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A mystery person who spies on theme parks from the sky
- jedberg 3y agoI can see why they don't want to be known. The parks would probably have a field day with their lawyers. Not to mention the FAA, since it looks like they are most likely violating line of site drone rules, unless they are doing it in a helicopter or plane.
- KindAndFriendly 3y agoHow does it hurt the interest of the parks? Doesn't it ultimatley draw the attention to new, upcoming rides and attractions?
- jedberg 3y agoIt ruins the surprise. If they wanted people to see it they wouldn’t put up facades to block the construction.
- dumbfounder 3y agoFacades are also for preventing passersby from seeing an eyesore. I am sure they know about this, and if they really wanted it to stop they would send one of their umptillion lawyers after them.
- duxup 3y agoI think the people who run the parks know that super fans are a big part of the theme park world and that you can’t keep everything from them. In fact they seem to embrace the super fans and even their rumors.
- mathgeek 3y agoIt’s more likely they are still utilizing the tourist helicopters that fly near the park daily. Drones would stand out near the parks.
- logdap 3y ago> I asked them if they are a helicopter or plane pilot, and they replied simply: "A very good customer."
- hindsightbias 3y agoWhat I would say if I were a stealthy droner.
- deepsun 3y agoTo me it looks like they work for the parks. Both controlling and a good Twitter advertisement.
- duxup 3y agoIf the parks wanted to find out and take action I think they already would have. As noted elsewhere it wouldn’t be hard to figure this one out. As far as I can tell this guy is a pretty benign actor.
- esskay 3y agoFWIW a lot of helecopters fly over WDW these days. Having just returned last week I'd see a good 5 or so helecopters flying over and around the parks every day. It is a tad annoying at this point but given there are no restrictions on doing so there's little Disney could do to stop it.
- pcurve 3y agoWow, great to see boingboing is still around. Anyway, based on some research, it looks like the person takes pictures from helicopter tour around the premise.
- gghffguhvc 3y agoCorrect. https://twitter.com/bioreconstruct/status/1127406564069990400 https://twitter.com/bioreconstruct/status/112740656406999040...
- jansan 3y agoboingboing sending life signals is for me the real story.
- myself248 3y agoOh no, don't spoil it. Too much attention is just gonna turn loose a bunch of sleuths who will reverse-engineer the time the photos were taken, cross it against ADS-B tracks, and put an end to the fun.
- jonas-w 3y agoTheir most recent images were taken at Universal's Epic Universe, and a quick glance at the recordings from the previous day on Flightradar24 reveals that one helicopter has been repeatedly circling this location over the past few days while doing nothing else. At least two other helicopters I noticed did this as well, but not as frequently. (I'm not saying that this must be this person, but it could be very likely) It isn't difficult to discover this, so Universal Studios probably would have done something about it by now (I guess?). EDIT: The helicopter seems to be owned by a company that does tours of all the theme parks there: https://www.orlandohelitours.com/ https://www.orlandohelitours.com/
- yellow_lead 3y agoWhat could universal do about it? I don't think they could easily get a restricted airspace above their parks, even if under construction.
- irrational 3y agoAnd why would they want to? This is free marketing/advertising for them.
- DonHopkins 3y agoThe way it's going, DeInsanetis is probably going to order F15's to fly sorties over and B52's to drop bombs on Disney World. DeSantis Looks to Punish Disney World Guests in Latest Retaliatory Move Against Disney: https://blogmickey.com/2023/04/desantis-looks-to-punish-disney-world-guests-in-latest-retaliatory-move-against-disney/ https://blogmickey.com/2023/04/desantis-looks-to-punish-disn... Ron DeSantis threatens to build prison next to Disney World as he continues vendetta against company: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/desantis-disney-world-prison-florida-b2321471.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...
