Media Frustration

This headline is all too common nowdays. Now we all know that there is a small minority of drone owners that aren’t the sharpest tools in the box when it comes to keeping away from general aviation aircraft but if the media is to be reported then these few seem to be everywhere on a weekly basis.

I’m sure one or two occasions are attributable to drones but more often than not I would think the unidentified object, as it really is, is a carrier bag, a foil balloon or even a bird. Many of us have seen the meme with everything from a tree to the USS Enterprise labelled a drone.

Most drone pilots are aware of how difficult it can be to see your own drone, even an Inspire or S900, at 500m, so for a pilot to identify a Phantom at 400mph at a similar distance is a long shot. 

Today, you could even see the frustration of media ‘killer drone’ hysteria in a Tweet from Brendan Schulman, DJI’s VP of Political and Legal Affairs. He retweeted a post from Tesla’s own Elon Musk with his own frustration at media hype against his autonomous cars.