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Another numpty nominates our hobby for the Darwin Award...


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“Clueless, careless and criminal” was the phrase famously used by Andy Sage to describe some SUAS pilots when he spoke to a Parlimentary committee 2 years ago. He was rightly criticised for doing so and had to apologise, but sadly in this instance those words are entirely correct on all counts...

 

 

I really have no further words - well, none that would allow me to retain my membership of this forum anyway. This individual has posted many previous vids that break the law, but none quite as irresponsible as this. Here’s hoping the Police knock on his door very soon... ?

 

Edited by MattyB
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  • MattyB changed the title to Another numpty nominates our hobby for the Darwin Award...

hello Matty,David....i also wondered what had happened to the vid....whoever he is wont be in the minority...for the nice weather is upon us and it will no doubt bring out the Steven spielburgs of the Ariel video world, who think its great to fly where they see fit and normally they attract some admirers when they are demonstrating their skills...and only plead ignorant when they are brought to heel...........and of course the added attraction now is to display them on the web for all to see....i'm not convinced that the authorities have the resources to go after them as such...

 

PS....we had Tom Cruise filming some scenes for his latest movie on the north east coast of the colony last week end......beat that.

 

ken anderson...ne..1....spielburg dept.

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Would that have been a gentleman posting videos taken around the Luton area?  If so, one of our members has advised him of the illegality of what he’s doing on several occasions but I’m told that he continues to fly and post on YouTube. 
 

Personally, I would have made an official report after friendly advice was ignored - not to say this is the same person but the description fits...

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34 minutes ago, Martin Harris - Moderator said:

Would that have been a gentleman posting videos taken around the Luton area?  If so, one of our members has advised him of the illegality of what he’s doing on several occasions but I’m told that he continues to fly and post on YouTube. 
 

Personally, I would have made an official report after friendly advice was ignored - not to say this is the same person but the description fits...


No, this is a different person. His channel is here - it doesn’t seem to have been taken down, but he has pulled the video of the low flying over cars/people and the dives down the faces of the tower blocks. Plenty of his other footage is still online though...

 

 

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  • 10 months later...

So it looks like our friend who posted the original video in this thread got his comeuppance with a visit from the boys in blue and the CAA that resulted in a formal caution. The video in question where he overflew cars driving down a dual carriageway at low level is one of those he discusses in the video below. I’ll leave you to be the judge of whether the contrition is genuine…

 

 

Edited by MattyB
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I watched the video. His age was a bit of a surprise, he isn't a rebellious young man, he's a rebellious middle aged man. Apparently he used to fly helicopters. Not so far removed from flying a multi rotor, close enough to allow him to appreciate the damage an out of control one can do. I don't believe he managed to fly helicopters 20 years ago without witnessing the carnage that a helicopter crash causes to the machine itself let alone coming into contact with a human being. I suspect that there is something intrinsic in multi rotors that encourages their operators to wish to operate them in totally unsuitable locations. Surely it must have occurred  to him that flying down the side of a 600 foot building in a city centre was to say the least stupid.

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I might have more faith in his contrition if he left out the theatre. If it was a straight video without all of the acting it would have seemed more legitimate. 

 

Also, it makes no odds how careful you were if what you were doing was against the rules. As has already been pointed out above, flying over people in a city centre is rather daft

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I'm just the messenger.

 

Mavic Mini is 249g (qu'ell surprise).

 

https://register-drones.caa.co.uk/drone-code/where-you-can-fly

 

Quote

If you’re flying a drone or model aircraft that’s lighter than 250g or is C0 class, you can fly closer to people than 50m and you can fly over them.

 

Quote

You can fly small drones and model aircraft that are lighter than 250g, or C0 or C1 class, in residential, recreational, commercial and industrial areas.

 

leaving only the rather subjective:

 

Quote

When you’re thinking about how close you can fly, remember, you must never put people in danger.

 

Edited by Nigel R
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He said he's safety conscious and makes sure nothing can damage his drone - seagulls (sic) and power cables mentioned.  More concerned with his machines than people's safety.  As someone said, he's sorry he broke the rules but doesn't seem to appreciate WHY there are rules.... the derogatory way he described himself seems appropriate.

 

We had a couple of visitors to the field recently - driving past and saw our windsock.  Showed us their small drones that are "under 250g"..... must have very dodgy scales as they felt far heavier.  Also, very solid so would certainly hurt if one hit you!  They said they wanted to do a public display and asked if we'd like to join in, but they had no thoughts of how to ensure people's safety.  We politely declined after telling them several times to contact the BMFA (or drone equivalent). 

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On 17/03/2022 at 14:34, Martin Dance 1 said:

...I suspect that there is something intrinsic in multi rotors that encourages their operators to wish to operate them in totally unsuitable locations. Surely it must have occurred  to him that flying down the side of a 600 foot building in a city centre was to say the least stupid.

I dont think it is intrinsic to multirotors, for me it's more about the primary purpose of the flight. If you are flying to enjoy the sensation of flight LOS, then all you need is a safe space to do it - the backdrop is pretty immaterial. If you are flying FPVmultirotor of fixed wing to capture footage and/or enjoy the sensation of racing around/close to things then (putting safety considerations aside for a moment) the more spectacular the setting the better. Racing down the side of a building from 600ft is demonstrably dangerous, but I accept it does take skill and the footage that results will be exciting to watch. That doesn't make it a responsible or sensible thing to do though!

 

On 17/03/2022 at 15:41, Jon - Laser Engines said:

I might have more faith in his contrition if he left out the theatre. If it was a straight video without all of the acting it would have seemed more legitimate. 

 

Also, it makes no odds how careful you were if what you were doing was against the rules. As has already been pointed out above, flying over people in a city centre is rather daft

 

On 17/03/2022 at 18:19, GrumpyGnome said:

He said he's safety conscious and makes sure nothing can damage his drone - seagulls (sic) and power cables mentioned.  More concerned with his machines than people's safety.  As someone said, he's sorry he broke the rules but doesn't seem to appreciate WHY there are rules.... the derogatory way he described himself seems appropriate.

 

My read is that he may well have offered to put out a video like this as an offer to avoid getting more than a caution. However, I agree given the jokey tone his sincerity is highly questionable, especially when you see posts like this on his FB group...

 

image.png.6ac003aa122f6169643e8a51bb59e332.png

 

Also his claims that he "misinterpreted" or "misunderstood" the rules are difficult to take given you can readily find posts like the one below against other videos that remain viewable on his channel. I am somewhat surprised his Manchester cityscape videos have been left up tbh; I guess the CAA/Police couldn't prove beyond reasonable doubt he was breaking the law, or didn't want to go through the time and expense of prosecuting him...

 

 

image.png.f109b117022ad0ed54eabcab7f4f5c33.png

 

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We have to do risk assessments at work. I can't think of a single one that justified bending or breaking rules. They're universally about what category of risk activity xyz falls into. And when they're done they are made visible and available, because in part they're a piece of legally admissible evidence should anything go wrong and in other part they're guidance for other people doing activity xyz.

 

Sounds more like he's trying to convince himself that it was perfectly ok to be doing exactly what he wanted to do in the first place despite there being rules that legally prohibit it.

 

 

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I did wonder at first if he was just completely unaware that there are any rules. I think he is, but he's just not (or wasn't) bothered.

 

I think the clue's in the name he operates under, 'Lone Wolf Films'. He obviously sees himself as a bit of a maveric, and the rules the rest of us abide by don't apply to him.

 

Edited by EvilC57
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