UAV and Drones

The debate over drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) has been long and hard. How to operate them and what are the potential problems and benefits of having these devices. In a episode of 60 minutes, the issue of uav's over America begins.


As a hobbyist I had the opportunity to purchase, assemble and fly a few of described UAV's in the video. I purchased the DJI FC40 multipcopter UAV and the Parrot AR Drone 2.0; it was easy to get started flying once I completed the assembly and the pre-flight checklist. The parrot interface was friendly but controlling it from a IPad was a bit difficult. So to control the Ar Drone 2.0, I purchased the NVIDEA Shield for better maneuverability. Once I downloaded the interface app from android and my parrot account, it was easier to fly. Here I took a picture of me standing in the front of my driveway and a rooftop picture of my rear yard to give to my insurance agent for the roof damage from a storm.


My second purchase was from DJI, the infamous Phantom UAV. I did my homework regarding the various types of vehicles available. As a weekend hobbyist, I decided to select the cheapest of the multiple selections. The FC40 with a first person view (fpv) camera. This was ideal to travel over 300 ft into the air and for short range camera flight to get those really neat pictures. Once I saw the effectiveness of the wonderful video and pictures; it was very clear how the regulations will begin to flow.
In this video I took a flight to view the park. Soon afterwards I was being followed by the FBI and other law enforcement officials trying to discover, what it is that I am flying in the sky. It was okay, since I am a retired police officer, that  their covers was blown very easily. One UC even honked his horn at me and said that thing is just freakin cool.

You know what, he was right!One of my friends, another retired officer stated that in the hands of the wrong person it could be dangerous. He laughed and stated: "Leave it to you Tillis, to cause havoc after being retired from law enforcement". We laughed about it and I decided to make "HAV("-")K" my UAV pilot name.  Although I was having fun taking pictures with my hobby uav, the debate has gone from freedom of expression, press versus government regulation and citizen protection. I predict the days of flying any UAV in the American skies won't be so affordable or obtainable in the future.


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