Drone buzzes West Upper Deck in 3Q

[TEAMme]

Was I the only one who was a bit freaked out by the drone that was hovering over Section 108/109 for about ten minutes in the second half last night?

 

[marley]

That was definitely weird.

A woman who sits next to us is an expert in the area of drones, quad copters, et. al., and the current federal government attempts being made to figure out how to integrate them into the air traffic control system of the United States.

She said that at this point, only the U. S. military can legally operate any sort of drones in this country. She said that there are several abandoned air force bases around the country that are being used to test and certify civilian drones, but that no such aircraft have yet been licensed and certified for civilian use.

So she said that quad copter last night that hovered over the stadium with its red and green lights was either being flown by the military or some civilian was illegally flying it.

I wondered if it was the military testing out facial recognition technology using a quad copter camera.

I'll be curious if any news outlet talks about that quad copter.

 

[Statalyzer]

At first I thought this was a TV thing, to get overhead shots without needing a blimp.

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[Major Marco]

Wasn't at the game, but this a large military type device or something smaller? Many so-called "drones" are used for civilian purposes, mainly aerial photography. Austin Drone Photography comes to mind. Curious to find out.

 

[Texas Taps]

It was a quad copter. The typical drone folks attach GoPros to. I'm thinking it was someone that had permission to fly over the stadium, otherwise it would be pretty stupid to have large red and green navigation lights on it. Whoever owned it wasn't operating it in an unprofessional manner or as a prank.

 

[accuratehorn]

I was looking at the numerous common nighthawks flying around over the field, and noticed one of them had blinking lights on it. Figured it had to be a drone.
I don't know that the flight is illegal, but have a relative in California who has some sort of drone photography business. I once talked to him about using them for football games, and he said basically no way, too dangerous, too much liability if something went wrong. Plus he said the rules for drones had not been formulated, which is a problem for their commercial use.
I would be interested to know who flew the drone over DKR, but I doubt we will ever know. I'm guessing private amateur drone photographer. Would the military fly such a visible object over such a large crowd of people? Doubtful.

 

[TEAMme]

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[Texas Taps]

The dude with the jet pack was more of a danger than the drone

 

[SonofSon]

Mystery Solved

 

[TEAMme]

Nice catch Son

 

[Texas Taps]

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[SonofSon]

I saw it as soon as it entered the stadium. We sit in section 1 and it came in right from the southwest corner of the stadium. I was really surprised it flew around for as long as it did.

 

[notanative]

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[tdog]

I did not know it at the time, but after watching the news clip I realize I saw this guy getting arrested as I left the stadium. He kept yelling something about he was "doing it voluntarily" and that arresting him was "illegal". I thought it was just another drunk college kid until I saw the video.

 

[runner]

Frankly, I'm surprised this hasn't happened more often. A friend of mine has a modified drone that can go about 2 miles away. If it gets low on batteries, it recognizes that, and will fly home with enough juice left. He doesn't need to be able to see the drone, as his go pro will give him sight, plus, you can program it to go exactly where you want it to go. Think about how many places you could be within 2 miles of DKR (or any open stadium for that matter), fly your drone through, and go home. Unless you're controlling it out in the open, I can see that it would be massively difficult to find you.

On the other hand, these devices rely on GPS, which can easily be overridden by Those With Proper Skills.

I think we're going to see more of this as the technology gets more prevalent.

 

[TEAMme]

I don't agree it's OK. If one of those things loses power at 13 stories up and drops, it reaches terminal velocity and someone could die. Not a thing to trifle with, IMO.