Gatwick Airport Vs Drones.

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Things have moved on and become more serious.
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Is it not possible to control an industrial drone from a device a thousand miles away?
For the most part - no. Unless you have a data link infrastructure with repeaters and satellites. Even the larger industrial drones that are commercially sold only have a 5 km range and about a 35 minute endurance. They have to be brought to a launch area and assembled prior to launch.
 
DJI has a geofencing system that will not only prevent you from flying into certain airspace, but will also track drone telemetry. It's effective in identifying the drone and it's owner but like anything else there is software that can defeat it. Additionally DJI has errors in their system that sometimes locks out operations in areas that are actually legal to fly in.


Is that the system that basically interferes with the transmit frequency of the drones? I didn't think that was ready just yet?
 
So, they have now released the couple arrested earlier, no charges and they are no longer suspects.

They obviously just went to the first house near Gatwick where someone was known to be a flyer of drones. Brilliant police work and back to square one as we are no nearer knowing who actually did the deed.

I would say, 'I told you so', but......

Sometimes you find yourself agreeing with someone with whom you normally disagree, in this case Peter Hitchens.

"There's another worrying thing about the wet response to the Gatwick drone. Here we are, with our own burgeoning KGB-type organisations. There's the ludicrous MI5, lavished with public money and constantly claiming to be saving us from the supposed menace of terror.

Then there's the so-called 'British FBI', the National Crime Agency. And MI6, which also claims to know everything. We also have the gigantic secret doughnut of GCHQ, supposedly plucking the plots of the wicked from the airwaves with fantastically sophisticated devices. Not to mention the police who, having forgotten how to walk, maintain their own air force instead.
And then there is the huge industry of 'airport security', which forces innocent people to shuffle through humiliating searches, in which they must remove their clothes and have their private parts photographed by scanners, before they can get near a plane.
But all these organisations and 'security' personnel can't find a way to deal with what is, in effect, a large remote-controlled toy helicopter buzzing about near the runway. It is nothing to do with the resources available to them. It is just that they have all gone soft, like supermarket apples."


Cheers

Steve
 
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For the most part - no. Unless you have a data link infrastructure with repeaters and satellites.

That's kinda were I'm going. I'm no expert but it seems to me that some nerd with a satellite phone and local help could be sitting in his living room in Timbuktu laughing his head off.
 
That's kinda were I'm going. I'm no expert but it seems to me that some nerd with a satellite phone and local help could be sitting in his living room in Timbuktu laughing his head off.
It would take a huge infrastructure to make this happen. Additionally the remote/ drone interface is encoded. To me you could create a lot more havoc with other means, even though this episode did create some chaos.
 
Maybe by focusing attention on the problem they have done the world a favour.
No need to bring down an airliners just shut down several major airports would do major economic harm.

Exactely!

So, they have now released the couple arrested earlier, no charges and they are no longer suspects.

They obviously just went to the first house near Gatwick where someone was known to be a flyer of drones. Brilliant police work and back to square one as we are no nearer knowing who actually did the deed.

I would say, 'I told you so', but......

Sometimes you find yourself agreeing with someone with whom you normally disagree, in this case Peter Hitchens.

"There's another worrying thing about the wet response to the Gatwick drone. Here we are, with our own burgeoning KGB-type organisations. There's the ludicrous MI5, lavished with public money and constantly claiming to be saving us from the supposed menace of terror.

Then there's the so-called 'British FBI', the National Crime Agency. And MI6, which also claims to know everything. We also have the gigantic secret doughnut of GCHQ, supposedly plucking the plots of the wicked from the airwaves with fantastically sophisticated devices. Not to mention the police who, having forgotten how to walk, maintain their own air force instead.
And then there is the huge industry of 'airport security', which forces innocent people to shuffle through humiliating searches, in which they must remove their clothes and have their private parts photographed by scanners, before they can get near a plane.
But all these organisations and 'security' personnel can't find a way to deal with what is, in effect, a large remote-controlled toy helicopter buzzing about near the runway. It is nothing to do with the resources available to them. It is just that they have all gone soft, like supermarket apples."


