Shot Down!

[FLYBOYJ]

Or brought down. Today this little asshole attacked one of my drones while I was collecting some b-roll along the Platte River south of downtown Denver. The drone survived, still flies and the camera works but the gimbal and SD card reader are toast! He actually had a snatch on it but dropped it (I did put it in a descent right before I saw them about to make contact). I think the props bit him in the foot. The drone came down along the bank of the Platte luckily in about an eighth of inch or water.

I'll be doing surgery to the drone within the next few weeks.

 

[fubar57]

Yikes. I know some countries train raptors to bring down drones but I never knew they free-lanced

 

[buffnut453]

Yikes. I know some countries train raptors to bring down drones but I never knew they free-lanced

Gotta make a buck somehow.

Then again, I can see how the birds might get grumpy with our ever-increasing encroachment into their environment. Perhaps they're conspiring against us...maybe Alfred Hitchcock was right!

 

[Wurger]

I think you should paint eyes of his opponent on the drone.

 

[vikingBerserker]

I wonder if he'll paint a kill marking on himself.

 

[Augsburg Eagle]

In the tree he looks like he don't want to see you there again.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

This was weird because it was along a wildlife corridor along a river that runs right through downtown Denver! I'm letting the Drone dry out for a few days before I'll try troubleshooting/ repair.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

In the tree he looks like he don't want to see you there again.

Yep! I was told by someone who knows birds that this red-tailed hawk was probably protecting his territory

 

[Gnomey]

Clearly enforcing the no fly zone!

 

[MIflyer]

I personally know of two cases where light aircraft were indeed shot down.

About 22 years ago one of the guys at our airport was taking off to the East in his homebuilt Varieze. The runway sticks out into a body of water in that direction. Soon after takeoff he experienced a severe vibration, did a 180, and landed on the runway downwind, overunning the pavement onto the grass at the far end. Examination showed that the wooden prop was shattered and there were shotgun pellets embedded in the cowling. It appears that someone in a boat had fired at him as he flew over. The cops did find a man in a boat on the water but there was no sign of a shotgun.

In my home town of Columbia SC there was an earthen embankment in the woods where everyone would go to shoot. The pattern of the local airport went right overhead, about where airplanes would turn from base to final. I wondered if that would ever cause problems. Then in 1975 a guy was flying a homebuilt Breezy in just about that location when a large caliber round struck the bottom fuselage structural member and broke it, and I think it took out the prop as well. The pilot barely made a safe landing.

 

[ODonovan]

Or brought down. Today this little asshole attacked one of my drones while I was collecting some b-roll along the Platte River south of downtown Denver. The drone survived, still flies and the camera works but the gimbal and SD card reader are toast! He actually had a snatch on it but dropped it (I did put it in a descent right before I saw them about to make contact). I think the props bit him in the foot. The drone came down along the bank of the Platte luckily in about an eighth of inch of water.

Time to up the game and send in big brother, a quadcopter mounting an airsoft MG.

Imagine his surprise when he gets some high velocity pellets for his trouble.



-Irish

 

[XBe02Drvr]

Time to up the game and send in big brother, a quadcopter mounting an airsoft MG.

View attachment 521836

Imagine his surprise when he gets some high velocity pellets for his trouble.
-Irish

It's 1914 again! Recon evolving into air combat. Deperdussins, Taubes, and Eindeckers!
Cheers,
Wes

 

[XBe02Drvr]

I personally know of two cases where light aircraft were indeed shot down.

An ROTC classmate of mine was shot down five times in Hueys, making him an "enemy ace": four times in Vietnam and once overflying the Mohawk reservation in upstate NY on an auto accident medevac. He never made it to the scene and the victim was DOA by ambulance.