Anyone concerned about drones in the future?

[Snowman78]

I own several DJI Phantoms with cameras on them, I have already used mine for situations you talk about working directly for a local police department. Several things that I have used them for with the police were getting good overhead photos and video of a pedestrian/vehicle fatal accident scene. These photos when given to the accident investigator she was blown away and said they would be invaluable and that she was able to pickup things in the photos that she didn't even see in person on the scene. I also used the quadcopter to film an entire high risk no knock raid by the swat team. I was setup several blocks away and popped it up in the air just minutes before they deployed, the swat team loved the video and will be using it for training purposes in the future, a lot of them said that even though they knew it would be there they didn't even notice it at all until I brought it right down to the top of the house.






LIke I said in the ops I was involved with many of the officers didn't even notice it at all, the battery lasted long enough to cover most of the event, and I did a quick battery change and was right back up in the air.

That's super cool! How long is your flight time? What batteries are you using? How many cells and what MAH?

[RCCrawler]

That's super cool! How long is your flight time? What batteries are you using? How many cells and what MAH?

They claim a max flight time of 25 minutes, I've found about 16-20 to be more realistic, that may have something to do with our thin air up here. They use 3s 5400mah packs, they are proprietary packs that have the balancers built in. I have 4 batteries for each quad, and would have no problem putting them both up in flight alternating so no footage was missed if needed, or to gain 2 vantage points.

[Hoser]

Not concerned at all. 'Cept when things like this happen on short final into Bagram...

[nogaroheli]

Not concerned at all. 'Cept when things like this happen on short final into Bagram...

Ooh! Was that the one with the Shadow? That's the type of contact I never want to see.

Edit: Should have read more before the reply since you confirmed it was the shadow incident.

[ColoWyo]

Not concerned at all. 'Cept when things like this happen on short final into Bagram...

Pretty scary stuff. It's amazing how fast things go flying past you in the air. It's usually just enough time to say HOLY SHI............

I've seen so many big birds come out of nowhere and just barely miss the plane. Even when your "slow" on final approach. Especially when they are just below the horizon. We see balloons all the time. You can tell when you are flying over a Red Robin. Red and Blue balloons.