Originally Posted by
porcia83
Lucky for us he isn't that popular in the states...., still does good sales and concerts abroad.
Not to sound alarmist, but there is a good chance something like that will happen here, at some event. Hopefully nobody will be injured. I doubt however it will be a "sanctioned" quad/drone flying though, rather it will be someone who wants to get some really beechin footage and thinks they'll be able to handle it, and then poof, down it will go. That reality, and the known exposure is why I don't think you'll ever see that happen here. Hopefully. Although not quite as dynamic, those tethered remote control cameras still get some great footage.
This has already happened here in Massachusetts , with the resultant injury being too small to raise a fuss over . It was a Memorial day parade where this guy thought nothing of flying a small quad (far smaller than the one the gent attempted to catch) over the crowd to get exactly that , some great footage . When it went out of control and came down it barely scraped a gent's neck and so no charges were filed . The pilot/photographer was darned lucky that it was deemed merely an inadvertent bad judgement call rather than a deliberate disregard for public safety , as that determination most certainly would have merited charges . I believe you , of course , that such incidents will continue to happen and as they become more and more publicized the forgiveness factor will be greatly reduced for those "who shoulda known better" .
Originally Posted by
HoundDog
In the USA wouldn't this be considered (Being a part of the show) a commercial operation and require all the FAA Certification and training to fly for compensation or hire?
I would say it's commercial use , given the event's status as a for profit enterprise . Funny that , if it were a free concert then things may be different but since these folks attending his shows are buying admission tickets it's commercial use 100% as far as I'm concerned . This leaves one to wonder , just how many of our present day reported incidents actually involve what should be deemed commercial rather than hobby use ? as in , guys getting paid to take pictures , crashing or otherwise causing bad press , and the hobby side getting the black eye because it ? Since the clear distinction has been established between hobby vs commercial use It'd be nice to see the news reporters educated as to the difference . As it seems now , to the media , if it isn't a military drone it's some clueless hobbyist , and I don't think it's fair for hobbyists to take the rap for both hobby AND commercial operations ....