Police Chief vows to deploy an unmanned aerial vehicle despite contentions

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 00:48:11 GMT, "Blueskies"
wrote:

As long as they maintain visual contact with it at all times and the
pilot is a member of AMA, they should be fine.

If not - good luck. FAA will stomp on them.

AMA membership is NOT required to fly an RC aircraft, most folks join so they comply with a club's requirements and for
the AMA provided insurance coverage...

FAA can try to stomp, but this 'small' aircraft will be flying ~400' high and will be within sight of the operator, not
real different from a plain ol' RC airplane. Sounds like it would be an interesting test case at least.

When you consider that 12-year-old kids can go to Wal-Mart and buy an electric
RC plane...complete with camera...for $150, this is going to be an interesting
problem to try and squash.

Here's a couple I took last Friday, flying one of those.

http://www.wanttaja.com/rcpix.jpg
http://www.wanttaja.com/rcpix2.jpg

Plane supposedly can go to 1,000 feet, and fly for ten minutes on a NiMH battery
pack (the camera is powered by two "button" cells). I suppose for another
$29,850, the cops'll have one that'll fly longer and have better resolution.

Ron "My wife buys me neat toys for Christmas" Wanttaja

On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 17:50:38 -0800, Ron Wanttaja wrote:

When you consider that 12-year-old kids can go to Wal-Mart and buy an
electric RC plane...complete with camera...for $150

Ugh. The way I flew RCs, back when I was trying, this would be an
expensive way to use up cameras.

- Andrew

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 14:41:25 -0500, Andrew Gideon wrote:

On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 17:50:38 -0800, Ron Wanttaja wrote:

When you consider that 12-year-old kids can go to Wal-Mart and buy an
electric RC plane...complete with camera...for $150

Ugh. The way I flew RCs, back when I was trying, this would be an
expensive way to use up cameras.

These new electric toy RC planes are wonderful. They're made out of foam and
damn near indestructable....they just slip together, and pop apart when you
crash. They don't use aerodynamic control; they have twin engines and you
control the plane solely by differential power. If the airplane gets out of
range of the controller, the motors shut down.

Some are biplanes small enough that you can fly them in a large room (preferably
with a cathedral ceiling!) and when they weigh just an ounce or two, you can fly
the full-tilt into walls and they just bounce off and keep flying. Weather bad?
Just fly the planes in your hangar.

They kind of caught on with some of my buddies at work, and I caught the "bug".
My "camera plane" has 55-inch wingspan with an AWACs saucer on the top that
holds the camera. The camera is pretty-well protected, both by the foam the
saucer is made from and the fact that the saucer is mounted on top of the
airplane (and pops off in a crash).

Spend 3% of an AMU for an "Air Hog Aero Ace" biplane. Great fun, when you can
fly the big iron (or the moderately-sized wood, in my case).

Ron Wanttaja

("Ron Wanttaja" wrote)
Spend 3% of an AMU for an "Air Hog Aero Ace" biplane. Great fun, when you
can fly the big iron (or the moderately-sized wood, in my case).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYINS3XsAUY
Aero Ace Biplane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNfY250_F-E&mode=related&search
Aero Ace Biplane by Air Hogs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxaH0PTS2-8&mode=related&search
Air-Hogging Among the Birds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3THx2PXD8qk
Aero Ace Jet LED


Montblack

Some friends and I used to build battle robots for TV shows (I built Rosie
the Riveter for Robot Wars, etc) and we were contacted recently about doing
something like this for an LEA in a different state. Needless to say, it's
a back-burner project. Disappointing, 'cause I was looking forward to
trying out the prototypes.




-c

On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 17:50:38 -0800, Ron Wanttaja
wrote in
:

When you consider that 12-year-old kids can go to Wal-Mart and buy an electric
RC plane...complete with camera...for $150

Are you able to provide a link to the particular aircraft you
mentioned above?

Thank you.

On Tue, 13 Feb 2007 19:27:31 GMT, Larry Dighera wrote:

On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 17:50:38 -0800, Ron Wanttaja
wrote in
:

When you consider that 12-year-old kids can go to Wal-Mart and buy an electric
RC plane...complete with camera...for $150

Are you able to provide a link to the particular aircraft you
mentioned above?

http://www.estesrockets.com/products.php?number=4127

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=4196237

Target and other stores sell an F-16 that goes like a bat out of bleeding
hell...not a very good starter plane, but it's what I learned to fly these
"foamies" on, and the F-16 is damn near indestructible. One of my EAA friends
happened to be there on the first day I flew it. He said, "I've known you for
fifteen years, and I've never heard you laugh like that."

One drawback to ALL of these is that the pitch control is backwards. The stick
controls *throttle*, not an elevator, so you push forward to climb. But they
all climb at their "normal" throttle settings, so you can ignore pitch control
while you learn how to control direction. You're definitely out of the control
for the first couple of flights...but that's most of the fun.

Ron Wanttaja

On Tue, 13 Feb 2007 20:13:16 -0800, Ron Wanttaja
wrote in
:

http://www.estesrockets.com/products.php?number=4127

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=4196237

Target and other stores sell an F-16 that goes like a bat out of bleeding
hell...not a very good starter plane, but it's what I learned to fly these
"foamies" on, and the F-16 is damn near indestructible. One of my EAA friends
happened to be there on the first day I flew it. He said, "I've known you for
fifteen years, and I've never heard you laugh like that."

One drawback to ALL of these is that the pitch control is backwards. The stick
controls *throttle*, not an elevator, so you push forward to climb. But they
all climb at their "normal" throttle settings, so you can ignore pitch control
while you learn how to control direction. You're definitely out of the control
for the first couple of flights...but that's most of the fun.

Ron Wanttaja

Thanks.

Walmart is out of stock, but I did find a better price he
http://marketplace.hgtv.com/View_Lis...d=1439-N608153