Wonder how many UFO sightings I could cause on a night with decent wind?
IMG_3946_25 by Forrest Wood, on Flickr
Ran a test flight this evening. Used some party favor light things that have elastic to be worn on fingers & attached them with some sticky back for fabrics Velcro. Note that there are different kinds for different types of fabric.
IMG_4004_25 by Forrest Wood, on Flickr
IMG_4006_25 by Forrest Wood, on Flickr
IMG_4007_25 by Forrest Wood, on Flickr
IMG_4009_30 by Forrest Wood, on Flickr
Neat!
A bunch of years ago, my son and I built a “craft” that had LEDs in a circular pattern that sequenced using a 555 chip and some other electronics. We used helium balloons to fly it over our lake one summer night tethered from a fishing pole. It looked really cool but I never heard of anyone making any reports. This area was known for UFO sightings in the late 80’s when an ultra-light group rigged up their planes with odd lights and flew around in formation. Spooked the hell out of me when I first saw it.
Hey that’s cool! Haven’t figured out yet what to do for a central light - delta kites have a central keel, so it is not flat and open there.
That is great.
Cool!
Someone near us occasionally flies an electric, r/c plane at night that is covered with colorful LEDs or luminescent panels. It flies quietly and looks really impressive.
Yes, they do look nice… BUT - night flying of drone models in the UK is prohibited by law…and flying in daytime anywhere near an airfield is restricted (permission from ATC required and anywhere else 400 feet max). Taking photos and selling them is prohibited without a licence. Its getting dangerous with drones…they have had some very close near misses around London Heathrow and other airports… One guy was fined around $3000 for flying in a prohibited area…They never learn.
Ross, no, they don’t. Once, when I was on approach to the local county airport, ATC told me to be aware of a kite in the final approach path. Sure enough, when I turned final, I saw the kite, a pretty red one. At least it was a visible colour. So I “called traffic” and flew my approach. The kite was a good 100 feet below the glide-path where it was being flown. But it should not have been there.
We in the AKA make an effort to stay a couple miles from airports, the bigger and busier the more the miles, in order to not encourage the government to get involved. But like with so many other things in life, there are that few who don’t think things through.
What really amuses me is that Amazon are trialling deliveries by drone… Can you imagine it? !!..there’s a " lucky dip" fortune in goodies going to be out there just waiting for to be “liberated” (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)Bang!..zonk…Damn!.. another DVD…Next!
Ross, until they go full bore with it, I am taking the attitude that its just a gimmick. A publicity stunt.
Perhaps of interest,
A UPS drone took a three mile trip over open ocean outside of Salem, Mass. this week as part of a series of tests to show unmanned aerial vehicles can safely be used for deliveries in the United States.
The test was meant to simulate delivery of urgently needed medicine from Beverly, Mass. to Children’s Island, which is home to a YMCA day camp.
While only a trial, it’s one of many efforts to gather data to aid the Federal Aviation Administration as it seeks to find ways to safely integrate drones into Americas’s airspace, in this case showing that drones can be trusted to fly farther than the pilot can see.
“It’s a really big step towards having drones do all kinds of deliveries,” said Helen Grenier, chief technology officer for CyPhy Works, the company that built the drone.
A long road ahead
The Massachusetts tests are not the first over-water drone delivery flights. German’s Deutsche Post DHL conducted a similar test two years ago from the German harbor town of Norddeich to Juist, a small island seven and a half miles off shore
Despite the thrilling image of a drone zipping over the waters to a hypothetical sick child, the actuality is a long ways away, said Colin Snow, CEO of Skylogic Research, a California drone consulting firm.
“These kinds of tests are going to happen and we’re going to see more of them in the headlines, but it doesn’t mean that we’re doing to see drone deliveries tomorrow or the next day or next year,” he said.
The FAA is moving slowly and cautiously. The agency is under pressure from Congress to be flexible and not stifle innovation, but it also can’t compromise safety.
And something I posted to Google Plus back in May, from the MIT Technology Review,
"In Global Shift, Poorer Countries Are Increasingly the Early Tech Adopters
In some corners of the world, the poorest populations are the first to benefit from new technologies that are improving health.
- May 11, 2016
Take the example of civilian drones. Despite much talk about gimmicky applications like drone-delivered pizza, the real potential lies in transporting medical supplies. A number of companies like Matternet are working on this in the United States but have been held back by regulations, because until last month it was illegal to fly a commercial drone without approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. However, in Rwanda the government is embracing the technology.
This week, while hosting WEF Africa in its capital city, Kigali, the Rwandan government announced a new nationwide drone delivery service. In partnership with the U.S. drone company Zipline International and partly funded by UPS and my own organization, Gavi, this service will use drones to deliver time-critical emergency medical supplies, such as blood and rabies vaccines, from the capital to Rwanda’s remotest regions. This is an elegant solution to some of the formidable and unpredictable challenges involved in reaching marginalized communities with unpredictable needs."
David Maynard said:
Ross, until they go full bore with it, I am taking the attitude that its just a gimmick. A publicity stunt.
Me too…but they have a test area in the UK - guarded by gentlemen in dark glasses all looking like NCIS types…all good for a laugh I suppose.
East of Pittsburgh the military flies military drones. On e day this past summer, 2 military drones went over the road I was driving on, in a loose formation, followed by a Blackhawk helicopter. It kind of made me a bit nervous, but not as nervous as I was the day I cam home to find a Heinkel 111, in full Wehrmacht markings, circling my neighborhood.
I could see if Amazon used larger drones to take packages from airport to airport, but I cant see them doing door to door delivery. Even with flying airport to airport, there are so many logistical and organizational issue to overcome, I still think its more a stunt at this point.
