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Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

denverpost.com

71–80 of 139 posts

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

#71

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.

Firefox + ublock origin, my friend

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

#72

When I fly a personal drone I have to keep it within line of sight, I thought if you were doing otherwise you’d have to register with the FAA.

Lots of people are seeing the drones. If you start and land dark it's probably pretty easy to have the drones in your line of sight without being seen yourself.

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

#73
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I wonder about that given recent news ( https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2019/12/20/baltim... ).

Myabe law enforcement feels left out of the game.

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

#74
post #70

It may currently be legal, but this isn't an acceptable long term framework. If you're flying below the regulation ceiling, you should need a line of sight operator and landowner approval. Above that you should need a transponder and rough flight plan – just like regular aviation. At no point should an operation be opaque to local law enforcement.

If there is no property being damaged, no law being violated, why does law enforcement need to be involved at all?

Law enforcement doesn't have to have an answer or info about every single event.

If I'm driving a car down the highway, law enforcement doesn't need to know where I am going or why. I'm not breaking any laws and not infringing on anyone's rights.

As a pilot I can go fly my plane at any altitude I wish as long as I am not entering any controlled airspace. I don't have to ask or tell anyone what I'm doing.

So why do they need to know why I'm flying my drone and where I'm going?

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

#76

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.

A 6ft wingspan fixed wing "drone" is easy enough to build for several hours of flight endurance. It won't be able to exactly hover, but it could fly circles at slow speed, making the impression of barely moving if positioned high enough up.

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

#78

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 used to work for the Denver post - them and quite a few other newspapers have been bought out by a venture (vulture) capital firm that lays off most of the staff and then makes nonsensical moves like this to dry and drive short term revenue. Absolutely brutal loss of historied local news organizations.

It’s a huge shame this is happening, but more of a shame that no at the paper successfully innovated to survive the switch to digital.

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

#79
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…

Not to mention shooting into the air launches the projectile in a very large path that could kill people. Never fire into the air!

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

#80
post #70

It may currently be legal, but this isn't an acceptable long term framework. If you're flying below the regulation ceiling, you should need a line of sight operator and landowner approval. Above that you should need a transponder and rough flight plan – just like regular aviation. At no point should an operation be opaque to local law enforcement.

> you should need a transponder and rough flight plan – just like regular aviation

For the most part neither of those things are requirements for regular aviation.

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