Skier almost hit by camera drone in World Cup slalom

Anybody interested, even for a few minutes, can get a drone. This is the RC world's "Eternal September".

It's somewhere between apathy and "try to catch/stop me".

The required registration now is almost hilarious, it's just going to be a way to give a huge fine after an incident for unregistered drones, no-one is going to register unless all the stores get together and do it for you when you buy it automatically (and then people will just buy direct from China).

During the early days, whenever a horse cart came in opposite direction to a car, the car owner was supposed to disassemble the car and hide behind a bush before the horse came near.

We have come a long way :)

And they were right beyond their darkest dreams. Thirty-two thousand road deaths in the US in 2013.

As to why "it's raining drones, hallelujah" - too early for that; I very much doubt there's enough of a data recorder to reconstruct the event, even with a commercial-grade drone.

Not either way.

If it was the pilot's mistake then yes, but if power was lost then the blades would not have had much force anymore. They can cause very serious cuts when propelled, but half a second after losing power they hardly have any momentum left. Tripping the skier over would likely have been the worst of it, if a loss of power was the case.

Either way, safeguards may be necessary when flying so close to fragile objects...

The folks over there think it looks like the drone inverted and crashed into the ground under power.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error

A man was killed by a larger drone when, it's suspected, the GPS was jammed: http://lemondronor.com/blog/index.php/2013/3/gps-loss-kicked...

but it's more trendy if its a drone.

On the other hand, how exciting would this be: "Falling branch nearly misses skier!!!"

As someone else pointed out, daily occurrences are not worth talking about...

The media shouldn't blow this out of proportion - if quads are banned they will regret loosing such awesome aerial footage.

E.g.: Who decides to deploy it? The pilot? In that case, signal loss or interference might get in the way. Or does the multirotor decide for itself when to deploy? In that case it could decide to do so at the wrong moment, which can be just as dangerous. You'd need safeguards against this safeguard.

The main danger of these machines are the blades, not it falling out of the sky without inertia in the props.

All of these companies, like DJI, and irresponsible operators, are ruining the hobby and placing property and people in danger.

I would never, in a million years, think of flying anything over people, crowds, kids, homes, commercial buildings, etc.

All of these systems are 0 F.T. (zero fault tolerant). Which means your decision making while flying them has to reflect the reality that the thing can fall out of the sky at any instant and there will be little or no control when this happens.

What this means in practical terms is that you fly these things EXACTLY as we've been flying model airplanes for decades: Away from people and property. In general, at approved flying fields (clubs) or in the middle of nowhere.

Bullshit like this is what is causing the FAA to now start down the path of treating model airplanes like guns: They are all bad. Never mind that millions of people have owned them for decades, fly them all the time and never hurt anyone. My fleet of probably thirty or so planes and helicopters has never placed even as much as a cat in danger. But, no, thanks to the stupid fucks who do crap like this now I have to register with the government because my planes and helicopters are going to magically charge their batteries, assemble themselves, open the garage door, fly out and hurt people, all while I am watching TV at home.

The irony isn't lost on me here. This is exactly the gun argument. Drones don't hurt people, stupid people with drones hurt people. Let's go after them, not the drones.

(ducks!)

Other commercial flying objects are rigorously safety tested for their ability to remain in the air despite different mechanical failures. Without the same standards applied to drones, we are likely to continue to see near-misses or full accidents happen. (Note: I'm not weighing in for or against drone regulation)

But of course, such thing would never happen. (Except it just did.)

If the cameraman on the side of the track suddenly took his camera into the middle of the track, it would obviously be outrageous.

I can guarantee you that professional skiers are very careful about all the risks they undertake, and work hard to minimize those risks. It is very understandable this skier is angry to learn that a TV station just added a new way for him to die.