Drone to check impact

Federal regulations say you should keep line of sight on the drone. I don't know if that applies on private property but you could get f***ed in the @$$ on BLM land, especially during hunting season.

https://www.faa.gov/uas/getting_started/

https://tpwd.texas.gov/warden/law-enforcement-faq/drones-uavs

If he can see the target, he (or rather the drone operator) should be able to see the drone. As long as you're not flying where/when you shouldn't be, and you're following all regs, you're fine. Seems like a rather expensive way to do things though, when better/less cost prohibitive/lower risk options exist.
 
Bjay, I regularly use a Mavic Pro to spot hits at ELR ranges. Its great because I can have it hover above and slightly in front of the target, then pause and move the drone close to the target to see grouping. I have a ton of fun with it when we use it.

I'll add that its not the best option for spotting shots all day long, but it is a viable option. Batteries only last 25-35min. At times we'll just send it out after a string of shots and bring it back and not hover the target. They're fun and can be used for a million different types of shooting we do.

Gotta love the keyboard law offices of snipers hide making sure you follow FAA regulations. :ROFLMAO:
 
Bjay, I regularly use a Mavic Pro to spot hits at ELR ranges. Its great because I can have it hover above and slightly in front of the target, then pause and move the drone close to the target to see grouping. I have a ton of fun with it when we use it.

I'll add that its not the best option for spotting shots all day long, but it is a viable option. Batteries only last 25-35min. At times we'll just send it out after a string of shots and bring it back and not hover the target. They're fun and can be used for a million different types of shooting we do.

Gotta love the keyboard law offices of snipers hide making sure you follow FAA regulations. :ROFLMAO:

No shit.

I use my MP the same way. I keep four batteries ready to go, which is about enough to keep it in the air continuously for the afternoon.
 
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i love how everyone gets all bend out of shape over the word "Drone"...things are just fancy R/C helicopters...

if someone said "yeah im going to use my RC helicopter to check my targets".......guaranteed no one would be in here quoting FCC guidelines.

its not like the FCC is out roaming the wilderness looking for drone users acting inappropriately....unless you are being a dick, they have actual things to worry about.
 
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Great idea . Was thinking depending on terrain , it may be possible to park it on the ground offset
from steel with camera running , but props inactive to save battery . There are the odd days when we
can see 338 impacts on a white painted 32 x 32 at 2500 , but not in summer mirage .
 
Actually, any model aircraft, flown in an unsafe, irresponsible manner gets me worked up. They're all going to cause damage and possible loss of life if they hit a man-carrying aircraft. As someone who's already had a near-miss with one, I absolutely have an interest in people not acting like idiots when using them. As someone who also flies models, however, I have no problem with them when flown responsibly.

That having been said, I agree that the FAA and FCC have better things to do. If you're observing altitude and airspace limitations, and you're giving way to man-carrying aircraft, you're fine. Fly in a way that busts controlled airspace or puts an actual aircraft in danger and you get reported, and you deserve whatever they throw at you, should you get caught.
 
As gun owners we know full well what regulations and outright bans can occur when people use their equipment incorrectly, ignorantly, and negligibly. Let's try to not do the same for people who enjoy the hobby of drones and RC flight. That's all I wanted to point out. There's no harm educating others in the regulations and safety tips in place.
 
We responsibly use a drone to check hits at a mile and beyond, to find hogs in fields at night, and to check other agricultural things out on the farm.
Responsibly and very legally. No problems.
Battery life is an issue. 6 batteries minimum and an in vehicle charger, and life goes on.




However, Bashers (???) cousin is our crop duster, and he has repeatedly challenged us to a crop duster versus drone duel. We have respectfully declined each time, because Basher asked us nice to leave his crazy cousin alone, but cuz keeps zipping canada geese out of the fields in lieu of drones, got more feathers and shit stuck on the duster than a double coated goose. He has to clean off the sides to paint little goose kills every trip. He's started down one wing now. Says he won't rest until he gets a drone though. Gotta watch them duster pilots close.

All joking aside, our last duster pilot was crazy as a shit house rat, and hunted things ....
 
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We responsibly use a drone to check hits at a mile and beyond, to find hogs in fields at night, and to check other agricultural things out on the farm.
Responsibly and very legally. No problems.
Battery life is an issue. 6 batteries minimum and an in vehicle charger, and life goes on.




However, Bashers (???) cousin is our crop duster, and he has repeatedly challenged us to a crop duster versus drone duel. We have respectfully declined each time, because Basher asked us nice to leave his crazy cousin alone, but cuz keeps zipping canada geese out of the fields in lieu of drones, got more feathers and shit stuck on the duster than a double coated goose. He has to clean off the sides to paint little goose kills every trip. He's started down one wing now. Says he won't rest until he gets a drone though. Gotta watch them duster pilots close.

All joking aside, our last duster pilot was crazy as a shit house rat, and hunted things ....


They are all the same! Absolutely nuts, interesting characters forsure! IDK if it's the thrill of what they do or the mass ammount of chemicals they have been exposed to over the years lol.
 
I gotta chime in with a duster pilot story - back in the late 1950s when I was an 8yr old kid, our local crop duster (he flew B-17s over Europe during WWII) bought two B-25 medium bombers, equipped them with spray bars, and flew them out of our town's little 2400' strip. In addition to being quite short, the runway has a ditch & embankment right off the south end, with RR tracks up on the embankment. There's also a 17kv H-pole powerline over 100' tall just a quarter mile north of the north end of the strip. I don't know who he hired to fly the 2nd B-25, but I can clearly recall them flying formation over town spraying for mosquitoes (using DDT) while we were playing outdoors during recess at grade school. I've been flying out of this same airport since 1977, in our S model Bonanza & my little hotrod C-150/150 with a Lycoming 0-320. While it's seldom an issue getting over those powerlines in either of these planes, flying something as heavy as a loaded B-25 outa there might be kinda exciting...
 
