The use of drone cameras over heritage railways

Now that is something special. My favourite aircraft too.

 

Ditto.
And in the markings of the RAF's finest Squadron.

 

Now now, don't start. There's a rumour that Carnforth have installed anti aircraft defences.

 

Yes and no. International Standard in aviation is height in feet. Because height separation is a crucial part of collision avoidance using rounded metric instead would be *highly* undesirable, and the 400ft height limit is part of the international framework, whereas the 50m from people is UK legislation. For much the same reason all ATC/aircrew communication si supposed to be in english. But I agree that in that particular document they would have been better advised to use the metric conversion (unless drones have altimeters, maybe they do).

 

I have to confess that I knew the explanation but I just thought that I would have a bit of fun with the juxtaposition.

 

I don't know whether it has previously been mentioned on this thread, but I would recommend a look at Youtube , which has a video of a slalom skier almost being wiped out by a falling drone. Scary - I would certainly ban the use of them on our line.

Bob.

 

It'll be the usual scenario. Nothing will change until someone has their face sliced up by the propellers, or, is knocked out. It is picked up be the media, then there are calls for 'something to be done'

 

Surprisingly, there's already been a child killed by an out of control drone, and we haven't seen a mass panic. Yet.

 

"Something must be done" is normally followed by a bad law - dangerous dogs act, and so on...

Tom

 

Yes, and that was a professional operator IIRC. Some months ago the FAA already had over 300 reports of drones coming close to commercial aircraft and, I believe, was one of the main reasons the U.S. gov want them licensing. From what I understand the radio control aircraft chaps who operate in public have been licensed and regulated for years but apparently any idiot can buy a drone online and go out and fly it with no training whatsoever. As others have pointed out, until enough people have been killed or injured, the politicians will do nothing (unless it's one of their relatives or it's near election time!). I'll get off me soapbox now!
Cheers,
Ray.

 

The US have been making noises about regulating drones for a while now. I wonder when they'll realise that guns kill far more people than drones...

 

They already do ..... but so much money and influence is involved that it is very difficult to change things. Two 'wrongs' don't make a 'right' though!
Ray.

 

Whilst the drone gives an interesting perspective, the lack of a decent on board sound recording system means we have to endure music instead of the much superior sound of a 56xx strutting its stuff.

 

It isn't a lack of sound recording, but the sound captured is about 99.9% motor and wind noise so you really wouldn't want to listen to it.

 

I always have to turn off nature documentaries when they show these scenes.

Tom

 

If it floats your boat so be it but personally cant see the point. A train crossing the landscape is far more interesting and as for the music!

 

I'm not an expert in these matters but I would think that all you would need is a small, light, wind -baffled directional mike dangling from a few metres of cable below the drone?