What the heck did I see tonight?

Bonchie

Bonchie

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Bonchie
Inside the SFRA, a few miles east of 2W5. 1500ft.

About 100 yards in front of me flies this blue, circular object, with what looked like a square box under it, also blue. It crossed my windshield and then by my left wing, very close at one point. ATC never called traffic. It wasn't aimlessly floating either. It was making a line straight toward the river down in the direction Reagan/DC. Moving very fast as it was out of my sight before I could get fully turned around to get a better look.

Some kind of drone perhaps?
 
AIM 7-6-4 tells you what to do:

7-6-4. Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) Reports

a. Persons wanting to report UFO/unexplained phenomena activity should contact a UFO/unexplained phenomena reporting data collection center, such as Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) (voice: 1-877-979-7444 or e-mail: Reporting@baass.org), the National UFO Reporting Center, etc.

b. If concern is expressed that life or property might be endangered, report the activity to the local law enforcement department.
 
FastEddieB said:
Any blue, circular lights in your cockpit?
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Nah and it wasn't even sunset yet. Plenty of light for me to see it clearly outside. No reflection if that's what you were thinking.

I watched it fly into the horizon as I was turning and get smaller until I couldn't make it out anymore.
 
ChrisK said:
I hate that i had to google that.

I hate that I googled that.

Damn it, I hate you sometimes! :rofl:
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Well, he did land in DC...


Repeat after me: "Gort -- Klaatu barada nicto." It might save Earth someday.
 
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8 hrs "bottle to throttle!"
 
Pizza delivery by drone?

article-2336324-1A299677000005DC-419_634x356.jpg
 
Bonchie said:
Inside the SFRA, a few miles east of 2W5. 1500ft.

About 100 yards in front of me flies this blue, circular object, with what looked like a square box under it, also blue. It crossed my windshield and then by my left wing, very close at one point. ATC never called traffic. It wasn't aimlessly floating either. It was making a line straight toward the river down in the direction Reagan/DC. Moving very fast as it was out of my sight before I could get fully turned around to get a better look.

Some kind of drone perhaps?
Click to expand...

Swamp gas. Maybe a weather balloon.
 
Bonchie said:
Inside the SFRA, a few miles east of 2W5. 1500ft.



About 100 yards in front of me flies this blue, circular object, with what looked like a square box under it, also blue. It crossed my windshield and then by my left wing, very close at one point. ATC never called traffic. It wasn't aimlessly floating either. It was making a line straight toward the river down in the direction Reagan/DC. Moving very fast as it was out of my sight before I could get fully turned around to get a better look.



Some kind of drone perhaps?
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A balloon perhaps? Could you have misjudged the size such that your own relative motion made it seem to disappear quickly?
 
Google and their "Project Loon" perhaps? I caught them with me 8" telescope and modified webcam.. But these suckers are real high except for when launched.. These had been airborne for a few hours after being launched from a local ag strip a few miles west of me..

 
Going by the description and not having actually seen it or been there it sounds like a Quadcopter with a GoPro. Just search for quadcopter in YouTube and you'll see all sorts of nuts flying these things up to 3 and 4 thousand feet.

It's only a matter of time before someone takes a one kilo GoPro toting Chinese Quad-copter through the windshield. Because, unlike birds, they don't have the sense to see or hear you or even try to get out of your way.
 
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Silvaire said:
Going by the description and not having actually seen it or been there it sounds like a Quadcopter with a GoPro.
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My profession is in real estate and lately I've been researching the use of a mid-level UAV (drone) for use in filming birds-eye view footage of select listings for our firm. For one in particular, the DJI F550, there exists countless examples in Youtube where the operator flies their hexacopter above 3,000' and one (link below) even flies through and above a broken layer of clouds!

These units can be fairly heavy, weighing in at over 5lbs., so there's enough mass there to cause damage if one were to collide with a plane or simply fail and fall from the sky, as this one does. In this case, the unit runs out of battery power several hundreds of feet in the air!

With the explosive growth of these devices in the hands of novices, I think it is only a matter of time before we hear of the first aviation accident involving one of these gadgets. I'm not sure what reason there is to allow these devices to fly so high. I would think that the vast majority of missions could be satisfied well below 300-500' AGL.

 
WakeNCAgent said:
My profession is in real estate and lately I've been researching the use of a mid-level UAV (drone) for use in filming birds-eye view footage of select listings for our firm.
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There's a booming, yet illegal (at least in the eyes of the FAA) and underground industry doing this very thing in high priced areas like Malibu and The Hamptons.
 
WakeNCAgent said:
My profession is in real estate and lately I've been researching the use of a mid-level UAV (drone) for use in filming birds-eye view footage of select listings for our firm. For one in particular, the DJI F550, there exists countless examples in Youtube where the operator flies their hexacopter above 3,000' and one (link below) even flies through and above a broken layer of clouds!

These units can be fairly heavy, weighing in at over 5lbs., so there's enough mass there to cause damage if one were to collide with a plane or simply fail and fall from the sky, as this one does. In this case, the unit runs out of battery power several hundreds of feet in the air!

With the explosive growth of these devices in the hands of novices, I think it is only a matter of time before we hear of the first aviation accident involving one of these gadgets. I'm not sure what reason there is to allow these devices to fly so high. I would think that the vast majority of missions could be satisfied well below 300-500' AGL.

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Not sure if this was mentioned yet, but I work in the airborne imagery and data gathering industry. UAV's regardless of the sized are seriously restricted for commercial use. I'm not sure if it is even legal in G airspace... Just be REAL careful, especially as the images you are talking about capturing will be in the public domain.
 
bjohnsonmn said:
Not sure if this was mentioned yet, but I work in the airborne imagery and data gathering industry. UAV's regardless of the sized are seriously restricted for commercial use. I'm not sure if it is even legal in G airspace...
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WASHINGTON — A federal judge has dismissed the Federal Aviation Administration’s only fine against a commercial drone user on the grounds that the small drone was no different than a model aircraft, a decision that appears to undermine the agency’s power to keep a burgeoning civilian drone industry out of the skies.
Patrick Geraghty, a National Transportation Safety Board administrative law judge, said in his order dismissing the $10,000 fine that the FAA has no regulations governing model aircraft flights or for classifying model aircraft as an unmanned aircraft.
​
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/commercial-drones-cleared-takeoff-judges-ruling/
 
Let's see...2358. Is it 0000 Central, Mountain, or Pacific when they usually beam you up for the anal probing?
 
WakeNCAgent said:
My profession is in real estate and lately I've been researching the use of a mid-level UAV (drone) for use in filming birds-eye view footage of select listings for our firm...
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This I don't have a problem with if we're talking about in sight control under three or four hundred feet but my view is that if any drone is going to venture outside of that realm and especially if it is being utilized for any sort of commercial venture, be that private or public, then it is either going to have to have some incredible (as yet un-invented) see and avoid technology or it is going to have to be restricted to controlled airspace (as in IFR traffic)

The last thing I want to see is commercial interests forcing me to put a twelve hundred dollar gadget in my Champ to make sure I don't slam into some local Sheriff's snoopy drone.
 
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