269
A drone collided with one of the only Super Scooper planes fighting the LA wildfires, grounding a key resource
(www.businessinsider.com)
this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2025
269 points (99.6% liked)
News
23784 readers
3265 users here now
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.
Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
7. No duplicate posts.
If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners.
The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
This is a serious bummer all around. But wow, does that article suck on its lack of detail. But I guess actually digging into the facts wouldn't make for clickable headlines. "Oooooh, DRONES!"
Was the drone part of monitoring/firefighting efforts? If it was, that is a terrible error on the part of the sUAS operator and observer. Then again, smoke and fire, which would make for a less interesting story. "Drone participating in firefighting hits plane." Editor: Boooring! Let's make it vague so we can cash in on some drone fears.
Lots of drones won't even fly in a TFR zone. More professional drones will warn the pilot AND provide a warning about planes in proximity.
All sUAS 250 grams and larger are required to have RemoteID. Plenty of drones won't even fly unless the RemoteID is functioning fully. And if it shits the bed during flight, lots of drones will just automatically land. Again, except for more professional models or for small cheapies. So one of two things are true: the FAA knows exactly who the responsible party is, or the operator is an utter douchecanoe
That's why I build 'em myself. I have enough common sense to police myself, I don't need a nanny drone telling me what I can do.
For anyone interested, it's super easy these days with modular parts and widely available open source flight controller hardware/software.
Keep it under 250 grams, and you don't even have to register it with the FAA.
Edit: this does not imply I don't follow the rules.
Based on this article, that makes you the asshole in this scenario. TFRs exist for a very good reason, it's not just big guberment trying to make your life harder.
Don't worry, he'll "police himself".
I never said I don't respect TFRs and regulations. A couple of my drones are over the 250 gram limit, and have a big fat sticker on them with the registration number, as well as a remoteID transmitter. I'm not stupid. It's just that a piece of machinery enforcing something on me rubs me the wrong way.
Believe it or not, it is totally possible for some people to respect rules put in place to keep everyone safe and not have to be forced to do it. To me, it's like driving a car that applies the brakes automatically every time it sees a red light, overriding whatever decision you have made. I don't want to live in that kind of world, sorry. If someone needs their toaster to lock itself every time there's no bread in it just so they won't accidentally stick their fingers in it and electrocute themselves, that's not my fault.
What if your self police don't have the most up to date news that would've been enforced via the transmitter?
If you knew what you were doing you'd stfu. Idiots copy people and don't know what they're doing. All your post seems to say is you're a braggart and probably part of the problem.
You know there are publically available maps you can check before a flight, right?
This is such an incredibly stupid analogy...especially when there's a DIRECT analogy with vehicles.
You have to register "powerful" vehicles with the government and you need a license to drive them. Like your kid's Power Wheels car (cheap drone) doesn't need to be registered. Your golf cart (racing quad) probably doesn't but a sedan (55lb+ quad) does. If you want to drive a semi (long range/commercial/whatever), you need a special license, too.
It turns out if you want to use a dangerous device in public, the government wants to know about it....you know, to help avoid flying their dangerous devices into the wing of a disaster relief plane
They guy you are responding to mentioned:
Seriously what’s wrong with someone having a hobby?
I have 3 sub-250 quads, I think it's a really cool hobby
How do you explain ultralight aircraft not needing to be registered and their operation licensed, per FAR-103?
If I had to guess? Risk of killing someone other than yourself. They're the go karts of planes
You guys all don't seem to get the idea. I have no problem registering my shit and complying with safety regulations. I do when the vehicle itself enforces it. I have heard of no plane that will override a pilot decision because it thinks some aviation rule is being violated.
I guess some people's point is that if the automated restrictions that come with those aren't used maliciously or commonly problematic, it shouldn't really be a big deal for it to exist. In fact, that they do exist is probably a good thing because it prevents amateurs from making potentially hazardous mistakes, given there really aren't any other controls on who can operate them.
From the sound of your initial post, it sounded like you were primarily building your own to evade these automated restrictions, but I'm going to assume you're more of an enthusiast and just don't add those features to what you build, and you build things for that intrinsic joy and customizability. If true, I think given your level of familiarity and expertise, that feels generally reasonable.
Yeah no way in hell I'd ever do something as stupid as fly in a TFR. Everything I do is in order, legally.