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Curious about were the drones are flying?

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GreyGeek:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) obtained through a  Freedom  Of  Information Act request (FOIA) a list  of who is flying them and where:  https://www.eff.org/foia/faa-drone-authorizations

Not all of the users of Drones are government or military.  Some are educational institutions.   What has become very popular among hobbyists and academics is called a "Quadcopter", which has four propellers and is very agile.  FAA restricts private/personal drones that you or I could fly to 400 feet in  altitude and no closer that  3 miles from an airport.   It should be obvious that those who fly any kind of personal "drone" abide by FAA regulations.  As a pilot I'd hate to fly into a 2 or 3 lb quadcopter.  With all that metal and batteries it would be worse than flying into a duck.

Most of the personal quadcopters are less than 18" in diameter and can't fly very high because of the limitations of the remote controller and the inability of their motors to fight against breezes more than 4 mph.  But, some can be over 3' wide and carry significant loads.  I saw a video  of one that had an automatic handgun attached,  if the video wasn't cgi.  You can see all kinds by doing a "quadcopter" search  on YouTube.  You'll also see videos of folks breaking the law by  flying higher than 400 ft.   I suspect that in the near future the FAA will  restrict  the weights  of any kind craft capable of hoovering to less than 18" maximum width.

There is a MUCH bigger, zoomable Google Map of authorized drone flights here: http://tinyurl.com/b8nvtsr
I was surprised to note  that many have been  flying for several years already, especially the academic drones, some of which are no longer flying because the COA (Certificate of Authorization) has expired, probably because their research project was completed or the grant money ran out.   Some  of the "drones" are scale models of  commercially available private aircraft.  A military type Raven drone was flying over Missoula, MT, to track forest fires, but its COA expired.

However, I get the suspicion that the FOIA request wasn't totally honored because the number of drone locations is far below the estimated  numbers of known,  military type drones.  The Grand Forks County sheriff is known to have flown Predator  drones but those records are  incomplete.

From the perspective of personal freedoms and protection against warrantless spying there is a concern.   The explosion of street cams and cams + mics in buses is just as alarming.   Will the US citizen be willing to eventually accept a "Big Brother" camera + mic on  every corner?  I suspect  that they will.   When that arrives you can kiss free speech good bye because any speech which doesn't toe the Party line is now, even  in the US, considered "hate" speech.

Hank:
More curious about how one would build a signal jammer...kind of cool to see one short circuit..no? :laugh:

Bucket:

--- Quote from: Hank on March 12, 2013, 08:12:57 PM ---More curious about how one would build a signal jammer...kind of cool to see one short circuit..no? :laugh:

--- End quote ---
That would get you a visit from the FCC, the FAA, as well as whatever agency owned the aircraft.

ILoveCats:
They have the little quadcopter ones at the Verizon Wireless store.  You "see" through the camera on them via your tablet computer, then tilt and move the tablet to fly the thing.  Would be a fun toy if a person had money to burn... but they would also be fun to shoot down, should one come hovering over your yard.    I foresee that situation happening soon when some neighbor kid flies it over swimming pool of the girl next door when she's suntanning.

As with all this stuff the risk of privacy violations, and data hacking/spills, is higher with the private sector (Google, etc.) than with government usage.

UPCrawfish:
November 2012..  Pennsylvania gun club shoots down animal rights drone flying over their property....    :P

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Flying-Camera-From-Animal-Rights-Group-Shot-Down-at-Pigeon-Shoot-Cops-179983451.html

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