On Thursday, October 4, 2018 at 9:19:05 AM UTC-7, Charlie M. (UH & 002 owner/pilot) wrote:
I agree with the training comment.
I also wonder, how often do peeps think a "shootdown" will be weapons from the ground vs. from the air?
If from the air, using what?
snipped


Fast forward, some govt. entity wants to shoot down a UAV (hopefully "U"), looks, sees no human activity, shoots, misses and maybe hits ground peeps or homes, etc.
What a nightmare that becomes.


ALL this talk makes me think of the "Battle of Palmdale".
Truth is stranger than fiction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Palmdale

I watch Predators in flight test and flight training locally and get to dodge them in a 2-33 or a Pawnee on the occasional Saturday.

And if you think you should worry about the little (dr)ones being a problem, you should know that more than one Predator has lost it's little brain. And operator errors by the big boys are as diverse as if they had fannies on board.

"The 237 "Class A" drone crashes

According to accident-investigation reports and other records, since 2001 there have been 237 military drone crashes that were categorized as 'Class A' mishaps: accidents that destroyed the aircraft or caused at least $2 million in damage."

And those aren't all in Afghanistan.

2001 thru 2016 -- 52 were in the US, AND NOT ALL on military airbases.

If that isn't creepy enough - we've got at least 10 Predators on Mexico border patrol for us. And the Mexicans have had one of theirs plop down in the US in 2010. No investigation, we just handed it back. Mexico is buying from the Israeli's and others, and building their own.

This is too long already -- but you can catch the gist that I don't trust drones, their operators or the guvmint(much).

Recreational reading on big drone crashes follows for the persistent.
CA, NV, AZ, TX, FL, MD, NY . . ..
The little ones just start forest fires and crash into people and planes. But hey, the FAA has a licensing and registration program.

Cindy



A Reaper (MQ-9A) owned by the Air Force crashed on Aug. 31, 2010
Reported location
two miles north of Gray Butte Airfield, Palmdale, Calif., United States

Estimated damage $10,300,000
What happened:
A brand-new Reaper crashed on private property in the California desert during a training mission. About two hours into the flight, the Reaper stalled after it slowed down too much and rolled left, entering into a spin before crashing onto the desert floor. Air Force investigators concluded that the cause was pilot error due to improper control of the aircraft's speed and angle. Investigators also found that the training program did not adequately prepare the pilot for risks associated with a slow flight. "We were all in disbelief," a contractor who was in the ground-control station told investigators. "We just didn't, I just didn't expect anything to happen on a fairly benign flight."




A Global Hawk (RQ-4A) owned by the Navy crashed on June 11, 2012
Reported location:
near Elliott Island Road, Dorchester County, Md., 22 miles east of Naval Air Station Patuxent River, United States

What happened
A Navy surveillance drone crashed into a wildlife refuge on Maryland's Eastern Shore after a malfunction with the navigation system. The RQ-4A aircraft was a Broad Area Maritime Surveillance Demonstrator -- the Navy's version of the Air Force Global Hawk. The pilot and crew were civilian contractors from the manufacturer Northrop Grumman. Navy investigators blamed a failure of the right inboard ruddervator actuator but also criticized the pilot for not following emergency guidelines.

A Hunter (RQ-5A) owned by the Army crashed on May 10, 2004
Reported location : Florida, United States
What happened
An Army Hunter drone crashed into trees after it lost its link from its ground-control station, according to Army safety officials. The Army's Forces Command said it did not conduct a publicly releasable investigation.

A Reaper (MQ-9) owned by the Air Force crashed on Dec. 5, 2012
Reported location:
3 miles northeast of Mount Irish, Douglas County, Nev., United States
(cb-Mt Irish is ~75 miles north of Creech AFB. Actually Lincoln Co.
Apparently the AF still don't know where it crashed.)

Estimated damage: $9,646,088
What happened :
A Reaper crashed in an uninhabited area during a training exercise after going into a stall. Investigators determined that crew error was the primary cause. The ground-control station was improperly reconfigured from a setup for flying Predators to a setup for flying Reapers. When the pilot guided the throttle, it mistakenly triggered a reverse thrust because of the incorrect setup. "We're in the soup here," the pilot said, according to a voice-recording transcript. "Dude, uh, we're not sure what the aircraft is doing -- yeah, we crashed."


A Reaper (MQ-9) owned by the Air Force crashed on Nov. 12, 2013
Reported location
about 12 miles from the eastern shore of Lake Ontario, N.Y.; 20 miles northeast of Port of Oswego, NY; and 35 miles from Fort Drum's Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield, United States

Estimated damage $10 million
What happened:
A Reaper flown by the New York Air National Guard crashed into Lake Ontario, about 12 miles from the lake's eastern shore. The plane malfunctioned at 1:30 p.m., about three hours into a training mission. Some parts of the aircraft were recovered after they washed up on the lake's shoreline, but the bulk of the wreckage has not been found. The Reaper departed from Fort Drum, N.Y. The Air Combat Command convened an Accident Investigation Board; a public report is pending.