R&R for drone use

15 August

The plan for today was to get in to town to take part in the VJ events. After 35 years of marriage I’ve learned to listen to Jan when she tells me that maybe I should re-think it. Her reasoning is the other day in Asda I had a couple of giddy spells, which have continued into the last couple of days. She was concerned about me going alone. So now I’m sat here looking out at the nice sunny weather and think, She was you know? You still don’t feel really up to it.

I’ve just been reading my copy of AP that arrived in the post and there’s a piece in it about drones and their use/misuse. Various air industry bodies have come together to devise a ‘Drone Code’ for their use by amateurs. It is hoped that users will fly their drones in accordance with the rules and regulations already in place, and basically to use common sense in what and where they are used.

What has caused this is that earlier this year there was a ‘near miss’ incident when a drone came to 50 feet from a commercial airplane as it came in to land at Heathrow. However, last year there was even closer encounter where one was flown as close as 20 feet. A 747 with a packed passenger list being crashed by one of these things really is a nightmare image! And yet I can see some of the attraction in drone use. To get close enough to shoot passenger faces as they come in to land seems to me to be the ultimate candid image.

So much for that then; various armed forces use drones as weapons of war, as we’ve seen in Afghanistan and other places. However, why should drone use be limited to just armed forces I wonder? With drone costs as low as they are, how long will it be before some bright spark decides they could use one to deliver and terrorist weapon. Land one or perhaps fly close enough to cause an explosion close to the wing of a military airplane, is yet another nightmare waiting to happen. And I don’t for one minute that military planners have not thought of this either!   

But to return to photo-drones then, this attitude of ‘must get’ the image is not limited to drone users. In a number of birding mags there have been reports of photographers getting far too close to birds and their nests as they try to get that ultimate shot. In some instances snappers have shouted abuse at the birders who complain and have threatened to flush the bird and scare it away if they keep moaning. It has been known that damage has been done to private property by such snappers, and they just don’t care.

So why should we expect that drone users will be any different, no, they won’t be. There are rules and regulations concerning a lot of activities we take for granted these days; driver is perhaps the most obvious one. How many drivers are there that ignore speed limit signs and so on.

Today’s photo … 

The miss-named black headed gull.

Today’s funny …

 Q: Did you see my client flee the scene?
A: No, sir, I didn’t. But subsequently I observed someone running several blocks away who matched the description of the offender.
Q: Who provided you with the description?
A: The officer who responded to the scene.
Q: A fellow officer of yours provided the description of this so-called offender. Do you trust this fellow officer?
A: Yes, sir, with my life.
Q: With your life? Let me then ask you this, officer. Do you have a room were you change your clothes in preparation for the day’s duties?
A: Yes, sir, we do.
Q: And do you have a locker in that room?
A: Yes, sir, I do.
Q: And do you have a lock on your locker?
A: Yes, sir.
Q: Why is it, officer, that if you trust your fellow officers with your life, that you find it necessary to lock your locker in a room you share with those some officers?
A: You see, sir, we share the building with the court complex. And sometimes lawyers have been known to walk through that room.