So who is flying these drones?

denverpilot said:
Surprised the newsies haven’t done it yet with their leased helicopter they all share. Probably afraid they’ll hit one.
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Or perhaps the drone's endurance far exceeds that of a helicopter. I can see A-10 being able to follow it. That thing can loiter for 8 hours. Unfortunately, it's single pilot.
 
zaitcev said:
Or perhaps the drone's endurance far exceeds that of a helicopter. I can see A-10 being able to follow it. That thing can loiter for 8 hours. Unfortunately, it's single pilot.
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Yeah, but... BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPPPPP!
 
Wouldn’t there be a way to hone in on the controlling frequencies? Wouldn’t they be in a known frequency band and since there are like 30+ controllers, most likely concentrated in a small area, could they use that to track where they are being controlled from?

In modern warfare, I’d be very surprised if the only option if an enemy was using drones that are controlled from the ground is to shoot them down.
 
murphey said:
77 organizations at the meeting. Right. Sure. You know there’s going to be a lot of positive results.


Oh wait. They’ve created a committee.
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Yes.....It's a big deal. Operators are standing by....<eye roll>
 
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Looks like the State Pilatus with FLIR has been hunting something...

aadee992af6e1fab269befda52a8fc8e.jpg


... or not and just practicing. Who knows.
 
Cripes. Hey USAF or USN, have an AWACS or E-2 that needs some training? They have the loiter time, skills and system to find and track these drones for hours. Need to find the control vehicle? SLAR with MTI just like we track IED planters. If they really want to find them it's not rocket surgery.
 
I guess we are chasing a white van again.
 
LongRoadBob said:
Wouldn’t there be a way to hone in on the controlling frequencies? Wouldn’t they be in a known frequency band and since there are like 30+ controllers, most likely concentrated in a small area, could they use that to track where they are being controlled from?
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That assumes they are being remotely controlled and are not preprogrammed or autonomous.
 
denverpilot said:
Looks like the State Pilatus with FLIR has been hunting something...

aadee992af6e1fab269befda52a8fc8e.jpg


... or not and just practicing. Who knows.
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Hm...couldn’t bring up that number on my copy of FR
 
Pugs said:
Cripes. Hey USAF or USN, have an AWACS or E-2 that needs some training? They have the loiter time, skills and system to find and track these drones for hours.
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Sounds like an attractive option, but is it legal to use armed forces for police activity?
 
zaitcev said:
Sounds like an attractive option, but is it legal to use armed forces for police activity?
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National Security - easy justification. We can use them on the border.
 
zaitcev said:
Sounds like an attractive option, but is it legal to use armed forces for police activity?
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National guard assets can be used if the governor decides that they are necessary to provide a capability not available to local LE. Not sure whether full up AF assets can be used.

After the Saudi refinery attack, you would think DoD would be all over this to protect their installations from a UAV threat.
 
Okay, its illegal (Federal) to shoot down a drone. But at this point these same drones could be a threat to our national defense...in which case I would think shooting one down would be justified by any individual, citizen or law enforcement. So maybe its time for a sheriff to authorize some deputies to bring one down. Make that order public with a deadline for someone to respond. Heck, will the sheriff and/or his deputies really even be arrested? It would all be public and impossible to hush. You have all these agencies rather freaked out - and no private business or federal entity is stepping up. Start bringing them down until someone fesses up. Makes you wonder - NOT- why the drone guys didn't use Texas :)
 
Sinistar said:
Okay, its illegal (Federal) to shoot down a drone. But at this point these same drones could be a threat to our national defense...in which case I would think shooting one down would be justified by any individual, citizen or law enforcement. So maybe its time for a sheriff to authorize some deputies to bring one down. Make that order public with a deadline for someone to respond. Heck, will the sheriff and/or his deputies really even be arrested? It would all be public and impossible to hush. You have all these agencies rather freaked out - and no private business or federal entity is stepping up. Start bringing them down until someone fesses up. Makes you wonder - NOT- why the drone guys didn't use Texas :)
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As suggested to me by a Houston undercover cop ( his sister was my neighbor when I lived in Texas)...shoot firat and hire a good lawyer. I keep my lawyer’s number on speed dial on my phone.
 
kyleb said:
...They were mostly dumbasses filming in portrait mode...
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It's amazing what a high percentage of the smart-phone videos I see on TV that are shot that way. And then they keep panning from left to right to capture everything. For some reason, it never occurs to most people that they can turn their phones sideways, and then they wouldn't have to do that.
 
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Palmpilot said:
It's amazing what a high percentage of the smart-phone videos I see on TV are shot that way. And then they keep panning from left to right to capture everything. For some reason, it never occurs to most people that they can turn their phones sideways, and then they wouldn't have to do that.
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My favorite is the people that turn the phone half way through.. then when they replay the video to their friends and the video turns they turn the phone too.. only to have it switch on them. It is awesome how powerfully stupid the average person is

I'm not sure why the phone doesn't just auto film in landscape

I once watched and absolute savage watch an entire movie on a plane on their iPad in portrait mode:
upload_2020-1-7_13-40-34.png
 
Palmpilot said:
It's amazing what a high percentage of the smart-phone videos I see on TV are shot that way. And then they keep panning from left to right to capture everything. For some reason, it never occurs to most people that they can turn their phones sideways, and then they wouldn't have to do that.
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Sinistar said:
From various articles...

