Summary

A drone collision grounded one of two Super Scooper planes battling Los Angeles wildfires, leaving a critical resource unavailable.

The collision damaged the aircraft’s wing, forcing its grounding, and temporarily paused other firefighting flights, creating significant delays.

The FAA emphasized the dangers of flying drones near wildfires, noting it’s a federal crime with penalties up to $75,000 and prison time.

Over 36,000 acres have burned, with officials warning that delays in air support allow wildfires to spread rapidly, endangering lives and property.

  • glimse@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    8 hours ago

    To me, it’s like driving a car that applies the brakes automatically every time it sees a red light, overriding whatever decision you have made.

    This is such an incredibly stupid analogy…especially when there’s a DIRECT analogy with vehicles.

    You have to register “powerful” vehicles with the government and you need a license to drive them. Like your kid’s Power Wheels car (cheap drone) doesn’t need to be registered. Your golf cart (racing quad) probably doesn’t but a sedan (55lb+ quad) does. If you want to drive a semi (long range/commercial/whatever), you need a special license, too.

    It turns out if you want to use a dangerous device in public, the government wants to know about it…you know, to help avoid flying their dangerous devices into the wing of a disaster relief plane

    • WolfLink@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      3 hours ago

      You have to register “powerful” vehicles with the government and you need a license to drive them. Like your kid’s Power Wheels car (cheap drone) doesn’t need to be registered.

      They guy you are responding to mentioned:

      1. Building drones under the 250 gram limit (analagous to building your own toy power wheels car that’s too small to be regulated)
      2. Building drones over the 250 gram limit and registering them and following the relevant rules (analagous in your example to having some sort of hobby project car and going through the proper channels to get it certified as street legal).

      Seriously what’s wrong with someone having a hobby?

    • theluckyone@discuss.online
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      4 hours ago

      How do you explain ultralight aircraft not needing to be registered and their operation licensed, per FAR-103?

      • glimse@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        3 hours ago

        If I had to guess? Risk of killing someone other than yourself. They’re the go karts of planes

    • TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      8
      ·
      8 hours ago

      You guys all don’t seem to get the idea. I have no problem registering my shit and complying with safety regulations. I do when the vehicle itself enforces it. I have heard of no plane that will override a pilot decision because it thinks some aviation rule is being violated.

      • Pheonixdown@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        7 hours ago

        I guess some people’s point is that if the automated restrictions that come with those aren’t used maliciously or commonly problematic, it shouldn’t really be a big deal for it to exist. In fact, that they do exist is probably a good thing because it prevents amateurs from making potentially hazardous mistakes, given there really aren’t any other controls on who can operate them.

        From the sound of your initial post, it sounded like you were primarily building your own to evade these automated restrictions, but I’m going to assume you’re more of an enthusiast and just don’t add those features to what you build, and you build things for that intrinsic joy and customizability. If true, I think given your level of familiarity and expertise, that feels generally reasonable.