Cheers

Steve

We have similar issues in the states but I totally disagree with your last statement. Some of these "large remote-controlled toy helicopters" are very sophisticated quadcopters, carry 20 megapixel as well as infrared cameras, can fly a pre-programmed course over 8 miles, can self detect obstructions and avoid them, fly up to 50 mph, reach altitudes in excess of 2000' AGL, provide continual flight telemetry data to the operator as well as video down link, can autonomously return to their home point if they lose remote control signal, and can land within inches, YES INCHES, from where they took off from. The issue is these drones are no longer toys, they are highly sophisticated pilot-less aircraft that need to be regulated, and I'm not talking about the $50 or $100 drones you buy at a department store. Aviation regulators never fully understood (and still don't) the capabilities of these drones, how to adequately regulate them and finally understand how they are actually used commercially.
 
Not my comment, that was Hitchens.

I agree that these machines are quite sophisticated, but his point about our inability to deal with them stands.

Cheers

Steve
 
The solution is here, available and not overly complex. First we need to reclassify what an " RC model aircraft" is when compared to a drone, mainly those vehicles capable of VTOL capabilities. The RC guys have been victimized since quadcopter drones have hit the consumer markets. "Toy" drones under .55 pounds are limited to 150' altitude and a 500' radius of operator and geofenced from controlled airspace operations. Above that weight all drones sold (hobby and industrial) are individually registered during sale, locked down to the same toy drone requirements until the owner/ operator takes a test as either a hobbyist or a commercial operator. All hobby and "industrial" drones are transponder equipped so they could tracked. Since commercial operators may attain airspace waivers, there is no lock down requirement once they register their drone and show proof of certification. Hobbyist operators are locked down to 400' maximum altitude, 1 mile distance to endure visual line of site and are geofenced from D or higher airspace at the surface. E airspace would involve the lateral circular operating area of the airport unless the airport establishes a controlled extension that is required at surface level (those are uncommon).

The technology to do this is readily available. Yes it will drive up cost but that's the price we have to pay. There are too many idiots who are tainting this industry and making it more and more difficult for legitimate commercial and hobbyist drone pilots to fly their aircraft.
 
The solution is here, available and not overly complex. First we need to reclassify what an " RC model aircraft" is when compared to a drone, mainly those vehicles capable of VTOL capabilities. The RC guys have been victimized since quadcopter drones have hit the consumer markets. "Toy" drones under .55 pounds are limited to 150' altitude and a 500' radius of operator and geofenced from controlled airspace operations. Above that weight all drones sold (hobby and industrial) are individually registered during sale, locked down to the same toy drone requirements until the owner/ operator takes a test as either a hobbyist or a commercial operator. All hobby and "industrial" drones are transponder equipped so they could tracked. Since commercial operators may attain airspace waivers, there is no lock down requirement once they register their drone and show proof of certification. Hobbyist operators are locked down to 400' maximum altitude, 1 mile distance to endure visual line of site and are geofenced from D or higher airspace at the surface. E airspace would involve the lateral circular operating area of the airport unless the airport establishes a controlled extension that is required at surface level (those are uncommon).

The technology to do this is readily available. Yes it will drive up cost but that's the price we have to pay. There are too many idiots who are tainting this industry and making it more and more difficult for legitimate commercial and hobbyist drone pilots to fly their aircraft.

Sounds good in theory but how long before some computer hacker busts the operating limitations?

Or worse still - how does that prevent home built ones like this from being used

 
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Sounds good in theory but how long before some computer hacker busts the operating limitations?

Explain what operating limitations? The encrypted datalink between the remote and drone? The Satellite link? Geofence? The GPS signal? Do you realize how many things factor in the operation of these things?

BTW I think I already mentioned that there is software that can defeat Geolock and there are some drones manufactured that have no Geolock/ geofence limitations.

Or worse still - how does that prevent home built ones like this from being used



Old news - you're painting the most extreme cases that would rival terrorist getting their hands on WMDs.

What needs to be stopped is the half-witted wanna be pilot thrill seeker who ether doesn't understand the international airspace system or doesn't care. Yes, a known fact that Phantom 2s and 3 Standards have been rigged to lob mortars on troops in Syria. That will pose the same threat as someone taking an airplane and crashing it into something.
 
So now it seems there may never have been a drone at all!

NONE of the alleged sightings were confirmed, which would explain why none of the so called counter measures were implemented. The authorities NEVER saw a drone.

It now seems you can shut down an international airport by simply phoning up and saying that you've seen a drone close to a runway. Even better, get a few people to phone up saying something similar. That's a lot simpler than actually flying a drone and with a bit of common sense you will not get caught.

If I was that couple, held for 36 hours by police, who released our identities to be splashed all over the press and other media, I'd be talking to a lawyer.

It makes you proud to be British.

Cheers

Steve
 
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