Although I have very little interest in multirotors, I would think the huge appeal is the ability to get great quality pictures and video using such a stable platform. Therein lies the problem with ability to lure new pilots into joining a club, flying safely at a club field and keeping them as members. The excitement is being able to acquire video from different perspectives, different locations , landmarks etc... You'd be bored after one day at the same flying field. The added benefit of making them easy to fly out of the box with all the self correcting, return to home, and GPS features is what makes them even more appealing and dangerous at the same time. Look at the ads in the model magazines. They show them flying along a closed course capturing video of cars racing around. The manufacturers and retailers promote this behavior and then we should be surprised when we see someone doing it? This is what's selling now and it's really just about the bottom line from the manufacturer to the distributor to the hobby shop. Unfortunately some type of accident will eventually occur and hopefully when the government boot comes down, our fixed location club fields won't get caught under it.
Well said afterburner, I’ve been flying for 23 years mostly at AMA clubs and some park flying. I’m also an amateur videographer so the appeal of the multirotor, is to shoot video at unique locations. There is a new interactive map that shows where you can and can’t fly. I live only a few hours from Yosemite and thought that would be an awesome place to shoot video from a multirotor, until I found out with a little research that the national park system banned unmanned aircraft. I do want to take video over different city locations but I will do it in a way that I’m not over people. (Or as few as possible) With that said we have full scale planes over our heads every day. My wife is a realtor and many of her coworkers are already hiring multi rotor pilots for aerial photography. I’m sure they don’t know it’s not legal yet. The FAA has a really tough situation trying to figure out how to bring these UAS’s into the national airspace safely.
The waivers and airworthiness certificates they have issued this year have had to have a private pilot’s license and a class 2 medical cert. That seems ridicules to fly an 8 pound quad copter to shot real estate video in a neighborhood. I’m sure the FAA knows that, but from my understanding it’s the only way for now they know a background check was done along with basic NAS knowledge. My hope is they will come out with a UAS pilot program, it will have to be setup in weight classes somehow. There is a huge field here ready to explode with new jobs but they have to do it safely. Not easy for all sides involved. I plan to get my license if a system is put in place for UAV pilots, I’m waiting until the end of the year to see if and when the FAA ruling comes out.
As for the reckless guys out there I think maybe they just aren't informed (some maybe just stupid
) but I'm sure there is a way it can be done safely..... after seeing just how advanced some of these new systems are first hand the bug to own one bit me hard
Here is a link to the interactive map that shows where you can’t fly a UAS:
https://www.mapbox.com/drone/no-fly/...41.327/-96.504