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at least they are not armed yet


Yetti

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44 minutes ago, jaylw314 said:

Most commercially available drones have useful loads of a few pounds.  More than 5 lbs gets relatively pricey.  10 drones like that costs more than renting a Cessna 150 for the same duty, I'm guessing.

Who is talking about buying a quadcopter drone?

I'm talking about building a cheap fiberglass aircraft with a small piston engine with a range of a couple of hundred miles. it would have a Rasberry Pi based control system to navigate and fly the aircraft. A 500 Lb payload after fuel should do the trick. 

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52 minutes ago, N201MKTurbo said:

Who is talking about buying a quadcopter drone?

I'm talking about building a cheap fiberglass aircraft with a small piston engine with a range of a couple of hundred miles. it would have a Rasberry Pi based control system to navigate and fly the aircraft. A 500 Lb payload after fuel should do the trick. 

500 Lbs?  I've seen some nitro powered models that have a 5 foot wingspan that can carry 10-20 lbs?  I think after that, you might as well talk ultralight type aircraft...

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17 minutes ago, jaylw314 said:

500 Lbs?  I've seen some nitro powered models that have a 5 foot wingspan that can carry 10-20 lbs?  I think after that, you might as well talk ultralight type aircraft...

Most of them are still balsa construction, sometimes with fiberglass reinforcing, and are built to look good on the ground and in the air.

For contraband, a hollow fiberglass fuse stuffed with lightweight items, a weedeater engine [40-50cc], a quart of fuel and a wing design for lift, would fit the bill. wouldn't need to look like much, just aerodynamic streamlining behind the engine, with a nice spinner out front.

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1 hour ago, jaylw314 said:

500 Lbs?  I've seen some nitro powered models that have a 5 foot wingspan that can carry 10-20 lbs?  I think after that, you might as well talk ultralight type aircraft...

You just aren’t getting me. I’m not talking about some kind of a model airplane. I talking about a purpose built drug smuggling aircraft. Something with about 60 HP. A wingspan of about 20 feet. A fuselage big enough to haul the cargo. 

A homebuilt type aircraft would go together a lot faster if you didn’t have to deal with pilot controls, instruments, seats, doors, windows etc...

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9 minutes ago, N201MKTurbo said:

You just aren’t getting me. I’m not talking about some kind of a model airplane. I talking about a purpose built drug smuggling aircraft. Something with about 60 HP. A wingspan of about 20 feet. A fuselage big enough to haul the cargo. 

A homebuilt type aircraft would go together a lot faster if you didn’t have to deal with pilot controls, instruments, seats, doors, windows etc...

OK, now I get you.  The tricky part would be programming it to land, but I agree it is technically possible.  You could even program it to fly a terrain-following route to avoid radar.

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Life is cheap in Mexico. Cheaper than buying a super drone. Training someone to operate an ultralight isn’t rocket science. We saw it with Jim Tweto’s C180 (“Flying Wild Alaska”); if it doesn’t fly then drop off a couple bags and try again. Keep trying until you get in the air.


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On 8/15/2019 at 3:01 AM, FloridaMan said:

According to the article, it’s for monitoring narcotics and homeland security threats, because we all know that both of those consistently originate over the heartland or so-called “flyover states”. 

That’s a Bingo.  They “say” what the mission is and then they want to put the balloons in the MidWest?  That is a FAIL.

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In the "old days", the cartels would place their cargo on various boats bound for smaller islands in the Caribbean, pilots would pick up the cargo from dark, small dirt or turf strips and fly north (dropping down as low as possible 20 miles out)  to various locations throughout Florida (keys, glades etc), Alabama, Louisiana, and drop said cargo to recipients, sometimes they maybe be waiting in fast boats off the coast. The CC and DEA didn't have that many assets to follow them all. At least that's what I have been told

Losing a King Air or C-180 was just the cost of doing business, today the transporting vehicles are expendable, GPS programmed submersibles, drones, piloted aircraft, fast boats, for every one that is intercepted or crashed 3 more get through with millions of dollars of contraband.   

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On 8/15/2019 at 11:36 AM, N201MKTurbo said:

Who is talking about buying a quadcopter drone?

I'm talking about building a cheap fiberglass aircraft with a small piston engine with a range of a couple of hundred miles. it would have a Rasberry Pi based control system to navigate and fly the aircraft. A 500 Lb payload after fuel should do the trick. 

I have considered the rentabilty of something like this to say Investigators.   mount that fancy big camera that they put on predators.   Put them above some citys and charge an hourly rate for live feed.

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26 minutes ago, Yetti said:

I have considered the rentabilty of something like this to say Investigators.   mount that fancy big camera that they put on predators.   Put them above some citys and charge an hourly rate for live feed.

I think there are plenty of these type of systems in production or development. They have to exist in the legal airspace system and have all the liability concerns dealt with. As opposed to a pirate aircraft that is breaking all the rules by its very existence.

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2 minutes ago, N201MKTurbo said:

I think there are plenty of these type of systems in production or development. They have to exist in the legal airspace system and have all the liability concerns dealt with. As opposed to a pirate aircraft that is breaking all the rules by its very existence.

paint it gray, put a space force logo on it.  deny any responsibility if someone comes knocking....   that is the great thing with government clandestine operations.... Everyone denies everything.   There is kind of a convergence of technology due to price where average citizens can be below government acquisition cost

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6 hours ago, Hyett6420 said:

Stop panicking guys. I did a freedom of info request to the Homeland Security guys and it appears that one of the Dorectors got caught with his pants down literally as his wife got home early and found him en flagrante with another person.  So as this is a common occurrence at the DHS they have launched this surveillance system in order to give ample warning to other husbands that their wives are on the way home.  

Sounds like a good system to me. 

I was going to say, "I worked under a bunch of these Miami guys" but that doesn't sound well. I worked "under the direction of" is probably more appropriate but it still does not make me look any better. I couldn't find the original news clipping but this is a copy & paste of the article: https://thekdreport.me/2009/12/08/acting-cbp-commissioner-retires-leaves-stained-legacy/

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  • 2 weeks later...

No reason why someone couldn't clone the autonomous routing features of a drone into a digital autopilot Cessna and drop a load on the other side unassisted by human kind. 

Knew a guy once (long time ago ) that had a Stinson Voyageur who went and hauled tropical fish out of the jungle in Columbia (way before Miami Vice) and then haul guns in under the floor boards back in. He got caught and did time in a Columbian Jail. Saw him several years later in Tucson AZ  Asked what he was doing and he said he just bought a DC4 at Davis-Monthan. What are you going to do with it I asked?  He said?  "Haul fish out of the jungle in Columbia!

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