Feds announce drone testing sites in Alaska, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Texas, Virginia

UAVs in our airspace feels like the beginning of the end of general aviation. The privacy concerns are troubling. The collision threat to VFR pilots is serious. But also consider what these UAVs mean to the future. Here we have another replacement of humans with technology. Remember when video games were introduced and we soon marveled at them at movie theaters and 7-elevens? We dropped the quarter in and had a few minutes of entertainment. Fueled by the Internet, video games and virtual reality became integrated into our lifestyles. Now we realize that over the span of 20+ years an entire generation is dependent and have lost their instinct and desire to go outside, socialize in person, and interact with reality.

Fast forward 25 years. UAVs big and small litter the skies of America for the government and for corporations. Corporations are not satisfied with contract work for fed/state/local governments. You can rent time in their UAVs for many purposes, business and leisure. It can be done instantly from your living room or office with little or no training required and it looks and feels just like “real”. PC sims are toys compared to this. Fly formation with your buddy, fly floats, do aerobatics. Don’t worry, it will recover automatically if you screw up. What a fabulous view from my 4K HDTV. Hardly anyone pilots a real airplane because of all the regulations and fees implemented a few years ago. These regs severely limited where, when, and how “piloted VFR aircraft” could fly. A new airspace designation was created, “(H)otel” that represents the box where actual pilots are allowed to fly and separated from UAV traffic. The justification was they were obsolete, a niche group, and an impediment to progress. To be honest, a dying breed. There’s no interest to experience the real thing anymore except in a few amusement parks that have antique biplane rides overhead. Like mobile telephones, the UAV industry has rapidly evolved into something few people predicted. It’s too big, cannot be changed, and cannot go back.

I hope I am wrong.

As Nanook says, the human observer has a MUCH greater acuity than any camera, and our peripheral vision draws our eye to things that a camera would miss. For years, I've heard the promoters of camera search technology promoting the replacement of human observers with high tech cameras, either IR or Color, or both. Bear in mind, the camera systems used on many LE helicopters, for example, cost well north of a million dollars, just for the camera. And, they're heavy. Yes, they have fantastic capability, but the price, size and the fact that you still need an operator.

The drone industry has tried to sell the Kool Aid with imagery taken with very sophisticated equipment, but they fail to mention the price of the equipment. Recently, I chatted with a young man who was showing me IR imagery taken from a light twin in the mountains, noting they could do "game surveys" from several thousand feet. I asked the price of the airplane....just north of one million....the price of the camera....One million, USED. And, what he was showing me looked like someone looking through a telescope.....you'd be out there for days trying to get adequate coverage of a mountain range. How many Super Cubs and flight hours could you fly for 2 million bucks?

And, as I noted earlier, NOBODY is going to allow a drone into the airspace without some pretty sophisticated technology aboard, at least one that is semi autonomous. It's one thing to operate one that's in visual contact, but when it's out of sight, you're going to have to have some pretty serious equipment aboard. Suddenly, that $1000 drone has to be bigger, more powerful to carry the payload AND the safety equipment, and that bumps the price substantially. Very quickly, you have a $100,000 invested, and now, why put a pilot out of work, just to use a drone?

Bottom line is that there are some fantastic sensors out there these days. But, none of them have ALL the capabilities of the human eye, assuming a skilled observer. As has been noted, if you're getting shot at, sitting in a box a few thousand miles away is a pretty good deal, but if all you need is to look at your wheat or corn crops, a very little bit of time in a Cub or Champ will do way more than any drone can.

I never liked Kool Aid anyway.

MTV

Bugs I think you nailed it! Unfortunately.

I wonder if when all aircraft are basically drones will the FAA finally drop the third class medical or will you still need the medical to push the "power" button :lol:?

