing things before they bring down the hobby. For example, current RC laws can't really be used to prosecute Trappy, but reckless endangerment or trespassing can be used in certain states to prosecute anyone for pretty much anything. I live across the road from 3 cops.
We also have to remember that this is how Trappy and his group make a living. They are professional aerial movie makers. They do have insurance, they do have permission of the land owner, and they do communicate with manned aviation. They are complying with RC laws. They are just exploiting the fact that RC laws were written before FPV.
Remember that if your going to post against Trappy you should have a "good" knowledge of RC law and reckless endangerment. Otherwise your just saying stuff he has already heard. I personally don't have this knowledge.
Also, here is something that is actually wrong. Please join with me in punishing these idiots ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-CkpBhlHJ8
@simon, yes that was a good idea. let's vote to ban any post of copters or planes flying over peoples heads. if we don't we won't have a hobby for very much longer. we need a leader to help enforce the obvious. any suggestions?
@trappy i am removing my initial comment. i said it was good to hear your words of safety and statements about careful planning. for me, this has gone too far, and it undermines your initial good words. as paul has said, there is some good footage without people below anything else is wrong in my book. if a university or any other organisation asked you to do this then their ethics should be questioned
@Robert, 0 risk environment does not exist. Everyone takes the risks since the moment of conception (in fact, even before that there's a risk that conception won't happen). All that security is about, is increasing or decreasing the risks.
@Robert, when dealing with Trappy, that's the way it goes.... it's not suprising. He signs on to two views in my opinion.
1) All press is good press. No matter how stupid his stunt, the more people who see it, the better.
2) His ego is the size of the moon. This one's not even debatable.
Do you think the driver of that car is still licensed? Probably not. The government has a way to take away that priveledge from that driver. In Trappy's case, there is no such license. So his eventual punishment will come on the backs of FPV and UAV pilots around the globe. One of his stupid stunts ends in disaster and he's ruined it for all of us.
@Paul, they take the risk just walking outside their door. Obviously you missed my point about walking anywhere near the street.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8UmbsM1-rI
I'm not sure what's worse about this video actually... the hit and run. Or the fact that so many other people just kept on going without stopping to help!!!
I find it interesting that the people on the "safety" side are the ones starting to resort to insults.
-
8
-
9
-
10
-
11
-
12
of 19 Next