wiiawiwb Posted February 24, 2021 Author Share Posted February 24, 2021 His drone didn't have the ability to lookup the GPS coordinates for the last known location. I'm surprised that isn't a standard feature or something available for a nominal monthly fee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bipedalist Posted February 25, 2021 BFF Patron Share Posted February 25, 2021 On 11/3/2020 at 9:48 AM, SWWASAS said: Speaking of BF research vehicles I finished my Treck Farley fat tire bike electric conversion and did some trail riding yesterday. It will really open up some areas for me that I have not been able to get into. I was delighted to note that most people were not aware I was coming up behind them on the trail until I was just a few feet away. That seems to show that it would be easy to catch a BF crossing trail in front of me because it might not hear me coming. Equally delightful was being able to accellerate going up a steep hill just with moderate pedalling to assist the motor. I decided to do a front wheel drive because of simplicity and weight distribution carrying gear on a carrier in the back. The added benifit is that in high torque situations the bike has no tendency to do a wheely. It just pulls the bike through loose dirt and gravel sort of like a front wheel drive car does well in snow. My range appears to be in excess of 50 miles in mountainous areas. Supposedly the battery picks up some capacity after a few charge cycles. I got a 21 AH battery which is large for a bike. That range is both good and bad. Good in that it opens up more backcountry for a day trip but bad if something goes wrong and I cannot make it out before dark. I probably should mount a headlight just in case. Make sure Freck Tarley has a Spot emergency beacon just in case you are out of power in at a distance or get jumped by a cat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWWASAS Posted February 25, 2021 BFF Patron Share Posted February 25, 2021 I carry a personal ELT. I figure my experience with overwater flying and fuel management will come in handy for battery pack management. For those of you that think nothing about getting on an airliner headed for Hawaii, that stretch of water between the mainland and Hawaii is the longest overwater route in the world, with no emergency landing options. There are no islands out there. Two engine alrliners use special rules (ETOPS) and are specially equipped for ETOPs operation. They do not have enough fuel for the trip without re-release near the midpoint of the flight. The problem being if you get half way there, and loose an engine, and have to descend, you do not have legal fuel to continue to the destinaiton or turn around and have legal fuel researves. With the re-release procedure, at the ETOPs point, you theoretically have enough fuel to continue and land. Kind of a smoke and mirrors situation to stay legal. There is a lot of water out there. The Atlantic is like a pond compared with the Pacific. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiiawiwb Posted February 26, 2021 Author Share Posted February 26, 2021 The flight distance and fuel-capacity conundrum is a real eye opener. Thanks for sharing and enlightening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWWASAS Posted February 28, 2021 BFF Patron Share Posted February 28, 2021 On 2/23/2021 at 9:35 AM, Believer57 said: I think that is a wise choice. I've built and flown more drones than most people in the last decade. The DJI Mavic would be a good choice but you need to afford the possibility of losing it. It takes a fair amount of skill and training to keep things safe. Some of my older builds/designs are in the link below from the earlier days of quadcopters. I don't even bother posting my newer store bought drones which have come a long way in just a few short years! You no longer need to know how they even work. Multi-Rotor Copters My antivirus software would not allow me to open that link. It detected something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Believer57 Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 That's weird. It's just a link to one of my Web pages. Maybe it doesn't like unsecure sites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWWASAS Posted February 28, 2021 BFF Patron Share Posted February 28, 2021 Actually I think money better spent, rather than a drone would be to invest in a really high power telescope if you conduct research in an area where there are high ridges or overlooks of possible active areas. The problem with a drone is the same I had when I was using my airplane. When you are moving, everything you see is moving relative to that. My one and only possible BF sighting with my airplane was when an upright, head to foot brown figure, moved the wrong direction relative to my direction of travel. Instead of moving front to back like all fixed objects iike trees, as I flew past very low, it moved back to front to get behind some trees and hide from me. I immediately turned to circle it but it continued to hide behind trees. If you can get on a ridge, and have a stable telescope on a tripod, anything