Enrique Iglesias injured during performance

[JohnD]

Enrique Iglesias shed quite a bit of blood onstage when he tangled with a drone.
http://www.engadget.com/2015/05/31/enrique-iglesias-drone-accident/

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/31/entertainment/enrique-iglesias-drone-feat/index.html

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[Footer]

I hate stories like these oh so much. Its not a drone, its a quad copter. It is piloted by actual people. In fact, that copter needs two people to operate it. It is a DJI Inspire 1.

That copter has carbon fiber props on it that spin at insainly high RPM's. He is lucky he did not lose his finger. You should not be even trying to come near a quad when the blades are armed, let alone flying. It is ridiculous that they had this thing flying this close to the audience and allowed the talent to grab it. Also annoys me that Engadget who is supposed to be a tech rag did not even mention that the quad was piloted by someone with the show, not a random audience member. It is crap like this that have everyone freaking out about these thing and will make legislation happen to try to outlaw them.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Not sure I buy your logic on drones vs quadcopter. Being pilotless seems to make it a drone by most definitions. Having 4 rotors makes it a quadcopter - which may or may not have a pilot onboard.

I'm sure you have a purist basis for your distinction. Maybe if you come around to sky drops that are straight are not cycs, I'll come to your quadcopters are not drones way of thinking.

 

[Footer]

Not sure I buy your logic on drones vs quadcopter. Being pilotless seems to make it a drone by most definitions. Having 4 rotors makes it a quadcopter - which may or may not have a pilot onboard.

Drone conjures up images of predator aircraft that bombs targets I countries you can't pronounce. Also, the general public think drones fly themselves. There is no difference between a quad copter and an RC airplane. They both have pilots on the ground. They both require a fair amount of skill to keep aloft. So, why are we calling these things drones where rc airplanes have never been called that?

 

[JohnD]

I suppose we could just call them UAV's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_aerial_vehicle

 

[StradivariusBone]

What was the drone/quadcopter/uav doing in the show in the first place?

 

[Footer]

What was the drone/quadcopter/uav doing in the show in the first place?

It was used as an audience IMAG platform. Basically a cheap jib.

 

[FMEng]

The crew flying the thing messed up by putting it so close, but the talent is the real genius for putting his hand near spinning blades.

 

[Les]

I'm not sure of the accuracy, but one report I read alluded to the idea that it was part of the show for him to grab the quadcopter and pan it around for an audience shot. For some reason.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Drone conjures up images of predator aircraft that bombs targets I countries you can't pronounce. Also, the general public think drones fly themselves. There is no difference between a quad copter and an RC airplane. They both have pilots on the ground. They both require a fair amount of skill to keep aloft. So, why are we calling these things drones where rc airplanes have never been called that?

I can only go by what the dictionary says. And I think RC model planes are now called drones by many. They do drone after all.

 

[MrsFooter]

Drone conjures up images of predator aircraft that bombs targets I countries you can't pronounce. Also, the general public think drones fly themselves. There is no difference between a quad copter and an RC airplane. They both have pilots on the ground. They both require a fair amount of skill to keep aloft. So, why are we calling these things drones where rc airplanes have never been called that?

I can only go by what the dictionary says. And I think RC model planes are now called drones by many. They do drone after all.

Girls, girls, you're both pretty.

And yes, I also read that this was part of a bit that he likes to do every night. Just goes to show that even in a best case scenario, these things (whatever you call them) need to be respected for their potential dangers and used with care.

 

[gafftaper]

I do find it interesting how a large portion of our culture has rapidly turned against quads, turning a hobby device into a "drone". We understandably don't like the idea of the neighbor kid flying over our backyards with a camera. So an expensive toy quickly got the connotation of being the same as a military aircraft. Then we really screw it up when local politicians and the paranoid start pushing for laws to ban the use of drones in America. We are always at our stupidest when we start trying to legislate technology. What kind are we banning and why? The one for $30 at the 7-11 check stand, the couple hundred buck ones guys like @dvsDave use to fly over and photograph nude beaches, or the $4 million ones the CIA uses to take out terrorists? We're banning them... don't know what we are banning, but we are definitely banning something!

