Remote Control Madness

[mixedgas]

SELEM 2009 - The Armed and Dangerous Tour


We still gotta do SESHOOT first.

STEVE

[buffo]

BTW, Ben, if you ever fire a 45, use both hands and lock your wrists and hold it fully extended.

Yeah, I had a feeling that he had never fired one. I *have*, and they most certainly have a considerable kick. This is why I started wondering about how the helicopter would deal with the additional force.

But, again, the helicopter seemed to do OK, though on some of the shots you can see the pilot leans the bird forward before he fires to help cancel the momentum.

Quite strange, that audience scanning in the US is forbidden, people here are scary as hell to see laserbeams go into the audience, but the same people think guns are "cool" and guns on RC heli's are "even cooler".

Jeroen;

2 totally different concepts. The helicopter was not aimed at a crowd of people. It was on private property with no one else around. Thus there was no danger to the general public. The people making the video might be putting themselves at risk, but that is their right and privilege to do so.

A crowd-scanning laser show, on the other hand, *can* present a danger to the general public, and we have laws in place to regulate it. (Note: audience scanning is not prohibited in this country, it's just very hard to get past the regulations to do it legally.) While most of the people here would agree that the US government has gone overboard with the regulations, that doesn't mean that unsafe beams blasting into the audience is a good thing. You *can* cause eye damage if you don't know what you're doing. The people here that complain about pictures or videos of audience scanning in Europe are complaining because they look a lot like some of the illegal shows they've seen here in this country. Illegal shows that make the rest of us look bad in the eyes of the public and the press. (Most of us follow the rules when our lasers are in public, but it only takes a few renegades to ruin it for everyone.)

Likewise, mounting a gun on a helicopter and sending it flying over a football stadium would be stupid and unsafe. (And probably against the law here too.) No one is seriously suggesting that we do this. Even if there weren't any laws preventing it, I'm sure no one here would ever try such a stunt.

But what you do on your own property, when the general public is not at risk, is pretty much your own business here in this country. It's just like operating your laser in your home. If you want to crowd scan yourself, go ahead. If you damage your eyes, it's your own fault, but that is your right. It's when you put someone else at risk that it becomes a problem.

Adam

[mixedgas]

Buffo scribed:


2 totally different concepts. The helicopter was not aimed at a crowd of people. It was on private property with no one else around. Thus there was no danger to the general public. The people making the video might be putting themselves at risk, but that is their right and privilege to do so.
--------------------------------------
Its a matter of education, there are clearly defined rules and education on the misuse of guns, and the public knows what a gun is. Not so for lasers.

BTW, there are large areas of the US that it is illegal to own all firearms or illegal to own certain guns, and that can be as simple as crossing a city or county border. There are state, federal, and local gun laws, and they can be quite different. Sometimes you need a permit as well. You can get three years in jail just for driving through the wrong town or state line with a gun in the trunk in a locked box with a trigger lock and no ammunition in the car.

Forget owning a gun in DC or NYC for example, even for sport.

Steve

[Stuka]

Quite strange, that audience scanning in the US is forbidden, people here are scary as hell to see laserbeams go into the audience, but the same people think guns are "cool" and guns on RC heli's are "even cooler".

And if the folks flying and testing the armed helicopters were filmed doing that over or towards a crowd of people, we would be VERY concerned, too!!

There is a BIG difference between using firearms in a controlled environment, when everyone is very aware of the danger, versus IMPROPERLY audience scanning with lasers, when the audience is neither made aware of, or protected from, the potential dangers involved.

Plus, with the equipment involved in the video, I would be willing to bet several paychecks that those weren't just some kids out goofing around with guns and R/C helicopters - more than likely, those were contract engineers field-testing some concepts for military UAV systems.

BTW -
With proper training and a little common sense - yes, guns can be very cool...

[Stuka]

SELEM 2009 - The Armed and Dangerous Tour


We still gotta do SESHOOT first.

STEVE

Say "when" - it looks like I have weekends off now!

[Stuka]

There is a video out there of a whopper of a RC with a AK on it, It yaws (a aviation term) like mad when the gun fires and the nose pitches down. ...
Steve Roberts

Yep, the bird I was flying will do that too, when firing the .50 cal machine gun on full auto! You basically can NOT keep the helicopter from yawing from the recoil during hover fire!

Running & diving fire, however, is a different story - once you got the technique down, it was a LOT more accurate, and a WHOLE lot more fun!!

Damn, now I'm going to start thinking about the stuff I WILL miss...

************************************************** ***********

Wait a minute - I have weekends off now, and I might actually get my RGB rig finished!

[-bart-]

Its a matter of education, there are clearly defined rules and education on the misuse of guns, and the public knows what a gun is. Not so for lasers.

I think that Jeroen trying to make another point.

What makes a country "safe"?
Banning guns or banning audience scanning ?

I'm glad to live in a country where they ban the former.

[Stuka]

...
What makes a country "safe"?
Banning guns or banning audience scanning ?

I'm glad to live in a country where they ban the former.

Thankfully, we live in a country where NEITHER is banned !!
There are some regulations that apply to both, and some states / regions have tighter restrictions than other -
But no all-out bans!

One of our country's founding principles is the right to bear arms.
Otherwise, we might all speak with a British accent - y'all!

[White-Light]

In fairness though Audience Scanning is so tightly controlled it might as well be banned just as guns are so tightly controlled in the UK they might as well be as well.

In that regard, America is almost a mirror reflection of the UK:

US: Guns easy, Lasers Very Restricted to being almost banned

UK: Lasers Easy, Guns Very Restricted to being almost banned

[SilentShaddow]

US: Guns easy, Lasers Very Restricted to being almost banned

UK: Lasers Easy, Guns Very Restricted to being almost banned

I live in the UK, and I am more than happy its that way round. I have never seen a gun outside of shooting range (tightly controlled) and in all honestly I don't ever want to. Im still suprised and often shocked when I see a policeman with a gun especially in airports when they have those huge things. I will never live in america so long as there are gun nutters 'totting' there right to have 'fire arms'. America can take its free will and shove it somewhere unsightly. I don't care if its some gun slinging ranch owner in texas running round with a shotgun or some 'brother' in the hood with a 9mm. I'm going to be staying at arms length from that continent a long time.

Pulling my post back towards some relevent to lasers; If there is a situation where somebody is being dangerous with lasers then there is the opporunity to leave, vote with your feet if you like. If your worried about being blinded at a gig then dont go to gigs in football stadiums. Even on a very basic level of somebody has a laser point and is being a t$%t then there is still a very real fundemental element of choice. I dont see the same element if some 'pops a cap in my ass' for walking in the wrong part of town.

/brain fart