{"id":1851,"date":"2017-03-07T09:39:47","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T14:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musingsbymichael.com\/blog\/?p=1851"},"modified":"2017-03-07T09:39:47","modified_gmt":"2017-03-07T14:39:47","slug":"what-a-hobbyist-flies-is-not-a-drone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.musingsbymichael.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/07\/what-a-hobbyist-flies-is-not-a-drone\/","title":{"rendered":"What a hobbyist flies is not a drone!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Quadcopters\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What a hobbyist flies is not a drone! A drone for all intensive purposes is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) which is mostly used by the military or other government agency. It could be in form of an airplane or a quadcopter, but more often it is in the form of an airplane.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A quadcopter is a distant relative of the helicopter. It has four propellers that provide lift and control the direction it travels. This is what most people see fellow hobbyists, like me, flying in their parks and backyards. They pose no threat as they do not carry weapons and at most carry a camera to record the flight of the quadcopter. And yes I know about the idiot who did equip his quadcopter with a gun; that was an aberration.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Merriam-Webster<\/a> defines a drone as:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. 1<\/em> : a stingless male bee (as of the honeybee) that has the role of mating with the queen and does not gather nectar or pollen<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. 2<\/em> : one that lives on the labors of others :\u00a0 parasite<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/li>\n
  3. 3<\/em> : an unmanned aircraft or ship guided by remote control or onboard computers<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n
  4. 4a<\/em> : drudge<\/a> 1<\/em>b<\/em> :\u00a0 drudge<\/a> 2 <\/em>one of many office drones<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

    Well what I fly are not stingless male bees or someone that is a parasite upon others labor. And yet they group quadcopters into the UAV category. Well I for one do not equate a quadcopter as a weapon platform that a UAV can be. After all the American public has been bombarded with the phrase \u201cDrone\u201d since the attack that destroyed the World Trade Center towers in New York City. What I fly is not a weapon of war or any kind of weapon at all, it is just a small aircraft that I fly by remote control.<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    So let us stop using the word drone to include a quadcopter and stop this hysteria about them being dangerous to the American public. Scientific American<\/a> published a very interesting article back in 2012 regarding what a drone is. The author says the following in this article, \u201cMany people (the author included) have used \u201cdrone\u201d to describe any aircraft without an on-board pilot. But that is an oversimplification that masks the incredible range in shapes, sizes and capabilities that characterize today\u2019s unmanned aircraft. And it can fail to fully recognize the high levels of skill involved in piloting\u2014whether or not the pilot is actually in the plane.<\/em>\u201d He further goes into what model airplanes are, \u201cModel aircraft are flown by thousands of enthusiasts<\/a> with a common interest in aviation and a love for watching their aircraft fly and perform. For this reason, models are largely flown within visual line of sight and in the presence of an operator who watches and maintains control of the airplane during flight. That alone is enough to place model airplanes cleanly outside the boundaries of \u201cdrone<\/em>.\u201d<\/em>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    This is also true of quadcopters and thus they are not<\/u> drones and should never be thought of as such. We \u00a0hobbyist piloting our flying vehicles do have to abide by the rules that the FAA<\/a> has devised. So stop calling quadcopters drones and do not go crazy when you see one being flown. The danger is all in your head!<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike<\/span><\/p>\n