"Of course you can have both. Only some of the energy from the round firing is used to cycle the action, the rest does force the weapon backwards. There is no such thing as a recoilless gun, the illusion that there is comes from how the energy of the "equal and opposite reaction" is dissipated."

Bob, {trivia mode on} actually the U.S. Army introduced the M27 105mm recoilless rifle during the Korean war. {trivia mode off} I'll agree in principle with your assessment. The point I was trying to make was the drone gun would not cycle its action if the unknown handgun employed a stiffer recoil spring like those found in 9mm, 10mm, .40 cal, or .45 ACP guns or higher caliber. The vectored prop thrust needed to maintain a rock steady immovable horizontal position could not be created in a quad that has to lower the front end and raise the rear end to generate positioning thrust compensation in the milliseconds of high peak recoil pressure. My Phantom 2 weighs 3 lbs 3 oz. The pictured gun drone appears to be in that range. Not enough mass to offset the recoil forces that demand the gun frame not move to successfully cycle the action. Maybe it would work with a .22 cal handgun that has a very light recoil spring.

"Drones should be regulated. And if that gets your panties in a bunch, then so be it."

People that want to regulate everyone elses activities should be regulated. Oh, it's Ok to leave the night light on if your fear of everything keeps you awake.

Gary, for an old guy, you're certainly quite childish.

"What is the max distance a drone can be from the controller/operator? "

Very good question. This question actually consists of two separate questions.

1. How far will the Remote Control signal from the operator reach before the drone is out of range.
2. How far will the streaming video signal from the drone reach before it is out of range of the operator. This is known as FPV video.

In the DJI Phantom series, the Phantom 3 just upped the ante in both the control and streaming video range. DJI is claiming a little over a mile for both. And the video is HD quality. Many people have posted Youtube videos of a Phantom 3 flying up to 3 or 4 line of sight miles from the operator. But these are idea conditions. The Phantom 2 and Phantom 2 Vision series have a realistic usable range around 1000 feet or so. In this Youtube video the pilots claim to have reached an altitude over 2400 feet.

"Gary, for an old guy, you're certainly quite childish."

Nice observation from the person who felt it was necessary to start making insulting personal comments against others who disagreed with you.

Calling you a child is not an insult. It's just a fact.

Along with Gary's answer, I'd add FAA guidelines say they must be line of sight. But, this points out one of the main problems right now. There are guidelines but many are archaic and conflicting. The gov't is behind the curve and hopefully there will be clarification in the near future. Some of the regs requiring a commercial pilot to be paid for video or photos go back to the early 20th century and have little rationale with today's technology.

Nonetheless, in the end it still will require common sense and situational awareness -- just like many other things in life. Requiring a test or certification is certainly coming. And, the cat's out of the bag on the technology whether we like it or not. Those who want to do harm will be empowered to do it whether we like it or not.

--tom

1500m 4921 feet - 'dji phantom 2 flight altitude record 1500 m 4921 feet Full video'

(Not made by me).

[Link=


Here in the Netherlands (Europe) a pilot certification and QC test of the 'drone' is required for commercial filming use.
It will set you back around 7000 Euros (or more). One can get many Phantoms for that price.
More like an impossible rule, unless one makes large sums using their 'drones'.


I have set mine to 200m limit on all directions.
This is the first footage I have shot with my self made Hexacopter above my property (I have posted this before).



VMP

[I]"actually the U.S. Army introduced the M27 105mm recoilless rifle during the Korean war."[/I]

I'm well aware of those so called "recoilless" rifles. They do have actual recoil, It's countered by ejecting gas out the rear of the gun. Other mechanisms use springs and dampers to store and slowly release the "opposite" force.

[I]"The point I was trying to make was the drone gun would not cycle its action if the unknown handgun employed a stiffer recoil spring like those found in 9mm,"[/I]

What you're describing is the same as Limp Wristing. So long as the mass of the gun and drone is great enough the gun will still cycle. My own 9mm is all steel so quite heavy. Never had it fail to cycle although I do see it happen with petite young things firing heavy calibre light weight pistols. It all comes down to F = ma, more mass means less acceleration.

