December 2024
Unintended consequences of this push by Congress and certain businesses to get remote controlled flying objects (drones) incorporated into the airspace system. And now that there is a war on in Europe, along with the Middle East, using drones as weapons, civilians here are now getting all excited with drone sightings. I wonder how much longer US citizens will put up with drones until Congress bans them altogether.
December 2024
Venus has been bright in the evening sky for a week or two recently. If we correlate the number of sightings to this as well as cloudy skies a clearer picture will emerge. Hopefully extraterrestials will arrive shortly with chemical formulas that will explain to us how to convert biowaste into gold and/or platinum. Personally I’d be happy with a conversion factor for silver or copper. Keeping my fingers crossed.
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December 2024
I still believe the Japanese are monitoring the coastal waters of New Jersey due to alleged Godzilla sightings.
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December 2024
Reminds me of the Air Canada first officer who took evasive action to avoid a collision with Venus.
What we have is a bunch of people who haven’t looked up at the night sky in years, maybe not ever, suddenly realizing that there are lights up there! Throw in social media, and we have a rather silly panic.
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December 2024
▶ MrMilkshake
This is patently ridiculous. We all know the Godzilla sightings have been confirmed, and hidden by the Deep State.
December 2024
▶ jayhulbert
You nailed it. People who never look at the night sky, go outside and everything they see moving looks like a drone to them.
December 2024
The flight pattern going into EWR descends them down in trail to around 5k right over the area where people have been complaining. At night, you can see multiple aircraft, sometimes as many as 5 or 6 on a clear night. Combine this with a few people practicing flying their drones at night, and you have the hysteria. The area is rural with lots of woods and farmland. Drone operators can and will fly from their property without anyone seeing where they land.
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December 2024
▶ joe5
Reminds me of Orson Wells radio program"War of the worlds"
December 2024
▶ joe5
Yup. Right over my house. That said, I have seen actual drones from my front yard, but they could easily fit the profile of legitimate operators - albeit more numerous than I’ve seen before.
December 2024
As usual, most posts here are missing the point. The reaction by the public comes out of distrust for govt. and its historic lack of transparency in recent years. The “move along folks, nothing to see here” attitude of many govt. agencies and institutions.
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December 2024
It reminds me of “Blazing Saddles”, in which Jim consoles the new Black sheriff Bart after a racial insult.
“You gotta remember that these are just simple farmers, These are people of the land. The common clay of the New West. [pause] You know, morons.”
Supposedly that last line was ad-libbed by Gene Wilder and Cleavon Little’s reaction was spontaneous.
That was fifty years ago, but the insight is evergreen.
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December 2024
▶ Tom_Waarne
Good thought but all that would do is increase the price of biowaste and decrease the price of gold…
As far as the sightings go…it’s simply hysteria and the 24 hr news cycle.
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December 2024
There was a recent rule change requiring all drones be equipped with “Remote ID.” This technology allows authorities to locate a drone’s control station if one is operated contrary to the law. Anyone operating a drone without Remote ID is subject to a fine up to $250,000. It seems to me if this were the case (people operating drones without Remote ID) authorities would say so.
I’ve no doubt there are SOME drones flying in the night sky. If authorities are not pursuing the operators then either: a) they are doing nothing illegal, or b) they are operated by the government and therefore are not subject to the Remote ID requirement.
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December 2024
▶ Bill_B
Rather doubt we’re being visited by aliens, China, or Iran “motherships” but:
The mishandling of the Chinese “weather” balloon certainly didn’t help build public trust. Neither does saying “nothing to see” for the general public but holding a classified briefing for lawmakers. The lack of transparency just leads to further speculation.
An early press release to the effect, “we don’t know what they are” but “there’s no danger” didn’t help matters either.
December 2024
Not to encourage illegal behavior, but whereas historically many have felt a sense or presence of hypervigilance by the authorities on the activities of general aviation operations, it appears that if one leaves the transponder off and doesn’t slam through Bravo airspaces or MOAs at combat altitudes, kind-of-thing, no-one in the government really cares what we do. Which kind of explains why no-one I know has ever seen or been ramp-checked despite gnawing paranoia that one is waiting for me every time I arrival at my hangar.
