The Lilly is a true Drone. You are not actually flying the aircraft. If the same tech was added to an Extra 260, I would call it a drone as well.

Drone - an unmanned aircraft or ship that can navigate autonomously, without human control or beyond line of sight.

Well, providing God allows us more time, one thing is for sure, we will get to vet that one out in the future also... Should be fun...but will make little difference, just as now...

So you make up your on definition? Drone per Merriam Webster.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/drone

So model air planes are drones. It goes back to the military target drones which were radio controlled before most of us were born.

And littlecrankshaf is right, it makes little difference.

Good question what if it were in the shape of Victory Secret? Bet it wouldn't fly very well. Take one hell of a picture though.

Hmmm...One of Victoria's Secrets Models...Man, I'd be in on that...maybe she will let me take pictures of her instead. Good call HD

http://youtu.be/lEsieFoe-ns

Enjoy this one!!! Firefighter shoots Multi-Rotor down. :cool:

Just a Dirty O'l man I guess. When ya stop look'n it's time to cash in your chips.

It is not an RC model , because it's not being flown by a living being stationed a variable distance from the craft while in operation .

It is a drone because it's on a mission other than the sheer joy of flight itself . Following other than direct real time human command .

Now , if you rig up an Extra 260 to accomplish the same mission (Good luck with THAT) then yes of course , the Extra is now a drone .

If you rig up a 10 bladed helicopter and had it RC being flown by a living being stationed a variable distance from the craft while in operation well then I guess that will have to be called an RC model aircraft , now wouldn't it ????

I don't get what's so had to understand about ;

Fly for nothing but the fun of flying itself = model aircraft

Assign ANY mission to it other than the flight itself = Drone

The physical form of the technology matters not in the description , it's the intended use that defines the difference between Drone VS model aircraft , , , , just as well as the full scale defines the different aircraft for their intended purpose .....

:cool: PS , I know the keyboard jockeys are all lining up to attack my definition , but too bad so sad , I stand by MY definition of drone VS model aircraft and don't really give a damn who likes it or not .

Just figured I get that outta the way upfront , to save folks keystrokes from trying to "convince" me of how 'wrong" I am .

:p Later !

Fly for nothing but the fun of flying itself = model aircraft=DRONE!

Get over it folks the term predates the current news. And has nothing to do with anything.

LCS: Now this is Fun, no matter what or where you are from. Guess let the technology take over, if the results are like this I am all for it!!!!!!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C-7_DBOY3o

Looks like I found a couple , eh ?

Ok Hound , I'll entertain your situation as presented ;

On the way out , you were flying it RC , and yes of course that makes it an RC model aircraft . That's pretty easy ...

Now , when you purposefully switched OFF the TX , you were no longer flying it RC , and by the very act of switching OFF the TX you knowingly "assigned" it a new "mission" other than to fly for fun . You assigned it to fly a pre prescribed course by the simple act of flipping one switch , and in doing so changed the "mission" from fun flying to Drone .

Now , had your TX failed , unplanned and unexpected , THEN the return to base function would be considered a "fail safe" instead of deliberate mission reassignment , and the RC model designation would remain intact .

See ? Didn't I tell you how easy this is ???

Now you are talking!!! LOL I'd volunteer for the program, AMA sponsored of course, that instructs operational safety for newbies like that... I'd wear the white shirt, the emblems and everything.

Yes it tis... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdoGVgj1MtY

LOL

:cool: Words mean one thing and one thing only ; they mean what the speaker of them meant for them to mean at the time they were spoken ......

A while back , when this whole "what's a drone VS what's an RC model aircraft question first appeared on RC forums , but wasn't quite yet in the daily news , I asked a few folks , who were not in the least hobby related , "what would you define the word drone to mean ?" Almost each person's first utterance was "A Worker Bee" . Worker , as in , with a job to do . It is common usage to see a boring repetitive task referred to as "Drone's work" , I'm sure most folks are familiar with the term . So it stands to reason that to the public , a drone is something with a boring repetitive job to do , and no where are any notions of fun , hobby , or entertainment involved in the word drone . The drone's got a job to do . Best git to it . Now , just last night , I had occasion to be with a whole bunch of non RC people , and I had two pictures with me , advertising photos showing someone flying a "traditional" model airplane and one showing a quad copter being flown . Of all respondents asked , 100% identified the parkzone foamy cub as a remote controlled model aircraft and the quad as a drone .