I've been an AMA member since the late 1980s. Frankly I think the hysteria over "Drones" is total BS and entirely media generated, and as soon as they burdened me with a bunch more registration and government BULLSHIT it all want away. From ten stories a day about drones murdering children and killing travelers to absolutely ZERO overnight. On to the next shiny. All they wanted was to feel like they were controlling people and and inconvenience people who they were jealose of for having toys "they don't NEEEEEEEEED". Fuck YOU!

Total fucking bullshit, and anyone who supports it is a MORON! Especially people who claim to fly RC aircraft! To believe this is/was some crisis it to is to be a total fool. All kinds of normal things are misused on a daily basis causing 100,000X more death and destruction than RC toys! Now I have to be licensed and deal with a bunch of Federal fuck sticks because you believe media hysteria. You ought to be smarter than that.

I have 1/4 scale planes that actually COULD kill someone, and I've been flying them free of federal interference for decades. The 1.20" motors and props will take your hand right off. The 22lbs of weight would probably go through a car windshield. Now I have this little quad copter and it will cut your finger, a little, if you stick it into the prop at full speed, but it won't even make it to the bone. It weighs a pound or two, and would disintegrate on a windshield, but you actually believe it is this dangerous thing?

Don't cry about more gun regulations, or more regulations on anything you do care about for that matter, unless you want to expose yourself for the blithering hypocrite that you are.
 
This blows my mind.. What faa restrictions is a guy going to break flying a drone to check his targets? Rotary wing flies 500' and below but only in approved surveyed low level routes. If there's a gun range alone the route, a big ass red circle called a "no fly" is placed around the range so you avoid it. Even at 500' and below, nobody is going to fly along at high speed under 100'.. The drone idiots are the ones who fly their drones along approach and departure corridors near airports. Everybody else, unless they're flying a drone at 1500-31000' isn't bothering anyone.

Actually, 14 CFR 91.119(d) states that as long as there are no routes or altitudes specifically prescribed for helicopters by the FAA, they may operate at any altitude they wish provided "the operation is conducted without hazard to persons or property on the surface." So while many of us maintain 500' for a variety of safety reasons, there's absolutely nothing stopping us from operating lower other than a prescribed route established by the FAA. I've flown well below 500' many times. Nobody's kicking my door down for busting a FAR, because I haven't.

Also, unless this "big ass red circle" crap is a fairly recent development, then I'd like to know where you're getting your info from, because none of my charts have ever shown any such indication of an established shooting range in my area (and we have a few), nor are they listed as "no fly" zones... :rolleyes:
 
We check targets with a drone on our private property. Pending the image quality of the camera it is sometimes hard to see them on paper targets. Steel is no problem. We paint the steel light blue or white and never have issues.
 
My fishing buddy and I use a drone around Tampa Bay.
It's mostly used to film fishing. There are a number of power plants and small private airports around here and also other no fly areas like the Orient road jail.
The areas are clearly listed on the control panel (Ipad) and he keeps the drone away from restricted flight zones. No issues and it's used in a heavily populated area.
I wouldn't worry about BLM lands as long as he uses line of sight like mentioned above.
If a person has questions, there are many on line sources that will list state and FAA rules for private drone operation.
 
Maybe it's different for the dod but we map no fly areas specifically to avoid hazards such as shooting ranges, wind farms, houses that complain when you fly over them nice and low, bird farms.. We also have guidelines outside faa regulations for how low you can fly for safety reasons. For us, it's no lower than 100' over smooth level terrain which we're doing at 230gs. I'm pretty surprised the civilian aviators don't practice this, especially if you're flying below 500' agl. Then again maybe you don't have dms, moving maps, and all the other fun stuff we get. If you're using foreflight, you can download a lot of this stuff. My foreflight has no fly rings drawn and so do our moving maps. If you're using paper charts, I feel sorry for you. It sounds like if you're over flying a shooting range below 500', that's poor planning.

A lot of it comes down to situational awareness. While it's not prohibited per regulations, flying below 500' downrange would be a pretty poor risk management decision, yes. While doing so would be stupid, it's perfectly legal, hence no markings on civilian charts.

And a great many civilian rotorcraft guys still use paper charts. Why? Because a) we're not government funded like the DoD, b) they weigh nothing, and c) they're cheap. :ROFLMAO: If an operation can justify the expense and additional weight of getting fancy doodads installed, great. Aside from a simple Garmin 430/500, lots of small rotorcraft operations still use older tech (charts, steam gauges, etc.). If it's company approved, you can use an iPad with ForeFlight or another EFB service of your choosing, but for most, that's on the pilot. Some find it worthwhile, others don't. I'm still breaking in to the training world, and charts still work fine, so that's what I run for now. The .gov charts don't come marked with your fancy "big ass red circles." :ROFLMAO:

Also, to clarify, I'm not blasting around at 100' AGL. In the dinky recips most use in the training environment, you follow the Dead Man's Curve and stay out of the shaded areas unless you have a need to enter them (landings, pin/con ops, simulated engine failures, etc.). My point was simply that, per the FAA, we're allowed to do almost anything we want as long as it's safe. Company/operation guidelines are another thing entirely. Wanna keep you job? Then you follow both! :LOL:
 
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1/3 ipsc at 1233 and this is the photo from the drone

EA7A19D5-6900-486E-80F7-CAA3AB2C2363.jpeg
 
All freak outs aside... I use one on a couple targets that are particularly hard to spot hits on. The drone works great and hasn't maimed or murdered anyone yet.