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December 2024
▶ MWSletten
I wonder how many law enforcement agencies actually have the equipment and/or manpower capacity to read the Remote ID and act on the information. Considering that in some places the LEO response time can be measured in hours for non-critical events (if they show up at all), I don’t think random drone reports are going to get much action from the local constabulary.
December 2024
The reaction by the public comes out of a lack of knowledge of what is, and what is not legal drone operations.
Of all the reports since November, I have read 3 cases of illegal drone activity.
Joe public believes that any drone activity not in your own back yard, while “talking to ATC” on “a flight plan”, and only during the day is legal.
The FAA needs a PSA explaining to the public what “normal”, legal drone operations look like.
Right now, the public cannot discern from legal and illegal activity so everything looks nefarious.
December 2024
A good example of epistemology - ‘How We Know’ is the title of a great book by Harry Binswanger.
December 2024
The denial of facts and belief in alternative realities isn’t limited to our political arena.
December 2024
▶ marc2
After 50 years of flying, I was ramp checked returning from a maintenance test flight in my motor glider. Two apparent teenagers flashed giant badges, said they were from the FAA, and told me that this was a ramp check. I knew they were typical government agents when they asked to see my medical certificate. Don’t need one, this is a glider. Good day.
December 2024
The real issue to me is the drone activity allowed by NOTAM around non-towered airports that pose a real threat to GA airplanes in the pattern - I had a near miss (under 100 ft separation) at 1,200 descending into KCRQ controlled airspace. Talked to the local FSDO and the Tower but there was no follow up. The FAA appears to have just given up on this or seem not interested at all.
December 2024
In the comments I see people attributing this to:
“lack of knowledge”
“distrust in the government”
“actual drone activity”
Sorry, none of the above. It’s just a regular old mass hysteria reinforced by the media because it’s great for ratings/clicks. There’s either nothing actually going on or it was spurred on by something extremely mundane. If there were nefarious drones about they wouldn’t have lights on and would be effectively invisible, and industrial use/delivery trials are fairly common now. A few sightings of a few drones could easily be whipped up into this nonsense by social media and legacy media coverage.
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December 2024
▶ Aviatrexx
The whole thing has been making me think of the largely forgotten Steven Spielberg movie ‘1941’.
December 2024
▶ MWSletten
If memory serves me correctly, Remote ID does not apply to ALL drones, just those above the weight class (I think it’s like .49 or .55).
December 2024
Drones of any significant size and range are required to be registered with the FAA. If drones are part of the national airspace system, shouldn’t we be able to get flight traces of them, as shown in the image for the (sad) article “Border Patrol Helicopter” article?
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December 2024
Its all of the above. And mass hysteria for good measure.
What started out as a test over some sort of “sensitive area”(whatever that means) someone forgot to file, or filed incorrectly, for a TFR. ( Picatinny Arsenal)
After being spotted over this “sensitive area”, a (poorly) written article is published. Folks take note, and look up from their phones for the first time in 10 years. Every light in the sky is now reported as drone, and you know it’s “against the law” to fly a drone at night…word spreads, another 5 (poorly) articles written.-Mass hysteria/uneducated public.
The public wants answers and the FAA just can’t come out and say “we don’t track every single drone operation”…the public would flip. So, they pawn it off to FBI/Local PD to “investigate”. Without any illigal activity to report, the public doesn’t trust the FBI. They can’t believe what they are seeing and can’t believe that every single drone is not tracked.-Distrust in government/more mass hysteria/uneducated public.
Meantime, legal drone operations are still taking place, but they are getting lost on the noise. Nefarious actors take advantage of noise. Either teenage kids actually flying illegally (Boston) or foreign nationals snooping (example, but not in timeline see Nov 3rd/Vandenburg)
December 2024
▶ bpolits
The helo was probably tracked with ADS-B. Drones, when required, use Remote ID-based on RFID/bluetooth/WiFi- only good for short range and the person tracking has to actively participate in the tracking.
December 2024
If John Kirby says that’s the case, it must be true. It’s not like he’s lied about anything else in the last few years…