The View From Inside A Fireworks Show 200
kdataman (1687444) writes "There is a breathtaking video on Youtube of someone flying a quadcopter around and through a professional fireworks display. Of course, it was an illegal and dangerous thing to do. It also may inspire someone else to do something even more dangerous. But even so, I have watched it 4 times and get goosebumps every time. An article in Forbes says that unit is a DJI Phantom 2 with a GoPro Hero 3 Silver camera. The fireworks are in West Palm Beach, Florida."
Re:this is why we can't have nice things... (Score:5, Informative)
If you look closer, the fireworks and the drone are over water. So much more likely, drone struck by fireworks makes a splash, fish startled.
Re:Cool video (Score:4, Informative)
"The question remains though, when did this place become digg?"
Right around Dec '04.
Re:kind of like a small town fireworks show? (Score:4, Informative)
Whoops, included the wrong link for the "The whole city looks like this" part - it was supposed to be this link [google.is]. The first one is a link to just a small festival display.
Re:Illegal and Dangerous? (Score:5, Informative)
FAA limits model aircraft to a height of 500 feet
No it doesn't.
The 400 (not 500) foot figure comes from FAA advisory circular 91-57 [faa.gov] made back in 1981, and the key thing about this is that it's *advisory*, not mandatory.
The AMA safety code [modelaircraft.org] says "Not fly higher than approximately 400 feet above ground level within three (3) miles of an airport without notifying the airport operator." -- but those are just safety rules for AMA members (and a good idea for everybody) -- but they do not have the force of law behind them.
Now, the FAA may change the laws in the future, but so far ... this 400 foot ceiling people talk about does not exist. (Some places have restricted airspace ... that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about this blanket 400 foot height limit people keep bringing up that doesn't exist.
Re:Illegal and Dangerous? (Score:3, Informative)
I say try because in a battle between a jet engine with the power to push 400 tons of steel into the sky VS a drone I'm going to put my money on the jet engine lasting long enough for them to turn around and land again.
You would lose that bet. Turbine aircraft can be disabled by stray metal bits as small as a single bolt. An entire drone, with many metal components, would undoubtedly render a turbine engine inoperable. For this reason, airport operators routinely inspect and pick up all debris on runways and taxiways. It's called FOD (foreign object damage), and is an ever-present risk to aircraft.