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  • Peter Meister October 27, 2012 at 9:55am

    It is unfortunate that non-qualified pilots made such a flight in a congested city center. Clearly watching you can tell that this pilot had no clue what the heck he was doing. No pre-flight check, walking towards the quad to adjust it while the engines were still spooled.Launching straight up to almost 100 feet before settling into a hover to stabilize and center the vehicle, and the most ridiculous is watching him cross-correct the vehicle wrong thus causing it to fly towards the building because he did not have the basic R/C skills to know he was backwards facing himself. That one had me almost laughing, that is R/C 101 people. Learn how to fly the aircraft when it is coming towards you or as we say in R/C Heli circles NOSE - IN.... He had no clue he was even nose in....sad and this will be used by those who wish to deter our use of these for commercial/civilian industries.

  • Moderator
    Gary Mortimer October 27, 2012 at 9:46am

    And Trappy did'nt know what Big Ben was connected to either....

    @Michael the thing was yawing on the ground before he lifted off so no pre flights no after take off check etc etc etc. I can't quite see the smoke but you could be right, Turnigys in a built up area perhaps ;-)

  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson October 27, 2012 at 8:41am

    Erk. This week my colleagues at Wired UK asked Team Black Sheep to present at their conference in London. So they put quadcopters and planes in the air over Westminster! Ugh. I think I need to have a word with the Wired UK team--I don't think they knew the regs.

    Raphael Pirker's company Team Black Sheep attaches cameras to drones to gain a different perspective of cities with beautiful aerial shots. The Wired 2012 delegation were surprised to discover that they too were filmed by a drone as they walked into The Brewery conference venue.

    On stage, Pirker showed stunning close-up footage of Big Ben's clock face, the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye and the Gherkin as well as some peeved policemen who put an end to their aerial fun.

    After leaving the stage, Wired.co.uk caught up with Pirker to find out what happened when they let a drone run wild in London, what the police said when they noticed the quadrocopter invading air space over Westminster and the confusion of city workers on high rise buildings when they come face-to-face with a flying robot.

    Video: Three minutes with Raphael Pirker at Wired 2012 from Wired.co.uk on Vimeo.

  • Michael Evans October 27, 2012 at 8:30am
    That thing would have given someone a concision! You can see smoke from the battery around :57! The way it veered off like that also makes me think some kind of GPS hold had interference from the buildings.
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson October 27, 2012 at 8:17am

    If people would just OBEY THE RULES (ie, no flying over populated areas), such equipment failures wouldn't endanger people, the way this one easily could have. The rules are reasonable and in place for a reason. 

    That was a crazy flight. Putting a heavy-lift Oct on a city street. Jesus.
  • Seth October 27, 2012 at 7:58am

    Aaaaaand this is why we need, and will have, regulations. Surprised only that this hadn't happened sooner in such a public forum.

  • Alex Arevalo October 27, 2012 at 7:45am

    Gary, I have no problem with what you have said. Unfortunately, just like during the early days of flight, there will be some participants that are a little too anxious to get to the thrilling parts and fail to "do the right thing". At least, in this case, little or no damage was done and no one was hurt. 

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