I'm sitting in my house in Conroe laughing about this drone crashing in Lake Conroe which is about 5 miles from my house. This isn't the first time I've laughed about a drone in this county.
Yes, it's true, Homeland Security gave us a drone, back then I read the first one given to a Sheriff's department in the USA. The big day arrived, I read about it in the Houston Chronicle and the Conroe Courier, both of them on line shortly after it happened. This was a year or more ago, don't remember.
Everyone was gathered somewhere in Houston for the big event/effect of the sheriff getting the drone - but, gee, one has to demonstrate the drone to get the full effect of this huge gift, before it is given to us, right?. Well, off it went AND CRASHED, totally destroyed. Damn, no drone. Had to wait until HS could send another one.
Now, this present one has crashed - not surprised. Just glad it didn't hit my house. I think I recall when we were supposed to get that first one, a certain person was to be in charge of the drone, be the master of the flight of the thing. I think we don't need a drone - I prefer my roof in tact.
That picture shows an actual helicopter, not the kind with the four or six propellers which will deliver UPS or pizza.
As a former helicopter pilot, I’m going to guess that a successful operator of a helicopter drone has to be highly, highly trained. The multipropeller drones are much easier to fly & lack the potential to instantly go out of control & crash. FWIW, I don’t think my pilot skills give me any advantage controlling something I wasn’t actually seated in.
A helicopter with a variable thrust tail rotor and a swashplate pitch & lift main rotor (your typical chopper) can be safely flown only within very narrow control parameters. If you overcontrol & go outside those parameters, and your instructor pilot isn’t right there to take the controls & stabilize the aircraft very quickly, it’s going to crash, often described as “dynamic rollover”, or, “helicopter rolls over and beats itself to death”.
I’ll bet having seen the photo that the helicopter drone (both of them, now) wasn’t hacked, it had an inexperienced idiot at the controls.
And I don’t wish the po-po success either with their drones or their MRAPs. Police need to be reminded that they’re civilians, too.
I prefer my roof in tact. ....If you don’t killed, wouldn’t you like a AL GORE house on your present site with taxes paid forever? I think ObamaGovernment would do that?