Wife spots drone at near 4500 feet

If drones were not capable of flying at 4500 MSL, they wouldn't even get out of ground effect in Colorado.
I assume the OP was not flying 125 knots in ground eeffect. But I'm aware what they say about assumptions.
 
Pretty darn good, considering that the nearest star system to ours is four light years away, and that traveling at a significant fraction of the spend of light is hugely more difficult than getting a human-made drone up to 4500 MSL.
I think you missed my point entirely.
 
It has been done and it will be done again. The off the shelf stuff isn't what you have to worry about. It is the homebuilt stuff that will be modded to do whatever the owner pleases.
 
I assume the OP was not flying 125 knots in ground eeffect. But I'm aware what they say about assumptions.
Well, perhaps I'm missing the point on this one.. but I completely agree with Palm on this.
 
Anything is possible, but that would be extremely high for a consumer drone. Could it have been a Mylar or weather balloon?
She said it was definitely not a balloon. I asked.
 
Can't jump to conclusions without factual evidence. I doubt that a drone would be flying at that altitude, but stranger things have happened.
My friend is a photographer with the latest drone and he is also a pilot. He said his drone has a 4 mile range and can go to 4500ft (but has not done that).
 
What I took away from this was 125kts. Almost spilled my coffee. #CirrusLife
Not sure what you mean here. But I would imagine the drone could cause some serious damage to me and my Archer at that speed.
 
Not to 4500, not for long. 5 bucks says she saw a red Mylar ballon
She has good eyes and is not new to flying. She is confident it was a drone. That means it was way too close.
 
Saw an interesting article on bird strikes vs drone impact testing. They say the drones cause more damage pound per pound because of the dense materials plus they cause fires due to the lithium battery.
 
She has good eyes and is not new to flying. She is confident it was a drone. That means it was way too close.

Lol

Does she follow the news/media about the drone hysteria?

"
Zebra (medicine)
Zebra is the American medical slang for arriving at an exotic medical diagnosiswhen a more commonplace explanation is more likely. It is shorthand for the aphorism coined in the late 1940s by Dr. Theodore Woodward, professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who instructed his medical interns: "When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses not zebras". Since horses are common in Maryland while zebras are relatively rare, logically one could confidently guess that an animal making hoofbeats is probably a horse. By 1960, the aphorism was widely known in medical circles."
 
H

howz come?

For one it takes a bit of juice for a normal quad copter to get that altitude, not much left to hang out up there, second all the return home functions which kick in if he signal is lost don't involve a climb to that altitude, it would be counter productive to getting your UAS back to you in one piece
 
OP said 4500 MSL. I didn't see AGL nor do I know that area well enough to know the average ground elevation. In my experience this is not impossible however. I have seen a confirmed drone at 3000 AGL over Santa Clarita. It was maybe 100 feet max below the helicopter and maybe 50 ft offset laterally. I could clearly see it was a quadcopter. My crew identified it as the same. There was absolutely no mistaking what it was. These things are flown up at altitude. You can see for yourself, just browse YouTube a little. I'm not getting in to the argument of whether this is hazardous or negligent, I'm just stating the fact that they do fly at altitude.
 
Near Albany, NY, the ground is less than 500 FT MSL so we are taking roughly 4000 FT AGL.
 
25 minute battery life on my daughter's drone. Climb rate would have to be 180 fpm (easy peasy). Lots of runaways when owners jack with firmware or software.
 
I think you missed my point entirely.
The point I was trying to make is that it was not a good analogy, because the likelihood of seeing extraterrestrial aircraft is not comparable to that of seeing man-made flying objects.
 
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