Best use of a quadcopter (drone) I can think of to date. Good show!

RC Quadcopter Flying Through Fireworks has been added as a related post - related requested by RFlagg.

Another one along the same lines *related=http://videosift.com/video/RC-Quadcopter-Flying-Through-Fireworks

More from Photography is not a crime:
First, Andrea Mears called police on a man for flying his remote control quadcopter over a public beach in Connecticut.

Then, when police didn’t respond in seconds, she attacked the man

“He’s taking pictures of people on the beach … with a helicopter plane,” she told the cops by phone.

“Can you guys hurry? I already talked to him, just come.”

Seconds later, she attacked him.

The man, who goes by Hogwit on Youtube, began recording the encounter on his iPhone as his quadcopter was flying overhead, capturing her clawing at his face and pulling at his shirt.

“You want to take pictures?” she asks him as she jams her fingers into his mouth. “Yeah, you’re going to see how it feels when police come.”

Then she has the audacity to tell him “let go of me” as she is all over him.

“If you wouldn’t be assaulting me, I wouldn’t be touching you,” he responds, remaining exceptionally calm considering the circumstances.

“He’s taking pictures of people on the beach!” she yells as she continues to rip his shirt. “I’m going to kick your ass, you little motherfucker.”

“Can someone call the cops!” the man yells. “I’m being assaulted! Help!”

Police arrived and arrested her for assault in the third degree and breach of peace. The incident took place May 12 at Hammonassett State Park in Madison.



Here are more details from the man who was flying the drone that he posted on a forum shortly after the incident:

I went to a nearby beach that is a whopping 2 miles long, set up, talked to some people that were curious what my “thing” was, demonstrated the loiter feature (pulling the quad to one direction or another), demonstrated rtl (flying it away then having it return), and make a lot of people think the quad was just awesome. I never went below 50 feet save for take off/landing, then after the end of my last flight, some crazy lady came over and started taking pictures of me…and dialed 911 for the 3rd time in 15 minutes…she said something to the effect of, “There’s a guy here taking pictures at the beach with a helicopter plane.” (I distinctly remember her saying, “with a helicopter plane,” because that just sounds hilarious.) They basically said that they’d send someone when one gets free during each of the 3 calls she made, she decided they didn’t care enough about someone obeying the law so when no one was around she assaulted me and she decided to stop when she got a phone call. I called the police to report the assault, and boy was the response big…10 or more vehicles arrived (cops, DEEP, and an ambulance)…They first listened to her story of lies (she claimed I was taking close ups of people in bikinis, and that she had asked me to stop flying before calling the police, and that I was the one that assaulted her, and and and). The police approached me very aggressively, believing her full story, and before anything else was said I brought up something that she missed… The fact that the cell phone in my hand has a camera…that was recording. I had video evidence that she went nuts completely unprovoked, and was the one that assaulted me. She was then charged with assault, and breach of peace and I gave the cops a copy of the video for their prosecution. I then also showed them my last flight where you can make out her colorful shirt getting up from the beach then following it until it lands which proved that she lied when claiming that she asked me to stop flying before calling the police.
At the end of it all, one of the officers said to me basically, “Flying that thing the way you were is fine, you’re not in any trouble. You can come back and fly, but just be aware that some people can be alarmed.”


*fail, *lies, *wtf

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You're welcome. I like the shamrocks around Dr. Nefarious... the cool thing is he's already wearing a green helmet
In reply to this comment by Barseps:
Thanking you sir
In reply to this comment by oritteropo:
*quality

Thanking you sir
In reply to this comment by oritteropo:
*quality

This is a marketing video for just that. You can find the company's poorly-written website if you watch the first few seconds of the unchopped video. I was thinking about the military and peeping tom applications myself, but neither are mentioned there.>> ^Payback:

I'm thinking someone should start using these for Search/Rescue.

Somehow i think quadcopters would work better

Woof...a quick glance at the current state of this sort of equipment shows that a quick glance won't tell you much. I need to do a lot of learning to know what I need to get an actual price.

I've found quadcopters for as low as $300, but I'm pretty sure you won't manage to fly one of those loaded with wireless vidcam. Prices for quadcopters specifically designed to act as video platforms range from $500 DIY plans to $8500 retail ready-to-fly models (I'm thinking these are for military/police use). B the time you add in the video camera, and the glasses, and whatever other parts I don't even know I need, you're clearly not getting one like -this- one for less than $1500-$2000. I suspect it might run double that, unless ultra-lightweight video stabilization equipment has improved by leaps and bounds since I last heard about it.

Definitely not something I'll be getting anytime soon. OTOH, by the time I'd be able and willing to spend this much, I bet I can get it a lot cheaper.