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Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

denverpost.com

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

#51

Post by pathseeker »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #27
draugadrotten wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They're obeying the law The article states that small drones must be flown during daylight hours according to the regulations. These drones are flown at night, which means they would be in violation of those rules.

The article also suggests that these are not small drones and thus likely not covered under the regulations mentioned. Also, from the article: "they emerge each night around 7 p.m. and disappear around 10 p.m.". 7-10 p.m. isn't night, it's evening. Yes, in the US it's (probably?) dark by then this time of the year, but maybe they're following some regulation that is defined in terms of time of the day, and not the am…

Sunset is 4:39PM right now in Fort Collins.

Night is after sunset in common English: https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/8954/the-exact-time-...

Also for the FAA:

14 CFR § 1.1: "Night means the time between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight, as published in the Air Almanac, converted to local time."

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

#52

Post by pathseeker »

crca wrote: post #45
yellow_lead wrote: post #3

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.

>No reason to be concerned as long as local laws are being followed

Well unless you care about privacy, the potential for stuff crashing on you/your property, and/or noise pollution.

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

#53

Post by duelingjello »

crca wrote: post #42
crca wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

30 ft wingspan powered glider drone made from composite materials would be even more energy-efficient. Multirotor drones have low energy densities and waste it rapidly.

Other aspects to consider are that the “drones” are replaced by others as batteries deplete or that the drones aren’t really there as long as people believe.

It’s possible that someone is doing this as a hobby for artistic, conspiracy theory “reconnaissance“ or benign data gathering-purposes or conducting some sort of investigation or intelligence gathering.

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

#54

Post by pathseeker »

openthc wrote: post #17
avs733 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but they also would seem to be less likely to have insurance and more likely, as a result, to guard their property with some level of force?

All cannabis farms I've seen (n>500) have insurance, expensive policy but they still have it. And they are obligated by state law to report any theft

Well then those aren't exactly illegal crops are they?

>People robbed of illegal property usually do not report such losses to the authorities.

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

#55

Post by hatsunearu »

cmroanirgo wrote: post #34
folli wrote: 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.

> He urged people not to try to shoot the drones down, both because their batteries can cause intense fires and also because shooting a drone is a federal crime. Shooting an inanimate object hovering over your property is illegal? ... on the federal level? I suppose it would have to be, but... Edit: Now I know: "Under Title 18 of the United State Code 32, the sabotage of an unmanned aircraft could carry a maximum sen…

I mean, same reason why you can't shoot down an airliner flying 30,000 feet above your house with a homemade Stinger missile or whatever--the airspace is not your property

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

#56

Post by kalleboo »

dmlittle wrote: post #6
saagarjha wrote: post #2

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.

Maybe it's an extension you've got installed? I wasn't able to reproduce it (on macOS Safari). What reader are you using?

It happens when the page pops up the "please disable your adblocker" popover if it detects you're blocking ads.

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

#57

Post by wuschb »

shiftpgdn wrote: post #16
tornato7 wrote: post #13

Does anyone have an alternate source? This site is horrendous on mobile.

My god this has to be one of the worst news sites I've ever seen. Do these publishers have no shame? I got two full screen video ads with audio on mobile and it dragged my brand new Pixel phone to a crawl.

Nextdns.io network wide blocking at dns level... Works like a charm

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

#58

Post by dotancohen »

saagarjha wrote: post #2

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.

I hope that is the version that Google indexes, so that this page will not rank for the target keywords.

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

#60

Post by FrozenVoid »

Could it be new Thz radars being tested? They could fit in a large drone easily and be used for close flight formation(they have collision detection) and also to scan nearby terrain(they penetrate vegetation cover). https://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/b/industrial_strength/archive/2017... https://www.foxtechfpv.com/77ghz-millimeter-wave-obstacle-av... (similar stuff costs about 300$, but these drones have probably something much more powerful and heavier, for military or government agencies) https://www.i-micronews.com/radar-to-spot-the-bad-guys-from-... (China is developing something similar too) “We mounted a prototype on a drone and recently conducted test flights in Shaanxi province,” Li said. “A typical application of the radar in the future can be drone-based to help with large-scale detection of explosive-carrying terrorists or the placement of improvised explosive devices. This will be much more efficient and safer than deploying a lot of security personnel to do the same work.”
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