BoatBanter.com - Good Drone Video from Dutch Side of St Martin

On Tue, 16 Feb 2016 09:30:18 -0800 (PST), Its Me
wrote:

On Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 9:47:27 AM UTC-5, John H. wrote:
On Tue, 16 Feb 2016 06:15:05 -0800 (PST), Its Me wrote:

On Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 8:51:24 AM UTC-5, wrote:
On Tue, 16 Feb 2016 08:32:10 -0500, John H.
wrote:

On Mon, 15 Feb 2016 21:10:27 -0500, wrote:

Watch the mega yacht built for Steve Jobs squeeze through the bridge
into Simpson Bay Lagoon among other things. The lagoon is one of the
great cruising crossroads of the world and you never know who or what
you will see there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR8yqpeiGO4&feature=share&list=PL617uWVV3a ozzlXILhC3-H8ugJfxxl-vH

Very nice. What was interesting to me, besides the boats, was that the drone could
have been piloted from the bed of a pickup in that small parking lot. Yet the FAA
thinks registering drones will have an effect on irresponsible drone flying.

There's also a major airport less than a mile north of there which
would surely give the FAA fits.

I realize that there has to be rules regarding any airborne operations near an airport. However, at the altitude and in the area that drone was being operated, if it interfered with full scale aircraft you've got a much bigger problem than a little drone in the air.

Looking at St Maarten on Google Maps you can see that the drone was probably within
1500 feet of the runway, and was probably higher than the airplanes taking off and
landing just a short distance away.

Not to split hairs, but the end of the runway looks like it's about 3/4 of a mile away. I didn't watch the whole thing, but it looked like the drone topped out at 150-200 feet at the most. Again, if a commercial jet is operating at 150 feet 3/4's of a mile off the side of the end of the runway over a big marina, we've got a serious problem. Not to mention a big laundry problem as well. :)

===

Yes. In my opinion the drone was never close to endangering flight
operations. There's a risk however if the operator looses control and
the drone were to veer north towards the runway. Of course what the
FAA is *really* concerned about is a terrorist attack using a drone.