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There's a common joke among us multicopter pilots about DJI Phantom owners. The majority (by quite a large margin) of these 'close calls' are caused by regular

There's a common joke among us multicopter pilots about DJI Phantom owners. The majority (by quite a large margin) of these 'close calls' are caused by regular Joes buying a $1000 DJI Phantom and running it with the throttle all the way open to see how high they can go. Sure, it makes for a cool shot with the camera, but it's wayyyyy far outside of the AMA and FAA guidelines of 400' altitude ceiling. Personally, I'm glad that the FAA is documenting it. I just hope that the incredibly daft actions of a few don't ruin it for the rest of us.

danellis 11y ago
As an owner of DJI Phantom multicopter it makes me sad to hear that we're all tarred with the same brush. Out of interest, what makes you "multicopter pilots" and other people just "owners"?
- nathancahill 11y ago
  That's part of the knock. DJI Phantom owners are stereotypically kids (or adults) who know nothing about multicopters, but fly them around breaking all kinds of safety rules.
  - danellis 11y ago
    Does anyone know much about multicopters before they buy one? I know I didn't. Pretty much all I did was look up the regulations in various countries and then had at it.
    - tomswartz07 11y ago
      Agruably, there's a significant difference between: 1: Collecting parts, soldering them together, programming and tuning a device, learning about how it all works, failing sometimes, then being able to fly 100'+ in the air and 2: Buying a pre-built quad and skimming the FAA regulations. Unbox it and walk outside. Crank the throttle all the way to max and stare with glee as GPS keeps it at 10,000 feet right over your house.
      - mentat 11y ago
        This ends up sounding like "kids these days". Did you build your own computer? From the gates up? Oh, well then you're not a real engineer... It's usually an ego based distinction too.
        TeMPOraL 11y ago
        Maybe, but it's hard to argue there isn't something to it. I think for each technology you can distinguish three types of users. 1) Those who care about it for itself - in this case the ones assembling their own drones, or willing to at least understand them on a deep level. 2) Those who treat it as just a tool, means to an end - think people doing air photos for money with drones. And 3), tourists - those who don't know a thing about the tech, don't want to know about it, but come drooling because it's cool and shiny. Usually the third group does stupid shit (as in stupid stupid, not smart stupid), the first one gets angry at "kids these days", and the second doesn't care as long as it doesn't affect their use of their tools. I find this model to accurately describe quite a lot interactions in the general tech sphere. So for instance in programming, the group 1) is what you call "hackers", and the primary folks who get religious over editors or programming languages. Group 2) mostly looks at it and says "meh". Those are the "product-focused" people, the "professionals". Group 3) are kids that try to flock to CS because it's cool and pays a lot. Or, Google screwed up the deployment of Glass, because they marketed and sold it to rich people from Group 3) instead of Group 1) (Glass itself wasn't a good enough tool to create the Group 2) around it.). Or all the remarks about how technology companies dumb down everything. That's Group 1) complaining that Group 2) designs stuff for Group 3).
    - mbrameld 11y ago
      If you were building your own vs buying one pre-built you would need to do a lot of research first. That would involve reading a lot of blogs and forums and watching a lot of videos. During that time you're bound to pick up a few things not directly related to which parts to buy.
- tomswartz07 11y ago
  You're a pilot of a quadcopter. You're an owner of a specific make/model of quadcopter. Incidentally, I don't intend to knock the whole of all DJI owners (the Inspire is an amazing piece of hardware), it just seems to be the stereotype that DJI owners are more fast and loose with the regulations.
rory096 11y ago
>400m 400 feet!
- tomswartz07 11y ago
  Good catch. Edited.
roosterjm2k2 11y ago
And those of us that have been flying for years joke about the multicopter gyro stabilized computer guided "pilots" the same way. "Drones" ... they are going to be the death of RC as a hobby.... thanks guys...
- Brian-Puccio 11y ago
  I actually started asking around locally about getting started with RC planes because I think in a few years I won't be able to.
BufordTJustice 11y ago
It's amazing, I'm not really in tune with the state of the art with drones (but fly a little Cherokee Arrow, to give some perspective, and have friends that have been RC enthusiasts going back significantly). I looked on Youtube for that DJI Phantom you mentioned, and all I can say is, wow. It is truly amazing how poorly behaved and entitled some of the operators are, especially in comparison to a lot of the RC guys that have proceeded them. I remember that the RC planes only could be flow in restricted areas (unpopulated, usually), and you had to be real careful regardless. I know those guys were just happy the city let them fly their RC planes at their little airstrip near the dump, and tended to be respectful of airspace. In contrast a lot of these drone owners act like they should be able to fly everywhere at any time, and have their craft be exempt from the same governance that aircraft seem to obey, and RC at least seemed to use to have to adhere to. I guess it's even more crazy to me that the vast majority of Youtube comments seem to like to compare FAA regulations to some sort of facist plot. I really don't understand why drone and RC pilots don't have to obey similar if not the same kind of regulations planes do, as it would probably save us from so many stupid incidents, like the drone recently preventing fire helicopters from handling that highway accident in California. [1] I am also shocked that the UVA student flying that drone over campus [2] only got a $10,000 fine; just watching that video of the flight made me cringe so much, at the amount of dangerous and recklessly negligent behavior. I am a little worried that as RC gets democratized in the form of drones, and grows way beyond the hobbyist following it had in yesteryear that we're going to have to clamp down in a significant way because of the lack of understanding/caring and the abuses that get perpetrated by a contingent of asinine, but hopefully few, reckless drone operators. [1] - http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/18/us/california-freeway-fire/ http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/18/us/california-freeway-fire/ [2] - http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/9/4821094/remote-aircraft-pilot-fights-faa-fine-could-change-drone-rules http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/9/4821094/remote-aircraft-pi...

