If every seat was one of those cocoons that allow you to lie down flat and have enough leg room and shoulder room that would be fine with me. The standard skinny, short, hard seats I normally get stuck in between screaming kicking kids would be impossible to cope with.

(Written on 08/24/2018)(Permalink)

In this case you could easily lay the blame on the helicopter instructor, was he flying in a designated Low Flying Zone, why the hell was he practicing manoeuvres at only 50 feet above the trees and if he was truly 50 feet above the trees how did the tail rotor hit the tree? Surely he shouldn't have been below 500 feet unless he was taking off or landing then there wouldn't have been a potential clash with the alleged UAV flying below 400 feet nor a clash with the actual tree living below 400 feet. Smells a lot like someone making up a story to blame someone else for their stupidity/lack of talent. If it really was a DJI Phantom as claimed then DJI themselves will be able to tell the FAA who owned it and exactly where it was flying, since they track and record all the relevant info through the app.

(Written on 02/22/2018)(Permalink)

2.7, 4 and 8 pound UAV's are pretty heavy for racing/acrobatic type drones, I'm guessing this particular study probably chose those weights more because that's the weight of some DJI Phantoms and Inspires as well as some of the larger fixed wing camera platforms. If they'd tested the smaller racing and toy class UAV's there probably wouldn't have been much damage at all. There has been almost no actual UAV strike damage to give us any way to reliably asses or guess how much damage can be done. The only actual drone strike report I've ever seen was for a Blackhawk Helicopter where a DJI Phantom hit the rotor while the Blackhawk was doing some low level flying, the leading edge of one of the Blackhawks blades was damaged and the door skin was damaged where one of the DJI's motors imbedded itself, so although the damage would be expensive to repair, the helicopter continued flying to a safe landing. Until there's some actual test results and some verified strike reports, everybody needs

(Written on 02/09/2018)(Permalink)

OK, so it could be real, and after reading the article linked to by Jeff Lawson, it seems it probably was an Acrobatic or Racing Drone not one of the camera drones that would normally carry GPS and geofencing software, therefore no need to "Hack the Geofencing software". If the FAA do catch the pilot then he/she deserves to feel the full weight of the law.

(Written on 02/08/2018)(Permalink)

Just wondering if this incident actually happened? There have been faked drone collides with airliner videos posted on the internet before now. It looks pretty well lit for 1:10 AM. It also looks pretty acrobatic for your average Geofenced type UAV ie. DJI, Yuneec, Parrot etc. Of course if it turns out to be real then the FAA should throw the book at them, $250,000.00 fine should make them think twice about trying it again. But remember, the only drones that have actually caused any deaths or done substantial damage to property are the weaponised ones flown by the military. So a little calm and perspective needs to be bought into this conversation. We need some evidence before going off half cocked, a YouTube video in itself is NOT evidence. Manned aircraft are proven to be a far greater threat to other manned aircraft than toy or hobbyist UAV's are.

(Written on 02/08/2018)(Permalink)

How sure are you of your facts? Was he really a sex for drugs offender, or have these charges been made up to make people think he deserved what he got so it was OK for United Airlines to treat him that way?

(Written on 05/05/2017)(Permalink)

I think your timeline is a bit skewed. The police/airport security entered and dragged him off the plane banging his face into the armrest across the isle as they did so, then he came running back onto the plane. His initial removal from the plane was probably illegal/immoral, he went more peacefully the second time. Using excessive force to remove him in the first place can not be justified, he was not a threat to the safety of the flight, he just felt justified in staying seated.

(Written on 05/05/2017)(Permalink)

So the pilots thought it was a balloon 9000 ft up 20 odd km from shore 55 km from Toronto, suddenly it's a drone and "it took place near Billy Bishop Airport, an island hub right near Toronto's downtown core". The media should really learn to stop speculating and wait for the official report to come out, or perhaps they should just stop inventing stories that they know will stir up outrage and attract visits to their websites through clickbait like this.

(Written on 11/17/2016)(Permalink)