that moves agains the static forest background immediately pops out at you. It is the same principal as an astronomer finding an asteroid or comet moving against the fixed stars in the ngint sky. Better yet, rather than staring though a telescope eyepiece for hours, use an astronomical digital camera feeding a notebook or tablet computer. Some of those astronomy cameras have very low light abilities, and use a process called stacking where they take pictures at intervals. Anything moving in the field of view jumps right out at you. You certainly do not have to worry about your telescope crashing into the trees. Of course if you are in relative flat lands, a drone might be your only option to view from above My suggestion there, based on my experience with the airplane would be to, pause the drone now and then to make the background static in your area of interest, to attempt to see movement relative to the fixed trees. If you do see movement, you might be able to chase it down. That airplane sighting suggests that whatever it was, hides from airplanes. and likely would treat a drone the same and move behind trees for cover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiiawiwb Posted February 28, 2021 Author Share Posted February 28, 2021 I think the telescope idea is a good one. Cover yourself from sight and search everything in sight. Where I god doesn't have much in the way of open areas but a lot of places, especially out West, do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arvedis Posted May 23, 2021 Share Posted May 23, 2021 (edited) Lost mine. j/k, looks like someone lost theirs unless it's a fake. Edited May 23, 2021 by Arvedis 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catmandoo Posted June 22, 2021 Share Posted June 22, 2021 The new FAA drone test launches today for recreational flyers. Operators who fly under the recreational category must have in their possession "The Recreational UAS Safety Test ( TRUST ) completion certificate" and if your drone is over 250 grams, your FAA drone registration number ( paperwork or digital record and the registration number needs to be on the outside of your drone(s). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinchyfoot Posted June 23, 2021 Share Posted June 23, 2021 18 hours ago, Catmandoo said: The new FAA drone test launches today for recreational flyers. Operators who fly under the recreational category must have in their possession "The Recreational UAS Safety Test ( TRUST ) completion certificate" and if your drone is over 250 grams, your FAA drone registration number ( paperwork or digital record and the registration number needs to be on the outside of your drone(s). I literally just got done taking it, it's all common sense and not hard at all. Took 25 minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catmandoo Posted June 23, 2021 Share Posted June 23, 2021 ^^^^ True, not difficult. The reason for the testing is many drone operators have displayed a lack of common sense: near miss to Air Force One, collisions and near misses with commercial aircraft, property damage, hitting humans. Seattle lacks public areas to legally fly..... not allowed at parks or school fields or playgrounds. In 2017. a drone crashed onto the top of the Space Needle while a pyrotechnic crew was setting up fireworks for the 4th of July show. I think that there is a you tube video showing the Space Needle drone crash. The estimate of drone numbers is over 2 million in the US. During a gold rush........sell shovels. For drones, sell batteries and propellers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinchyfoot Posted June 24, 2021 Share Posted June 24, 2021 (edited) 15 hours ago, Catmandoo said: ^^^^ True, not difficult. The reason for the testing is many drone operators have displayed a lack of common sense: near miss to Air Force One, collisions and near misses with commercial aircraft, property damage, hitting humans. Seattle lacks public areas to legally fly..... not allowed at parks or school fields or playgrounds. In 2017. a drone crashed onto the top of the Space Needle while a pyrotechnic crew was setting up fireworks for the 4th of July show. I think that there is a you tube video showing the Space Needle drone crash. The estimate of drone numbers is over 2 million in the US. During a gold rush........sell shovels. For drones, sell batteries and propellers. absolutely: some "geniuses" were flying a pair of Phantom 4's over a local fireworks display (crowded area and aerial explosions, what could go wrong?) a few years back, we now get to take the test because of idiots doing stuff like that. That said, got my cert, doesnt cost anything and wasnt hard. Edited June 24, 2021 by vinchyfoot 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VAfooter Posted May 11, 2022 Admin Share Posted May 11, 2022 Not a drone, and not available to the public yet, but pretty neat: https://redstate.com/alexparker/2022/05/11/move-over-iron-man-real-jet-suited-heroes-may-soon-respond-to-our-emergencies-n562812 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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