Bobby,
I don't want to try and make this sound too harsh but you have been 'drinking the wrong kool-aid'. I understand quite well your major and I also understand the way the majority of college's and universities lean predominitatly to the left.
I can say with very good authority that the drones our government has are much more capable than you are led to believe. Quite possibly there might even be some UAS pilots/operators that are disturbed by what they are capable of. No wanting this to go to rants and raves due to politicizing the topic, but our government has gotten too far out of hand with what it deems as 'security and safety' for the good of its citizens.

Why is it that some humans strive to take the humans out of the equation? I can only think of a handful of situations where this would be advantageous. Kamikaze, should be an automated position. Flying someplace beyond your lifespan, definitely. Wars, maybe and maybe not. Why are we sitting back and letting this happen? Robots and driverless this and that. I'm not going to be on this earth long enough to see where this trend is headed, it doesn't look good from the here and now though...

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/12/31/Illinois-New-Law-Sends-PETA-Drones Back -to-Base

and then there are the wackos who get their hands on drones....

Nanook, that would have been a great reason to shoot at them. damn.

Those silly PETA people. Why don't they just use their black helicopters for this task?

The powers at be have decided my backyard would be a nice place for their "UAV/Drone experiment". The Univ. A&M Corpus Christi working with LSUAS have been offered a massive area in the Big Bend region of Far West TX as one of their potential test sites. Basically, the communication from the UAV organizations/operators with the local county officials, pilots, etc. has been zero until we pushed for information, so far we've gotten very few answers. As such, both Presidio and Brewster Counties have recently passed resolutions "against" the use of drones in our airspace until they have a proven ability to operate in our airspace as safely as a certified aircraft and pilot. I'm paraphrasing so bear with me. The City of Alpine voted unanimously to ban their operations from their municipal airport.

The LSUAS/A&M said that their plan for aircraft separation was to maintain contact with ATC for radar separation etc. In this region of the Big Bend we have no towered airports, have No ATC/Radar contact below 7,500msl, and aircraft separation is not provided by ATC below 7500'msl. The terrain in this test site ranges roughly from 2500'msl to 8000'msl. The fact these drone operators want to operate in a region with lots of low level/high level Military Jets, DHS/DPS/CBP choppers, along with all the emergency services and local pilots without any proven safety systems is IMO beyond absurd!!! I am not against new technology, I am against having any human life be a Guinea Pig for the UAV's "experiment." These groups had no idea that there was even a low level military route through the middle of this test site, were unaware there is no ATC/Radar contact or services provided below 7500'msl, and had no other plan for safety than a chase plane that has no control of the drone. Although our area is one of the least inhabited of the lower 48, this is an active airspace.

Many of the ranchers in the region fly, for example of the 4 ranches that border us three fly and all have airstrips. One ranch operates a 182/206, one has a 180 n husky, the other flies an R44, and we got the 180 n Cub. Point is to all the supporters, how in the heck would you like your family and friends to be the test dummy for this BS? Why should my family be at risk for an unproven system? Why would we have any trust in these organizations when they don't even attempt to communicate with us about what they are trying to do in our airspace? If I stood to profit from the use of these drones I would still have the same questions and concerns as none of my fellow aviators nor families lives are worth any amount of $$$ !!!!!!!

This is obviously being rammed down our throats. Safety be damned. Unfortunately the FAA is becoming highly politicized and even more ineffective( if that's possible )....there needs to be a grassroots movement started with help from the EAA and AOPA, to keep these things confined to restricted airspace. Also many of these drones don't have much of a radar profile (if any). Not sure if being in radar contact is just going to give you a false sense of security. There are way too many unknowns in this scenario.

Just saw John Kerry on the 6 o'clock news. Iraq is in terrible shape but we're going to fix it. The next shot on the news showed a big drone.

On the Travel channel (i think) last night, there was a show about how wonderful our lives are going to be with all the drones coming.

Once again it was stated the drones would be doing those "dull, dirty jobs".

Just got the new issue of Dakota Prairie Magazine and this was one of the lead stories. Touting it as an economic boom!!