"A Federal Aviation Administration map of the region where the drones have been spotted — Logan, Phillips, Sedgwick and Yuma counties — is pocked with red dots of where drones are forbidden, restricted airspace presumably above missile silos"

...so where is this FAA map showing these restricted areas? I don't see anything on a standard sectional in those areas....
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overdrive148 said:
I can't find the red dots they are talking about on the sectional, Airmap, or on the FAA UAS Facilities Map. Not sure where the author got that info from.
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Maybe that article was written by a non-aviation person who was misinterpreting the magenta dots that indicate non-towered airports, or the magenta circles with an R in the middle to indicate restricted airports. There seem to be plenty of both near the Colorado-Nebraska border.
 
Tantalum said:
My favorite is the people that turn the phone half way through.. then when they replay the video to their friends and the video turns they turn the phone too.. only to have it switch on them. It is awesome how powerfully stupid the average person is

I'm not sure why the phone doesn't just auto film in landscape

I once watched and absolute savage watch an entire movie on a plane on their iPad in portrait mode:
View attachment 81696
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I’m very disappointed in you. Your drawing is good and all, but why didn’t you record a video of this event? (In portrait mode, of course.)
 
iamtheari said:
I’m very disappointed in you. Your drawing is good and all, but why didn’t you record a video of this event? (In portrait mode, of course.)
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This was years ago, I have a photo somewhere but was lazy to dig it up
 
The local talk radio is covering it now, helping remind me why I don’t live in the city with the morons. LOL.
 
Tantalum said:
My favorite is the people that turn the phone half way through.. then when they replay the video to their friends and the video turns they turn the phone too.. only to have it switch on them. It is awesome how powerfully stupid the average person is

I'm not sure why the phone doesn't just auto film in landscape

I once watched and absolute savage watch an entire movie on a plane on their iPad in portrait mode:
View attachment 81696
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This isn't going to help the situation:

Samsung's new TV rotates to play vertical videos

Dang Millenials ruin everything. :rofl:
 
From a quick google search set to 24hrs or less it looks like Colorado is backing off quite a bit. They have indicated several of the sighting were actually different things such as planets, etc. A conspiracy theorist would say someone has backed them down. They are saying the Flight For Life drone near miss was not correct. I also like how DJI is at least being referenced, if not actually involved, to defend drones and how many reports are actually false.

Its probably DJI flying mega drones under a defense contract working on swarming and finding people. Since their new drones have ADSB-IN they would have saw that Colorado state PC-12 30 miles away and buzzed back to that white van :)
 
Got pretty quiet on the local news other than all the news stations wanting to ogle the State owned Pilati.
 
Denver Post article dated the evening of Jan 13:

https://www.denverpost.com/2020/01/13/drones-colorado-public-safety-search-empty/

excerpt:

The Colorado Department of Public Safety is scaling back its search for the mysterious drones reported to be flying patterns in Northeast Colorado and Nebraska.

After conducting several field operations aimed at identifying the reported drones, the agency came up empty, public safety said Monday in a statement.

Investigators checked into 23 reports of drone activity during field operations between Jan. 6 and Jan. 13, the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, but did not identify any of the large drones as described by witnesses.

Of those 23 reports,
13 sightings were determined to be planets, stars or small hobbyist drones;
six sightings were determined to be due to atmospheric conditions or commercial aircraft; and
in four sightings, law enforcement confirmed that they saw something but couldn’t tell what, exactly, was flying overhead.
 
So, only 4 of 23 reports couldn't be explained.

Planets, atmospheric conditions, etc. Sounds a lot like UFO crazes of the past.
 
Well sure they're not going to hand around after you have a big press conference saying you're going to hunt them.
 
This part cracked me up:

"In one of the stranger exchanges found in the 90th Security Forces Group release, a participant in the email chain writes that some eyewitness reports state that the drones were dropping what appeared to be “potatoes” and that the Perkins County Sheriff's Office collected some of them for analysis:

Sheriff’s deputies are responding and seeing the drones as well. They reported seeing a “mothership” 6’ in diameter flanked by 10 smaller drones (some fixed wing, some not). When deputies follow the drones, they clock them at speeds of 60-70 mph. The drones also appear to be dropping or picking up things that look like “potatoes” [Redacted]

The FBI in Colorado and the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) in Omaha are currently looking into the sightings. Perkins County Sherriff’s [sic] Office has three of the potatoes frozen in storage and will likely transfer them to the FBI for analysis. The FAA is sending an agent to Colorado this upcoming weekend to help investigate and handle the news coverage.

In an email dated January 2, someone else in the email chain added that “The “potatoes” have an agricultural purpose and are used by farmers with their large center pivot irrigation systems.” The Denver Post identified the "potatoes" as SOILPAM Tracklogs, a tool used to help fill the ruts left by wheels on large irrigation systems."

"Potatoes." Ha ha!
 
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