Tag: Accident

BBC Series “Casualty” depicts typical drone scare scenario

BBC Series “Casualty” depicts typical drone scare scenario

November 22, 2016 13:43 | By | Add a Comment

BBC One’s TV drama series “Casualty” recently took up that whole drone topic, and decided to go for a fair and balanced, even realistic depiction of the difficulties and challenges of the growing popularity of hobby multirotor models.

Except no, that’s not what happened. Instead they went all-out on the ultimate drone scare scenario: small toy multicopter collides with full scale helicopter and sets off a chain of event that causes massive destruction and loss of life, complete with buildings collapsing.

If you really want to see this fearmongering sequence, check it out after the break. And always remember: RC toys are extremely dangerous and can kill hundreds of people. At least, according to BBC.

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Multicopter almost hits Marcel Hirscher during slalom race

Multicopter almost hits Marcel Hirscher during slalom race

December 23, 2015 14:00 | By | Add a Comment

A hefty camera-toting multicopter crashed on the track of the mens slalom race at Madonna di Campiglio – just a few meters behind Austrian athlete Marcel Hirscher.

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Rumor has it that the operator of this craft, a professional working for an AV production company hired by Italian TV, tried to steer away from the crowd and thus crashed on the slope.

Needless to say, this is not the news we need right now, and it’s water on the mills of those who want to essentially put and end to the entire hobby, except for small toys lighter than 250 grams. The sad fact is that RC models are sometimes involved in deadly accidents, for example back in 2006 when the hungarian military was suspected to have jammed the 35MHz band, causing the plane of a german pilot flying at a competition to kill two spectators, or like the Swiss accident of 2010, when a scale model of an AT-6 plummeted down on a 45-year old man, also lethally injuring him.

The thing to keep in mind here however is that life is full of risks and one cannot have perfect safety. And if it were true that we ought to do whatever is neccessary to curb any risks, then individuals would not be allowed to drive cars, and there would be no inflatable swimming pools sold in stores. We mitigate these risks by driving carefully and by watching over our kids so they don’t drown. It’s not perfect, but we do get the benefit of individual transportation, water playtime in our own garden, and the joy of RC model flight.

Perhaps flying a large and heavy quadrotor at a big sports event is not the best way to go about this though.

Full video footage of Marcel Hirscher’s run and the crash after the break.

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Phantom flies onto White House lawn

Phantom flies onto White House lawn

January 27, 2015 13:24 | By | Add a Comment

A quadcopter enthusiast apparently lost control over his DJI Phantom, which proceeded to fly over to the white house and crashed onto the lawn, where it was found and recovered by Secret Service agents.

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Folks, there’s two lessons here:

1) Flying any RC craft, regardless of whether you do it for recreation or not, within D.C. is illegal. There’s a 10nm FRZ (Flight Restricted Zone) which prohibits, among other things: balloon operation, model rocketry, model aircraft operations, UAS, test flights, private aircraft operating from a ship or private/corporate yacht, etc.

2) If you own a Phantom or Phantom 2, and you haven’t replaced the compass mounting on your landing struts yet, you risk your quadcopter flying away uncontrollably. This means your quadcopter may start flying into a random direction once you enable position hold or return home modes, with it not obeying any no-fly-zones programmed into the firmware. It will also not obey any user-defined geofencing or range limits.

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If your screws or the metal mounting mechanism is magnetizable, you run the risk of compass decalibration, even during flight. If you fail to do this, you run the risk of damaging other people’s property or lives.

In all the Phantoms we examined, the screws were magnetizable and the reason why compass calibration was lost. We recommend you replace them with non-magnetizable screws, for example, brass screws as used by Horizon on their 350QX.

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DJI Phantom collides with Sydney Bridge, captures interesting footage

DJI Phantom collides with Sydney Bridge, captures interesting footage

November 26, 2013 10:11 | By | Add a Comment

Edward Prescott flew his quadcopter around Sydney Bridge last month when apparently his camera mounting failed and the drone crashed into the bridge when it tried to get home via GPS auto-return. Landing on railway tracks it prompted a train to stop and its driver to pick it up.

The onboard GoPro recorded everything, including the curious faces of the railway staff.

Interestingly, Prescott got his drone back pretty quickly from NSW Police. These days you’d expect jailtime for “accidental terrorism” or something. That said: Flying in densely populated areas is not a smart idea. Especially not if your experience is limited to flying a DJI Phantom out of the box.

Check out the video of this luckily-harmless accident after the break.

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