TEAM BLACKSHEEP

[Iceman]

Sorry Dude not here.

FPV Lab. FPV without the Interference.

[BloomingtonFPV]

My thoughts on this:

1) Trappy did nothing illegal, and was obviously quite intentional about making sure of this before the flight.
2) The Grand Canyon is a very fragile ecosystem and one of the defining landmarks of the US. Clearly Trappy had a successful flight, but the Park Service is right to fear imitators. Having hiked the Canyon, I know that if you lose a plane you have little chance of recovery (especially since walking off trails produces erosion fairly quickly). Give our materials, that plane is going to be there until approximately two-thousand-and-forever.
3) There are places in the US where everyone would agree it would be a bad idea to fly. For example, over the World Trade Center site, through the St. Louis Arch, or over a crowded football stadium.
4) Given #3, what we are really arguing over is whether this particular flight was a good idea, regardless of whether it was legal.
5) Reasonable people will disagree on #4, but I'd argue that this is a very healthy discussion to have. I'm hoping we can have this discussion and welcome diverse viewpoints.

Note that I'm not actually stating a position here, but I'd like to hear more opinions about the prudence of various flights. I'll leave you with two quotes:

"Just because you can, doesn't mean you should"
"Freedoms not exercised are not freedoms at all"

[WildWill]

My thoughts on this:

1) Trappy did nothing illegal, and was obviously quite intentional about making sure of this before the flight.
2) The Grand Canyon is a very fragile ecosystem and one of the defining landmarks of the US. Clearly Trappy had a successful flight, but the Park Service is right to fear imitators. Having hiked the Canyon, I know that if you lose a plane you have little chance of recovery (especially since walking off trails produces erosion fairly quickly). Give our materials, that plane is going to be there until approximately two-thousand-and-forever.
3) There are places in the US where everyone would agree it would be a bad idea to fly. For example, over the World Trade Center site, through the St. Louis Arch, or over a crowded football stadium.
4) Given #3, what we are really arguing over is whether this particular flight was a good idea, regardless of whether it was legal.
5) Reasonable people will disagree on #4, but I'd argue that this is a very healthy discussion to have. I'm hoping we can have this discussion and welcome diverse viewpoints.

Note that I'm not actually stating a position here, but I'd like to hear more opinions about the prudence of various flights. I'll leave you with two quotes:

"Just because you can, doesn't mean you should"
"Freedoms not exercised are not freedoms at all"

I think another discussion could be, "Should I draw the line for others where I draw the line for myself." Or maybe like at another forum, "Should I draw for others where my buddies and I have drawn the line?"

Me personally, as long as someone isn't crashing into me or my family I'm not worried about it.

I have people telling me "That's a bad idea" about most everything I do. If I listened to them I'd never get anywhere.

[FPVdude]

I have people telling me "That's a bad idea" about most everything I do. If I listened to them I'd never get anywhere.

+1. If we listened to everybody not only would we not get anywhere, we would also have no fun. What is the point of a world with no fun.....

[Flying Monkey]

The thing that cracks me up is when people get all pissed off because TBS flew fpv at the Grand Canyon, yet they wanted to fly there too...?

That's like a bank robber complaining that some other team of bank robbers robbed the bank before they could, and now it'll be much harder if not impossible for them to do it too. Not that I'm comparing bank robbery to shooting a National Geographic video of the GC...

[BeauGoldly]

Yeah. I know. I'm new. But hasn't this horse been flogged into dog food a looooong time ago?
I keep hearing the same arguments. It's like when someone asks Trappy what equipment he uses and why, he answers and then there's four million posts with people going, "Well, yeah? Yeah? Why not this? Why not that? You should use this. You should use that."
You can learn a few things with a few posts but after a while it disintegrates into a shoving match.
Sorry. I'm new. Just my 2 cents.
You may flog me now...

[Scotttu]

I have people telling me "That's a bad idea" about most everything I do. If I listened to them I'd never get anywhere.

Coming from the guy that just flew over Hurricane Ridge, WA STate's equivelant of the Grand Canyon, in reverse

I said that about Amelia Aerheart, Chuck Yeager, Neil Armstrong...Yes, we are all comparable to these guys right now - EVERY one of us....

Some guy flew over Mt St Helens, WE hit Mt Si, Mt Rainier is still open despite the failed attempt by another FPV guy.

These are as big as the GC and we're going to do them!!

First we must conquer "The Brothers", from outside the national park...

[FPVdude]

Scottu- did you get video of Mt Si or was that the flight where you forgot to turn on the gopro?

[Scotttu]

Scottu- did you get video of Mt Si or was that the flight where you forgot to turn on the gopro?

LOL Damn...between the fire and the GoPro you guys just don't let up

[MASHTON1138]

The thing that cracks me up is when people get all pissed off because TBS flew fpv at the Grand Canyon, yet they wanted to fly there too...?

That's like a bank robber complaining that some other team of bank robbers robbed the bank before they could, and now it'll be much harder if not impossible for them to do it too. Not that I'm comparing bank robbery to shooting a National Geographic video of the GC...

This was my second thought on this topic. My first was OMG here comes the drama.