So , at least in "the court of public opinion" , the die has been cast as to what exactly is a model aircraft VS a drone . A model plane is flown for fun and a drone has a job to do . Now , if a quadcopter or any other machine is operated for nothing but the sheer fun of operating it , then it too becomes a model aircraft , and LCS' extra with the heat seeking missiles is most certainly a drone . The public has yet to make that distinction because the only things they see doing a job are quads , they are seen most frequently doing the work of photography . When they see a model airplane being flown in the local park their first nor even 101 first thought are anything about drones , it's "oh , some guy flying a toy plane" .

Now , in closing , if you don't think the public adopts , adapts , and co opts the meanings of words to suit popular modern usage , just try telling someone who is very happy that they're "Gay" , and see where that gets ya ! Yes , as well all know , in the 1930s , gay meant happy . Nothing more . Now of course we use it to mean something completely different , the modern intent of the term being defined by how the greater public chooses to define it .

You say ToMAHto , I say ToMAYto , , , either way they make a damned good pasta sauce ;)

At this point, to a non-rc person, "drone" = a multi-rotor apparatus...you know, the kind that fly hover by the top of the Space Needle, land on the White House lawn, hover over ball games and wedding parties, take aerial pics and vids...basically the helicopter-like flying contraptions that you see on the 6 o'clock news causing mayhem and chaos

Init has it right: If I fly my PZ T-28 off the golf course fairway in the evening, my neighbors like to watch the rc plane. When the DJI Phantom comes out, they ask me about my "drone." I've yet to have a single person NOT refer to the quad as a 'drone.'

Lots of lawsuits won or lost because what someone said meant something different than what was intended. Suggest you know the meaning of the words you use before you speak or write them. That does not mean using definitions you have made up in your head.

I am an engineer who must write specifications and use boilerplate specs. Sometimes the words mean something else to the contractor and if he can prove it means something else he wins. It doesn't matter what you intended to say at all.

And again the definition of a drone is any remotely controlled aircraft either by radio or autonomous. That includes our R/C models. The definition does not make allowances for recreational use.

You know this, I know this, and probably most all of us here know this, and would agree that that is a technically correct definition...but...with the help of the media, John Q Public - at this point - equates "drone" to multi-rotor flying contraptions.

:cool: Exactly ! VF84sluggo understands what I'm saying about words , and how it's the public , and not how some engineer's thesaurus' uses it , that matters .

Just as my example of the word gay , there are many words , in fact ALL words , come from and are molded by popular usage and intent . It's not as if there is some word regulating body that releases new words and declares the meanings of them non fluid . If the public calls quads drones enough , and "traditional" RC aircraft "toy planes" , whose definition do ya think is gonna stick ? To me , yes the difference should be in whether there is a mission other than fun flying assigned or not . That should be the defining criteria , and not the physical form of the technology employed . But to the public , the folks who determine what words really mean , good luck getting them to call a camera equipped Extra 260 a drone , or a quad an RC model heli , it just ain't happening ....

It's a shame that an important discussion on dangerous use of UAVs turned into a silly back and forth on the meaning of a word. Our news media has caused a lot of this problem just as it has with the words "assault weapon".

I'd like to suggest that we direct our conversations to FPV because that limited area of this hobby is really where the problems are. FPV involves taking your eyes off the aircraft and looking at a very limited view of the world through a video screen which presents a huge safety hazard to anone else around. And it matters not if the intended use if for fun or commercial it is still dangerous.

I would add that it's the beyond line-of-sight/visual limits of the 'drone' operator, and thus relying on a "limited view of the world through a video screen", that is at the heart of this whole mess.

And I'll freely admit that when I first got my DJI Phantom 2 I programmed a waypoint route and let the thing go on this tour of the coast line and fairways...and it got out of my sight. I got waaaaay uncomfortable with that, and I've never done that since. Not a smart thing to do, IMO. Never again.

First FAA-approved drone deliveries coming July 17


http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2015/06/...oming-july-17/

This is the kind of thing the FAA has been doing in support of commercial use of UAVs..

I should add that the FAA involvement with this is to provide the highest level of safety for the average person, either on the ground or in the air.

LOL! Right! ;) I see huge issues ahead for safety and privacy. Fortunately that won't involve our models, or at least it shouldn't.