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Comment by stevecalifornia | Hacker News Reader

You should have to undergo some kind of training. It's wildly routine to see drone pilots flying at the end of a runway because they didn't realize the runway was there and they didn't know aeronautical charts exist and/or how to read them. Buying a flying battery pack doesn't entitle you to circumvent airspace rules and endanger lives and property.

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a $40 micro drone is training. It's a completely harmless toy, even less harmful than a soccer ball. This is not a $1000 hobby grade drone (for which you definitely should undergo training). A $40 drone typically has extremely weak brushed motors. You don't need training to operate a frisbee but you definitely need training to operate a discus. This comment is an example of how the general public does not know enough about the subject matter.

Why would a quad require training and not an RC heli?

I think the line between "r/c toy" and "drone" is long range plus camera feed enabling the pilot to fly it out of visual line of sight. Adding any kind of autonomous flight (GPS waypoints or whatnot) definitely puts it over that line. A toy quad isn't a "drone" and shouldn't be treated like one.

So nice of you to decide that is it ok for you to endanger my life because you think that something is harmless. Thanks. Your quad will break my windscreen on short final (since i am doing 80 knots or so), distract me, and possibly make me crash on landing.

A $40 drone is usually an under 2” device that fits in the palm of your hand with an operating range of under 100ft and barely can be used outdoors (due to wind). I’ve had similar size devices fly into me (including in the face) and I didn’t even get scratched, let alone remotely hurt.

If it hits your windscreen, you were more likely driving where you shouldn’t be rather than someone with a literal kids toy doing something wrong.

Windscreen refers to that of an airplane, not a car. The clue is the reference to 80 knots, which is never used to measure vehicle speed.

Thanks. I meant to say flying, not driving. Swap out the two words and you’ll realize what I said makes sense as written otherwise.

A $40 quad won't fly that high or far. We're talking about something that fits in the palm of your hand, here. These things weigh like 30 grams.

This is hardly a good way to argue on HN. Please refrain from calling people and instead focus on the issue at hand.

If you think a palm sized 50 gram toy that can fly 100 ft from the RC is as dangerous as you state then your license should be re-evaluated because you'll be facing worse obstacles while flying.

Also nobody flies those toys in airfields. They're barely suited for backyards as they are.

a $40 "drone" is really a small RC quadcopter with a 5-8 minute battery and probably no more than 150ft range. such a device is unlikely to make it any farther than the neighbor's roof/tree. fixed wing air-hogs that kids have been flying (unregistered) for decades pose a greater threat to public safety.

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