‘It’s Creepy’: Unexplained Drones Are Swarming by Night Over Colorado

NYT ^ | 1/1/2020 | Mitch Smith

[Mom MD]

It is apparently illegal to shoot a drone down per local media.

[nuconvert]

“Note - they are hand thrown and moving relatively slow.”

Yeah, but aside from being a good shot, you need a pretty good arm to get them high enough.

[sergeantdave]

That series of structures on the left looks like Pepe the frog.

[Hot Tabasco]

Multiple drones could be a drone flying club.......From my little knowledge of them, I think they only have a max fly time of about 24 minutes......and maybe a radius of about 3 miles.

What are your thoughts HG?

[Hot Tabasco]

wondering if there are any FR Drone operators in our midst

Humblegunner has one....

[OldSmaj]

All I can comment on is the $29.95 (on sale) drone I bought at Sam's last year.

The range was from my back balcony straight into my pool...about 20 yards.

Now, the range is zero.

Three of the four propellers still turn though.

When we re-open the pool this spring, I'll find the other propeller and try again.

Might even make it to the green house, this time.

[Roman_War_Criminal]

They can run, they can try to hide, but they won’t escape.

Revelation 6:16
They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!

[BikerTrash]

Ha. Is that for real?

Watch one of the Gould brothers shoot 11...HERE.

For real.

Skip to about 2:45.

[metmom]

Why should it be illegal to shoot down something that’s invading my property and very likely spying on me?

[nuconvert]

“The FAA considers unmanned aircraft of any size to be covered under Title 18 of the United States Code 32, which describes “sabotage to include destruction of any aircraft in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States.” Violation of this code carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. In other words, it’s illegal to shoot down any aircraft in the U.S., including a drone, according to federal law.”

[real saxophonist]

I don’t disagree, I’m just giving you the local perspective.

[TexasGunLover]

It is a federal felony to shoot at/down a drone, even over your own property, same as with an aircraft.

[Hot Tabasco]

Three of the four propellers still turn though.

I bought a little cheap one for about $50 this summer. Too hard to control.

I launched it from my driveway one day and it flew across the street then above the house there, when I tried to turn it around it went left and crashed in the branches of the tree in front of the garage.

Fortunately the lady wasn't home, I had to take my 12 ft. ladder on to her back deck, climb up on the roof then walk to the front of the house with a long pole to knock the drone out of the tree.........LOL!

[Mouton]

Kind of reminds me of a recent argument here. The local airport reps came by to alert me they needed to “top some trees” on my property. I argued remember when you said I could not complain about noise because the airport was here before my house? Well, consider this, the trees were here before you decided to build this runway so GFY. Put your hands on any of these trees and that is where they will stay. Currently at an impass but I am sure the emperor government will do it by force.

[nuconvert]

Haha. Wow.

[dynoman]

Calm down, that’s to accommodate winds in any direction.

[Candor7]

ZO?

[Candor7]

Shoot it down.

[Disambiguator]

Blow one out of the sky and you may just get your answer.

I don't think there's any "may" about it. That's a "sure fire" (ahem) way to flush out who is operating these things.

[humblegunner]

They would have to be some quite high-end drones to
see anything interesting at night.

You’re right about the flight duration and range, for the majority
of drones. Mine will do about 30 minutes and range about two
miles. (Advertised at about twice that.) It was around $750 all-in
so any drones ranging dozens of miles gathering any kinds of useful
imagery at night would necessarily cost thousands of dollars
and probably be out of reach for the casual consumer.