Bob.

Yeah, "recoilless rifles" do have some recoil. I couldn't resist making a reference to an obscure military armament. 8)

I was not aware of the term "Limp Wristing", but that's exactly what I was talking about. Upon firing a round, the cartridge case is blown back from gas pressure, which pushes the slide back, which pushes back on the recoil spring, which is fixed to the gun frame, which is mounted to the drone. The "squishy" point in this power train is the spring. If the mass of the gun + drone is heavy enough, the spring will compress allowing the slide to fully retract, and the gun will cycle. If the gun + drone mass is not heavy enough, the spring will not compress, meaning the slide will not fully retract, and instead the spring transfers all of the recoil energy into pushing the gun + drone backward; failing to cycle the gun's action.

Nice video VMP. Very smooth for a custom drone. The video below was the highest I've ever flown my Phantom 2, which was 673 feet over a rural County Park. In one scene you can see me waiving my hands. I did this because I had no idea where the white drone was by looking up in the blue sky. And the FPV video image is so tiny I couldn't see myself in the monitor until I made some movement.

To say that pilots see things because “THAT’S THEIR JOB” sounds a bit out of touch to me.

Speaking from the perch of an airline cockpit, the problem is that we usually don’t see something as small as a drone until it’s too late to do anything about it. I once whipped past a small balloon at 31,000 feet. By the time I saw it, it was gone.

That being said, I agree Gary, there’s already enough laws on the books to deal with those idiots who mishandle guns and drones (of which I have both).

Barry, I just happened to see a TV news story about one of the recent drone sightings by an airline pilot. Wow, what a difference from what the pilot reported and how the news people teased the story. It turns out the pilot did see a drone off the runway while the plane was taxiing to the gate. He said it was probably 30 feet off the ground.
Big difference from the TERROR IN THE SKY headline intro on the story.

Whoever was flying the drone was already breaking about a dozen laws. But the chicken-little types seeing these stories still start screaming "We gotta have a law", showing their ignorance. It's just like when the TV news people who know nothing about gun laws, start screaming for more gun laws after a shooting. There are already more than 20,000 federal and state guns laws in place in the USA. Another law, that is only obeyed by law abiding people, will change nothing. If guns in the home were the cause of criminal shootings, the entire Swiss population would have been dead 100 years ago. The Swiss own almost as many guns per capita as the USA. Swiss militia members (who make up the bulk of the Swiss Army) keep their government issued Assault Rifles (real machineguns) in their own homes along with sufficient government supplied ammunition to keep in practice. Switzerland is a very polite place to live.

Thank you for the compliment Gary!

Your clip looks great! :-) I Like to do a similar test too.

VMP

more fuel for the discussion ;-)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11784042/Drone-drops-drugs-into-Ohio-prison-yard.html

One things for sure about this story, there's no ambiguity that the drone flight wasn't intentional. :)

and even more fuel....

http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/drones/how-to/a16756/how-to-shoot-down-a-drone/

'See hotshot fisherman hook drone mid-flight'
http://www.cnet.com/news/see-hotshot-fisherman-hook-drone-in-mid-flight


An UAV 'drone' from 1993 used for filming JCV.

'Jean-Claude Van Damme presents - The Moving Camera for Hard Target'

And yet, another drone incident--this time with an eagle.



wwaag

Be extra careful with your drone:

http://www.flyingmag.com/news/faa-set-crack-down-uav-pilots

"Drone Laws Restrict Civilian UAV's but allow Government"





"Know Before You Fly" Campaign Clarifies UAS Ops





"Know Before You Fly" Campaign Clarifies UAS Ops"
http://www.flyingmag.com/news/know-you-fly-campaign-clarifies-uas-ops

"What The FAA Wants You To Know Before You Fly Your Drone"
http://techcrunch.com/2014/12/22/what-the-faa-wants-you-to-know-before-you-fly-your-drone/

Watch Sony's prototype drone do a vertical takeoff
http://www.engadget.com/2015/08/24/sony-prototype-drone-video/

Sony drone test flight video




VMP