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Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

denverpost.com

41–50 of 139 posts

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#41

6ft hovering drones? Hovered over a town all night? These are unusual drones. You have to put engineering effort in to keep a drone up for more than 30 minutes and 6ft is really big for a hovering drone.

Right? At that point you’re trading off between useful payload and batteries. I’m wondering if maybe they’re witnessing a loiter pattern, and misrepresenting is as a hover. These likely aren’t aerospace Engineers giving quotes here.

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#42
post #41

6ft hovering drones? Hovered over a town all night? These are unusual drones. You have to put engineering effort in to keep a drone up for more than 30 minutes and 6ft is really big for a hovering drone.

Right? At that point you’re trading off between useful payload and batteries. I’m wondering if maybe they’re witnessing a loiter pattern, and misrepresenting is as a hover. These likely aren’t aerospace Engineers giving quotes here.

A 6ft fixed wing drone could fairly easily achieve what’s described in the article if it was really a loiter, not a hover. A multirotor would be an engineering feat.

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know neither farming nor IR technology so let me ask: is there really publicly available technology that allows a person to identify a crop at a few hundred feet at those speeds in the dark from a drone?

If it's an indoor grow, then the tried and true method is to look for unusual heat sources. E.g. a house with a roof that's bright in IR, where all the neighboring roofs are dark. If it's an outdoor grow, I have no idea.

With satellite remote-sensing (for example Landsat) it was designed to identify different types of vegetation using wave-lengths, including ones not visible to the human eye. I imagine if you're much closer it could be possible to identify plant-types.

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#44
post #19

I like the advise to not shoot down the drones, as this can cause a battery fire. Seems very US-American to me.

Sad but true. The Goodyear blimp is a regular target of some trigger happy folks. If it flies it probably gets shot at least occasionally

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#45

Seems like this is the new norm and while I do feel the skies should be free to an extent I know this would concern me if it were happening over my head.

No reason to be concerned as long as local laws are being followed, which it sounds like is the case. Below 400ft above ground is fair game for everyone, as normal air traffic does not fly that low, making it perfectly safe.

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#46

Seems like this is the new norm and while I do feel the skies should be free to an extent I know this would concern me if it were happening over my head.

Just out of curiosity, why would it concern you? I live in a semi-rural tourism-heavy town and get a fair few drones in the vicinity of my house due to a major tourist site nearby, and it never really bothers me unless they fly low enough for the sound to get annoying.

They might be using cameras on my home or family. They might be testing some kind of radar or other tech that has a health impact. They might be a competitor assessing my crops. More broadly their very presence is a trespass on my right to live and be left alone on my own property.

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#47
post #19

I like the advise to not shoot down the drones, as this can cause a battery fire. Seems very US-American to me.

  I like the advise to not shoot down the drones, as this can cause a battery fire
They're not good eating, anyway, no matter how you prepare them.

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#49

Off topic, but in Reader View the page seems to apply a Caesar Cipher with shift one on the content after a couple of seconds to make reading annoying.

Seems a bit silly, you can just tell Safari to not allow Reader mode.

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity, why would it concern you? I live in a semi-rural tourism-heavy town and get a fair few drones in the vicinity of my house due to a major tourist site nearby, and it never really bothers me unless they fly low enough for the sound to get annoying.

They might be using cameras on my home or family. They might be testing some kind of radar or other tech that has a health impact. They might be a competitor assessing my crops. More broadly their very presence is a trespass on my right to live and be left alone on my own property.

Radar at legal power levels does not have a health impact.
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