civilian 'drone' catches company polluting a river.

[traderdmb]

Check this out. An FPV pilot busts a polluter.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/civi...o-texas-river/

When a Dallas man flying his small unmanned aviation system (sUAS) equipped with a camera spotted a stream of blood flowing into the larger Trinity River in Oak Cliff, Texas, he reported it to authorities.
Blood seen flowing from Cedar Creek into the Trinity River. (Image via sUAS News)

According to the local CBS affiliate, it was traced back to a local meat packing company — the Columbia Packing Company — which was illegally dumping animal blood into Cedar Creek, the company is now under both state and federal investigation. The company has denied knowledge that this action was intentional.
sUAS News reports the account of the man who snapped the image of the plume of blood (he preferred not to be named):

I was looking at images after the flight that showed a blood red creek and was thinking, could this really be what I think it is? Can you really do that, surely not?
Whatever it is, it was flat out gross. Then comes the question of who do I report this to that can find out what it is and where it is coming from.
[...]
The Coast Guard staffed 800 number was answered immediately, and I explained to the officer what I had seen and how. I asked if I had called the correct place, and was assured that I had. The officer took my report and asked me quite a few questions. I then asked what was going to happen from here, and I was told that the appropriate authorities, including the TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environment Quality) would be notified. A local investigator was dispatched within 20 minutes and onsite within another 20.

[airbagit13]

Thats awesome! Now I gotta go and watch everyones old FPV vids to try to figure out who the pilot was by landmarks.

[aeryck]

Repost, but news like this is worth mentioning twice.

[Greedz]

How are some of the forum/text replies in response to the article.

"You can own whatever you want, but if yo start flying over private property and taking pictures don’t cry about you plane disappearing, civilian or government owned. "

"My property, my airspace.
That said, anyone’s got the right. I can’t promise your UAV comes back in one piece, but it’s your right."

Sometimes I wonder why/how the course of natural selection hasn't been more brutal on a larger cross section of the population. The ignorance is astounding...The fact that people think its ok to point guns and potentially shoot at aircraft in what they perceive to be 'their airspace' is just mind boggling.

[ssassen]

Prime examples of ignorant folks like that are Jim Bourke and Jim T. Graham, they only let like minded individuals in on their forum and permaban the rest.

[traderdmb]

My house sits in class G airspace up to 1199 feet. Then it changes to class E airspace up to but not including 6000 feet where it changes to Class Bravo. As long as I fly a safe distance from you and your property, I can do what I like in G airspace. You do not 'own' airspace over your house. You'd have to be a damn good shot to take down my planes over your house and if I get you on video doing it, well, it could get interesting.

[Vitamin J]

This is awesome news! Hopefully this type of thing takes off...though in some places it is actually illegal to film stockyards and slaughterhouses.

[jimmaplesong]

Here in Vermont, people wander through other's land all the time. Unless they've taken the effort to put up a sign saying, "No Trespassing" then their land is fair game for X-C skiing, right up to 4 wheel ATVs. The snowmobiles and ATVs and mountain bikes all have organizations that lobby, communicate with, and often apologize to land owners, sometimes having to go clean up after trail users.

It's mostly pretty reasonable so far. I got yelled at by a cop while I was mid-flight once, but she just wanted me to control my dog. I'm also very respectful of homeowners... I'll glide over rooftops, but only with the throttle off.

[HigHnMighty]

I like the results of the survey at the end of the article. 97% of people support civilians using drones safely! Yahoo!

[Myron]

In the original article I read from the Dallas media, it was NEVER mentioned that the image was taken from a small RC Plane although there was a pic of a plane somewhere in the article. From what I have heard (Could be INACCURATE) is that if the aircraft taking the pic is over 400 feet in altitude, its a fair game pic, however if its under 400 feet, it can be considered illegal search and seizure.. NOT SURE IF THIS IS TRUE!!!.. But it does make sense if you know just a little about law enforcement.

Myron