Comments on: Nnnnnnyyeeeoooooorrrrrr!

Nnnnnnyyeeeoooooorrrrrr!

rouftop — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:21:24 -0800

An RC flight around lower New York City Featuring nice, close passes of the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge.

By: lampshade

lampshade — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:27:35 -0800

That is pretty cool. Good find!

By: shakespeherian

shakespeherian — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:28:51 -0800

What's the range of an RC signal?

By: phrontist

phrontist — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:30:15 -0800

shakespherian: With an amateur radio license and a good location, potentially many miles (easily all of the inner boroughs).

By: Cool Papa Bell

Cool Papa Bell — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:31:49 -0800

That's really fucking cool.

By: shakespeherian

shakespeherian — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:31:53 -0800

Really? I had no idea. I was expecting it was more like a walkie-talkie with like at best 300 yards.

By: briank

briank — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:32:25 -0800

These gentlemen from the Department of Homeland Security would like to have a word with Team Black Sheep.

By: andorphin

andorphin — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:33:36 -0800

What makes this even more exciting for the people doing the flying is that their system incorporates little VR glasses to make it seem as though they are sitting in the plane. Some get very fancy indeed.

By: Capt. Renault

Capt. Renault — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:36:16 -0800

Now do the World Trade Center! Oh, wait. Right.

By: Horace Rumpole

Horace Rumpole — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:40:37 -0800

I expect to see this video soon on Snopes, being passed around in an email forward about "Islamic terrorists using spy drones to scout Manhattan attack sites!"

By: various

various — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:44:45 -0800

That's awesome. Here are some more videos from the same guy.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:53:16 -0800

I nominate this for December's most eponysterical post competition. Wait, what? Oh, it's not for the most eponysterical post? Okay then, carry on.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:55:39 -0800

(it's still an awesome post!)

By: Jodio

Jodio — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 15:15:15 -0800

My first thought upon reading the title was about that crazy impossible RC helicopter mission from one of the GTA games. Yep, I'm admitting to it.

By: Mental Wimp

Mental Wimp — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 15:16:06 -0800

This was very impressive, but I kept hearing in my head, "Hey, you know what would be cool? If we could attach some rockets or bombs to one of those things..." And so it begins.

By: kavasa

kavasa — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 15:29:26 -0800

This post single-handedly validates SLYT posts. Thanks so much for letting me know about this!

By: Old'n'Busted

Old'n'Busted — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:06:03 -0800

Well I expect someone will get a visit from Homeland Security, and that flying an RC plane/copter will now require a background check.

By: snsranch

snsranch — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:06:07 -0800

At the very beginning it looks like a has a really bitchen power antenna on a tripod. Awesome stuff!

By: circular

circular — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:16:13 -0800

It's really cool at the end where he lets a (cop?) try out the viewfinder thingy. I'm thinking those dives and close approaches on random buildings in the city don't really help this guy's chances with the police or other agencies, but then I read that he's from Austria. Foreigners from friendly countries can usually just do whatever and move on if they get in trouble.

By: Israel Tucker

Israel Tucker — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:26:38 -0800

The added links in this thread are worth the visit.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:54:33 -0800

This video is cool. I also have to wonder about legality. Is this legal? If not, specifically why not?

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 17:17:58 -0800

Very cool.

By: autopilot

autopilot — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 17:31:00 -0800

The FPS flying community seems to play it pretty loose with airspace rules. There are some great ones of a guy flying through the streets in Brazil from an apartment balcony. His landing at the end through the window is pretty crazy. And by crazy, I mean totally batshit. To operate a UAV in US civil airspace you need at least a COA from the FAA, which will typically require a government agency to sign on as part of the project, and also require certification of some sort for the operators. Depending on the level of automation in the flight control system, this might be limited to a FAA written exam and a class two medical, but 8130.34 goes as far as to require that the operators be rated in the class of aircraft (fixed or rotorwing). It's a real mess and doesn't distinguish 1 kg foam toy from 1000 kg full size aircraft. The UK is no where near as bad -- 7 kg and less MGTOW is almost unregulated, and less than 20 kg only requires a waiver. Operations in Australia are even easier -- 100 kg and outside of Sydney or Perth? Just be careful, mate! Note: Not the actual text of the regulation, but pretty close

By: Nelson

Nelson — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 17:59:10 -0800

Yeah, the threat to other aircraft was my main concern watching this video. (The threat to property and people is obvious!) How big / high does something have to get before it's subject to FAA regulations? Obviously some kid's toy isn't being regulated by the FAA, is there a sensible legal boundary? I think a COA for civilians is nearly impossible. All the UAV operations around here I know of take place in restricted or TFR airspace over military bases. I do occasionally see NOTAMs for model rockets, so maybe it's not impossible.

By: madajb

madajb — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:36:04 -0800

The Statue was closed? I didn't see any people on the ground.

By: ssg

ssg — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 18:58:03 -0800

Yeah, the threat to other aircraft was my main concern watching this video. (The threat to property and people is obvious!) But how much of a threat is a 2kg plane like this? Obviously, it would hurt if it hit you at 100km/h, but is it actually a significant threat to aircraft?

By: vanar sena

vanar sena — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 19:52:42 -0800

andorphin: that their system incorporates little VR glasses Not just that, but a fully operational HUD! Extremely impressive. I imagine the next step would be a gimball-mounted head-tracking camera.