danellis 11y ago

As an owner of DJI Phantom multicopter it makes me sad to hear that we're all tarred with the same brush. Out of interest, what makes you "multicopter pilots" and other people just "owners"?

nathancahill 11y ago
That's part of the knock. DJI Phantom owners are stereotypically kids (or adults) who know nothing about multicopters, but fly them around breaking all kinds of safety rules.
- danellis 11y ago
  Does anyone know much about multicopters before they buy one? I know I didn't. Pretty much all I did was look up the regulations in various countries and then had at it.
  - tomswartz07 11y ago
    Agruably, there's a significant difference between: 1: Collecting parts, soldering them together, programming and tuning a device, learning about how it all works, failing sometimes, then being able to fly 100'+ in the air and 2: Buying a pre-built quad and skimming the FAA regulations. Unbox it and walk outside. Crank the throttle all the way to max and stare with glee as GPS keeps it at 10,000 feet right over your house.
    - mentat 11y ago
      This ends up sounding like "kids these days". Did you build your own computer? From the gates up? Oh, well then you're not a real engineer... It's usually an ego based distinction too.
      - TeMPOraL 11y ago
        Maybe, but it's hard to argue there isn't something to it. I think for each technology you can distinguish three types of users. 1) Those who care about it for itself - in this case the ones assembling their own drones, or willing to at least understand them on a deep level. 2) Those who treat it as just a tool, means to an end - think people doing air photos for money with drones. And 3), tourists - those who don't know a thing about the tech, don't want to know about it, but come drooling because it's cool and shiny. Usually the third group does stupid shit (as in stupid stupid, not smart stupid), the first one gets angry at "kids these days", and the second doesn't care as long as it doesn't affect their use of their tools. I find this model to accurately describe quite a lot interactions in the general tech sphere. So for instance in programming, the group 1) is what you call "hackers", and the primary folks who get religious over editors or programming languages. Group 2) mostly looks at it and says "meh". Those are the "product-focused" people, the "professionals". Group 3) are kids that try to flock to CS because it's cool and pays a lot. Or, Google screwed up the deployment of Glass, because they marketed and sold it to rich people from Group 3) instead of Group 1) (Glass itself wasn't a good enough tool to create the Group 2) around it.). Or all the remarks about how technology companies dumb down everything. That's Group 1) complaining that Group 2) designs stuff for Group 3).
  - mbrameld 11y ago
    If you were building your own vs buying one pre-built you would need to do a lot of research first. That would involve reading a lot of blogs and forums and watching a lot of videos. During that time you're bound to pick up a few things not directly related to which parts to buy.
tomswartz07 11y ago
You're a pilot of a quadcopter. You're an owner of a specific make/model of quadcopter. Incidentally, I don't intend to knock the whole of all DJI owners (the Inspire is an amazing piece of hardware), it just seems to be the stereotype that DJI owners are more fast and loose with the regulations.

rory096 11y ago

>400m 400 feet!

tomswartz07 11y ago
Good catch. Edited.

roosterjm2k2 11y ago

And those of us that have been flying for years joke about the multicopter gyro stabilized computer guided "pilots" the same way. "Drones" ... they are going to be the death of RC as a hobby.... thanks guys...

Brian-Puccio 11y ago
I actually started asking around locally about getting started with RC planes because I think in a few years I won't be able to.

BufordTJustice 11y ago

It's amazing, I'm not really in tune with the state of the art with drones (but fly a little Cherokee Arrow, to give some perspective, and have friends that have been RC enthusiasts going back significantly). I looked on Youtube for that DJI Phantom you mentioned, and all I can say is, wow. It is truly amazing how poorly behaved and entitled some of the operators are, especially in comparison to a lot of the RC guys that have proceeded them. I remember that the RC planes only could be flow in restricted areas (unpopulated, usually), and you had to be real careful regardless. I know those guys were just happy the city let them fly their RC planes at their little airstrip near the dump, and tended to be respectful of airspace. In contrast a lot of these drone owners act like they should be able to fly everywhere at any time, and have their craft be exempt from the same governance that aircraft seem to obey, and RC at least seemed to use to have to adhere to. I guess it's even more crazy to me that the vast majority of Youtube comments seem to like to compare FAA regulations to some sort of facist plot. I really don't understand why drone and RC pilots don't have to obey similar if not the same kind of regulations planes do, as it would probably save us from so many stupid incidents, like the drone recently preventing fire helicopters from handling that highway accident in California. [1] I am also shocked that the UVA student flying that drone over campus [2] only got a $10,000 fine; just watching that video of the flight made me cringe so much, at the amount of dangerous and recklessly negligent behavior. I am a little worried that as RC gets democratized in the form of drones, and grows way beyond the hobbyist following it had in yesteryear that we're going to have to clamp down in a significant way because of the lack of understanding/caring and the abuses that get perpetrated by a contingent of asinine, but hopefully few, reckless drone operators. [1] - http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/18/us/california-freeway-fire/ http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/18/us/california-freeway-fire/ [2] - http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/9/4821094/remote-aircraft-pilot-fights-faa-fine-could-change-drone-rules http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/9/4821094/remote-aircraft-pi...