Personally, I want pizza from Dominos delivered by Drone. Stand in the back yard and wait for Pizza from Heaven!

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

As some may know, I like to canoe in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Motors are not allowed, and this includes these unmanned flying things. A person took a quad copter anyway, for photography. So one day someone near the copter peopke is seriously injured. Now, there is little or no cell service but, inspired thinking copter person entered a text for emergency services, sent it aloft with his copter and it worked. Emergency paddled in and evacuated the injured party. And then the ranger ticketed the copter person for breaking the rules.

 

[RideTheSquirrel]

Not sure I buy your logic on drones vs quadcopter. Being pilotless seems to make it a drone by most definitions. Having 4 rotors makes it a quadcopter - which may or may not have a pilot onboard.

I'm sure you have a purist basis for your distinction. Maybe if you come around to sky drops that are straight are not cycs, I'll come to your quadcopters are not drones way of thinking.

I agree. Get him, Bill!

 

[StradivariusBone]

the couple hundred buck ones guys like @dvsDave use to fly over and photograph nude beaches,

I like how you soft balled that in there.

The FAA is so behind the times on these things and possibly with good measure. We don't really know the worst case scenarios with this tech. We know what it can do. Take pictures from really high up and places where it's not always easy/safe/cheap to send a human. Move small objects from one place to another, whether that's a bomb or your new toy from Amazon. I would guess that just the same that many of the rules we use in the entertainment business come from accidents that have happened in the past, the code of operating these devices will follow similar guidelines. I would think future best practices might include a respectful distance from talent when operating.

There was a thread in here about moving truss over an audience during a show and the consensus was pretty against it, but if you attend a football game anywhere in the US there's a pretty good chance there'll be a camera zipping over your head and that's not always completely safe either-

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So it's not safe to move a truss over an audience, but OK to fly a camera rig, wires or rotors? What sort of redundancies are built into the quads?

 

[gafftaper]

I like how you soft balled that in there

He says it's art and he's only been beat up twice.

 

[Footer]

What sort of redundancies are built into the quads?

None really. The more expensive models that have GPS have a "return to home" setting that if they lose RF they will go to a specific altitude, fly to home, and land. Others have a function that does a lazy turn back towards base if they lose RF. They do not have sensors in them to avoid obsticles or anything like that. You have to pilot it. If you break a prop, a motor dies, or your battery goes the thing will just fall out of the sky. They are not like RC planes that will glide down. They fall... and they can be rather heavy. There is also the issue that they are driven by Lipo batteries that can be rather explosive if hit right.

The one I have right now is pretty small. It is a 50 dollar Chinese thing that can't really hurt you. It weights 3oz and you can stop a prop at full speed with your hands. I'm building one that is much heavier and much more powerful. If you get in a fight with it you will lose every time. This is why I don't fly it around people. These things should not be flown over crowds. It is actually pretty hard to judge depth when they get down range... It would not be out of the question for a drunk person in the lawn the grab one out of the sky. As you can see above, they can cause some serious damage.

However, they are amazingly fun to play with. I'm kind of annoyed I did not have one as a kid. They are very fun in empty theatres. Noticed I said empty.

If you are at all interested in them, buy this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K5Y22VG/?tag=controlbooth-20
Get a set of batteries to go with it: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LK0DY3O/?tag=controlbooth-20

What I don't want to see is these things get regulated because people are idiots with them. You can't fly them in federal parks because some guy crashed one into a mud pot in Yellowstone. You can't fly them in DC because people keep flying them at the white house. They make stories way to often and the news reports rarely mention the "piloted" part. They mention the "drone" part and never mention that someone actually had to drive it there.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Under hung rigging inspections anyone?

 

[gafftaper]

He says it's art and he's only been beat up twice.

Huh. Closing in on 24 hours with no comment from @dvsDave. He must be out doing some "photo journalism" or working on his other site www.dronevoyeur.com.

 

[dvsDave]

Huh. Closing in on 24 hours with no comment from @dvsDave. He must be out doing some "photo journalism" or working on his other site www.dronevoyeur.com.

Ironically, I've been working for the past five days to install a new security camera system at my day job. All 1080p or better IP cameras, over 30 of them to cover the entire facility along with several IR emitters, with 24 terabytes of storage.