By: breezeway

breezeway — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 20:22:02 -0800

is it actually a significant threat to aircraft? A 1 kg gull made of flesh, feather and bone caused enough damage to force Sully Sullenberger's heroic mid-Hudson ditch, so it probably is a threat to some degree, though perhaps not significant.

By: GeckoDundee

GeckoDundee — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 20:45:05 -0800

vanar sena: I imagine the next step would be a gimball-mounted head-tracking camera. It seems they've got that covered.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 20:56:25 -0800

A 1 kg gull made of flesh, feather and bone caused enough damage to force Sully Sullenberger's heroic mid-Hudson ditch Only by "a 1kg gull' you mean "multiple 3-6kg geese."

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 21:10:15 -0800

Now do the World Trade Center! Oh, wait. Right. what the fuck..

By: dhartung

dhartung — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 21:28:55 -0800

Yeah, the threat to other aircraft was my main concern watching this video. ... How big / high does something have to get before it's subject to FAA regulations? New York metro has specific airspace rules as of last year, following that midair collision that killed nine people.

By: jjjjjjjijjjjjjj

jjjjjjjijjjjjjj — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 00:05:09 -0800

Every single goddamn thing about this is awesome. From the obviously-great visuals to the syncopated 808 snaredrum, it all seems deftly crafted so as to maximize contextual appropriateness. Great care was taken to bring you this amazing end-product. My hat's off to 'em. Job well done.

By: functionequalsform

functionequalsform — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 06:00:57 -0800

I think I saw my building! (Just kidding, but that video made me go, "Damn, that's where I live!")

By: Nelson

Nelson — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 09:20:53 -0800

I did about 10 minutes of research and didn't find a clear answer on current FAA regulations for model aircraft. FAR part 101 covers kites, balloons, and rockets, but maybe not model airplanes. AC 91-57 dates from 1981 and basically says "stay under 400 feet and away from airports", but I think that's advisory, not regulatory. The Academy of Model Aircraft has their own guidelines the community is supposed to follow, but again, I don't think that's regulatory. There's a lot of regulatory activity right now with new rules coming June 2011, driven by military UAV work on one side and increasingly capable models on the other. Whatever the FAA niceties are, there's enough federal and local law about endangering people and property that anyone trying to make a video like this could be shut down. And absolutely, a 2kg aircraft could totally fuck up a conventional aircraft in a mid-air collision. Significant risk to helicopters (which may actually be this low) and non-trivial risk to fixed wing aircraft. The underlying issue is that the way we avoid mid-air collisions in airplanes is primarily "see and avoid". The camera systems on UAVs are impressive, but lack the peripheral vision and responsiveness to perform as well as a pilot sitting in the cockpit. There's a lot of fascinating work in this area, mostly military, it'd make a good post for Metafilter. Now that I'm all bummer, let me say again, this is a really cool video.

By: Kadin2048

Kadin2048 — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 12:38:08 -0800

Very neat. I'm skeptical that this was done in one continuous flight, though. (Not sure if they're claiming that or if it's just an assumption some people are making, here and on Reddit.) It's not the radio control range that seems like it'd be the difficult part, but the fuel-capacity "range" ... most small R/C hobby planes only fly for a few minutes before you bring them down for refueling. While you could put bigger-than-typical fuel tanks on one, I'd imagine that you'd start to lose maneuverability pretty quickly as a result of the added weight ... and the plane looks pretty maneuverable from the video (although I guess they could have done the more acrobatic flying on near-empty tanks). It seems more likely that the video is a compilation of short flights done from various locations around Manhattan; it's not one continuous flight. (Although that would be a good goal for a future team, or for their next project.) The U.S. Army has an electric UAV that's small enough to be hand launched which claims a 6 mile range; that would almost be long enough for a roundtrip from the Brooklyn or Queens waterfront across Manhattan to the Hudson and back, I think, flying along one of the streets... and that's electric, so it'd be pretty quiet. The military have satellite up/downlinks for control and video backhaul that most hobbyists don't have, unfortunately, although with 3 or 4G cell coverage you might be able to put something together that would be almost as good, if not better.

By: rouftop

rouftop — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 13:47:08 -0800

Now do the World Trade Center! Oh, wait. Right.
what the fuck.. @odinsdream: Believe it or not I had the exact same thought. I left NYC in May 2001 after living there for four years and still cannot get used to seeing images of lower Manhattan without the towers.

By: falameufilho

falameufilho — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 18:20:18 -0800

He thanks the NYPD and TSA in the end... is he being ironic or did he get authorization for this video?

By: breezeway

breezeway — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 18:29:33 -0800

Only by "a 1kg gull' you mean "multiple 3-6kg geese." Oh yeah, it was a flock of geese. I'm sure the plane poses no threat at all.

By: smoothvirus

smoothvirus — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 14:27:05 -0800

was going to create my own FPP on this but I got beat to it.. so here's a little more to the story. A lot of RC pilots in the USA are basically flipping the fuck out over this stunt. My own personal opinion is neutral on it, but the FAA is already writing regulation on use of remote controlled aircraft in US airspace and they are not going to view this in a favorable light. The American Modeling Association today released this statement about the video. The FPV forum on RCGroups has pretty much gone into total meltdown over this incident. More than one American hobbyist has threatened to beat the living shit out of Trappy should he ever set foot in the USA ever again, that is, if the FBI doesn't arrest him first.