- maverick2007 3y agoWoah, surprised seeing bio on the front page of HN. I'm a massive theme park fan (which you can probably see from my comment history here) and I follow Orlando theme parks particularly closely. Bio is a huge asset to the community and their tweets are super widely spread on all of the forums that I visit. Like the article says, we don't know much about them except that they likely do use one of those tourist helicop-tours that are all over Orlando. I personally don't think they're employed by the parks or anything, I think they're just a super fan like I am that has carved out their own niche in the fandom. I know that if I lived in Orlando, I'd likely do something similar. In case anyone is interested, Bio has been covering the construction of the first ground up new theme park in Orlando in 20+ years: Epic Universe. It's been so much fun watching the park turn from an empty field to where it is now [1] and we know as much as we do thanks to Bio and others like them [1] https://twitter.com/bioreconstruct/status/1664068701757272065 https://twitter.com/bioreconstruct/status/166406870175727206...
- etrautmann 3y agoI didn’t realize that theme park fandom was a thing. I suppose it may be hard to articulate, but I’m curious if you can share what you find fascinating about them?
- 14 3y agoIf the internet has thought me one thing it is that there is a fandom for everything
- zapdrive 3y agoIf there is a fandom for buying someone's bathwater, a theme park fandom doesn't sound really that out there!
- maverick2007 3y agoLike you said, it's difficult to articulate but let me try. Growing up in FL, my family would go a lot of parks even though I was deathly afraid of roller coasters and most rides to be honest (wish I could go back in time and tell myself that I'd regret not riding all these classic now removed Universal and Disney rides). In my early teen years that fear turned to obsession and I was devouring all the information about parks as I could get, especially fansites and Travel Channel specials since it was at the very early days of social media. I eventually got over the fear and the obsession has waxed and waned over the years but I still love the parks as much as ever. For a while my fandom was driven by roller coasters and especially the forces and feelings you get on them (the acceleration of a launched coaster and airtime in particular) but as I've matured a little, I think I find the escapism of the themed entertainment more and more appealing. The world is a complex and sometimes awful place. But in these parks I can forget all that, I can relax and watch other people's happiness or take part in epic stories on rides. It's hard to describe but they just feel like home. I was at Universal in FL a couple of weeks ago and I think I rode like 5 rides all weekend even though I had skip the line passes? I just enjoy being there and taking in the themeing and atmosphere.
- m3kw9 3y agoYeah ok, why not just go there when it opens. It’s like sneaking at plots and sets in a new movie, a great way to spoil it
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 3y agoSome people are interested in how things are built and work, not just the black box that does stuff for them.
- hnbad 3y agoThis reminds me of when I first realized some people would genuinely get upset if I tried to understand how magic tricks were performed. It was completely unfathomable to me that some people would prefer not to understand it and genuinely enjoyed a trick less if someone had "ruined the magic" for them. On the other hand I very much enjoyed shows like Penn & Teller's Fool Us, which were based around the idea that there are known ways to perform the various tricks but the real art was in doing it in such a way you genuinely couldn't tell even when you knew (or in order to win the show: finding a new way to do it and then performing it in such a way that experienced magicians still couldn't tell).
- martyvis 3y agoI very much fall in to that category having been a "Texas Tank Watcher" (the self-appropriated nickname given to those keeping a close eye on the SpaceX development in Boca Chica) for the past 4 years or so.
- hnbad 3y agoIt's a sign of maturity to come to the understanding that different people like different things for different reasons and sometimes even the same things for different reasons. You can go to a theme park and enjoy the experience and let that be the end of it and that's perfectly fine and valid. Or you can follow the design and construction of attractions at dozens of theme parks, deeply immerse yourself in the history of it and the people involved and analyze aerial pictures on a near-daily basis. Neither way is "doing it wrong" and both can happily coexist alongside each other as long as there's an understanding that they're interested in theme parks for different reasons. It's like complaining about literary studies being a thing because you prefer reading books for the experience. Of course there are less reputable sites which abuse the information generated by these people to produce clickbait speculation aimed at "casual" theme park goers but that isn't the fault of those generating that information, that's the fault of the sites trying to turn a buck with it.
- post_break 3y agoI have been to Orlando a few times. There is a helicopter tour that flies over the parks every hour or so. Him saying he's a very good customer means he probably gets a discount for flying with them so much and just brings a good camera and zoom lens.