OK I’ll bite drones over NJ

[bonal]

Seems like a perfect opportunity for a new discussion about what is going on with these drones.  So much speculation and no one is willing to provide any information based on facts or investigations.  I’m sure there are some drone experts here on MS that might have some interesting thoughts on the subject. Perfect opportunity to make for some very entertaining comments.  I heard that there have been some TFR’s created as a result of the unknown nature of these drones.  Might as well have some fun.

[201er]

I'm actually avoiding flying my airplane over NJ at night for the foreseeable future after all this talk about shooting things down and countless pictures/videos of manned civilian aircraft being claimed to be "drones". There may by sightings that pose genuine concern, but there is far more hysteria mixed in with that as well.

This is so clearly a regular helicopter that it is shameful to be used for a front page headline about drones.

 

Or in this video 2:28-2:38 it is so blatantly obvious it's an airliner. You can see the nav lights, strobes, and even tail logo light. I tried posting a screenshot but then it looks "like a ufo or drone" but in motion it looks just like an airliner.

 

Edited December 14 by 201er

[GeeBee]

Substitute "witches" for drones and "Salem" for New Jersey and you understand.

 

[Echo]

Sy-Op

[jlunseth]

@201er - I had the same reaction to those pictures. Your upper left picture I saw as a video and it actually focused on a different craft, green light on starboard side, red on port, landing light in the middle. Fox has been running a quote from someone in NJ talking about all the aircraft with red, green and white lights and how he looked on Flightaware and there was no flight (so it must be martian)! This actually disturbs me a little because the news media have obviously not taken any steps to educate themselves about standard/required beacons, position lights, landing lights, or how VFR, IFR, ADSB actually work and they are making such a hyped up mess of it, it is going to make life difficult for GA. I wonder if they have actually checked to see how many of these concentrations are around flight schools?

 

[0TreeLemur]

I've seen videos on Reddit where counter-drone technology involving a drone that drops a net on another drone.  The US Military can't even do that as part of CONUS force protection?!

The way drones have changed warfare suggests that the US Military needs to completely reevaluate their weapons acquisition programs.   When a $1000 drone can take out a $35,000,000 fighter on the ramp, that's some mighty asymmetric warfare.

[PeteMc]

3 hours ago, jlunseth said:

This actually disturbs me a little because the news media have obviously not taken any steps to educate themselves

They know.  But then if they tell everyone it's nothing, they can't get them hooked and then run the hype story for days and days to try and bump up their numbers. 

Actually, some people know.  But based on how they can keep a straight face on this and other stories, I think a lot of them do not want to be told anything that contradicts what they're saying on air.  This way they can claim they were just telling the story that made sense to them. 

I used to like FOX News, sorry... FOX "Entertainment" now days.  But their stories are so full of holes now that I don't bother.  All about the money for Merdoch and the people he has on the air.  And it's not a Conservative vs Liberal thing, it's about a FULL story, even if it is slanted your way.  They just now conveniently pick phrases or sections to rile people up to keep watching, even if it is NOT what really happened. (Mob mentality at it's finest. )  

[Rwsavory]

Somebody finally got a good close-up of one.

[Echo]

1 hour ago, bluehighwayflyer said:

I have a commercial sUAS certificate that I have never exercised the privileges of, but I am a very active recreational drone operator.  I agree with everything that has been posted to this thread so far.  There is just so much ignorance and mis or even disinformation out there.  Like @201er I am refraining from flying even my sub 250 gram drone that does not even require registration or Remote ID for the time being lest I inadvertently contribute to this nonsense.  

Just remember, the average IQ is only roughly 100, so fully half the population is even dumber than that.  

Just watched a video today of a "pilot" that had an electrical failure at a non-towered airport.  Instead of going around in a VERY flyable airplane he continued to land and smash into another plane in front of him on the runway.  Average IQ?  I think not.

[Echo]

1 hour ago, Rwsavory said:

Somebody finally got a good close-up of one.

Bladerunnerish...

[flyboy0681]

I saw a story and the "drone" was clearly a 737 or Airbus, right down to the green starboard navigation light and strobe.

I agree that this "major" story will fade into obscurity. Remember when the media was broadcasting stories ad nauseam about using cell phones near gas pumps?

[201er]

3 hours ago, bluehighwayflyer said:

Like @201er I am refraining from flying even my sub 250 gram drone that does not even require registration or Remote ID for the time being lest I inadvertently contribute to this nonsense.  

I wouldn’t be caught flying one of these ever, but especially not over NJ right now! Even the professionals wouldn’t hesitate to take it down 

[A64Pilot]

While I agree that many of the few videos I’ve seen were manned aircraft it has me wondering a few things.

1. Surely there have been manned aircraft flying over NJ for years, so why now all this drone concern if there aren’t drones about?

2. Where are the night camera’s? I know for certain that the FLIR in an Apache can certainly tell the difference, and as that is now over 40 yr old tech, certainly there is a whole bunch of Commercial FLIR that’s at least as good, probably better in Sheriff’s helicopters if nothing else, so why no video from them?

Same for Night Vision cameras, News had bunches of them in DS 1, and that was what, 35 years ago? I’d bet maybe you can buy a Sony video camera with a low light camera good enough to tell the difference between a drone of a 172, 737 whatever.

So where is the video? With all the craziness on Youtube trying desperately for views, where are the videos confirming or denying drones?

3. What idiot if trying to be covert or having nefarious motives flies at night with the lights on? Or assuming if they were dumb enough to have, why are they still? If your up to no good, fly lights out and no one would have known, if your not going to fly lights out, just fly in the middle of the day.

 

[201er]

45 minutes ago, flyboy0681 said:

I saw a story and the "drone" was clearly a 737 or Airbus, right down to the green starboard navigation light and strobe.

I agree that this "major" story will fade into obscurity. Remember when the media was broadcasting stories ad nauseam about using cell phones near gas pumps?

This has been the headline picture for a bunch of these reports lately. Clearly a helicopter in the first two and the third you can clearly see the American Airlines logo on the tail!!! Do you trust anyone to be shooting anything down if these are the targets!?

I brightened the picture and it’s even more clear how it has skids, tail boom, and rotors. And you can see the lights in passenger windows in the airliner. I am disgusted how the news is painting a target on innocent aviation.

 

 

[flyboy0681]

1 hour ago, A64Pilot said:

While I agree that many of the few videos I’ve seen were manned aircraft it has me wondering a few things.

1. Surely there have been manned aircraft flying over NJ for years, so why now all this drone concern if there aren’t drones about?

2. Where are the night camera’s? I know for certain that the FLIR in an Apache can certainly tell the difference, and as that is now over 40 yr old tech, certainly there is a whole bunch of Commercial FLIR that’s at least as good, probably better in Sheriff’s helicopters if nothing else, so why no video from them?

Same for Night Vision cameras, News had bunches of them in DS 1, and that was what, 35 years ago? I’d bet maybe you can buy a Sony video camera with a low light camera good enough to tell the difference between a drone of a 172, 737 whatever.

So where is the video? With all the craziness on Youtube trying desperately for views, where are the videos confirming or denying drones?

3. What idiot if trying to be covert or having nefarious motives flies at night with the lights on? Or assuming if they were dumb enough to have, why are they still? If your up to no good, fly lights out and no one would have known, if your not going to fly lights out, just fly in the middle of the day.

 

Another thing, many of the “experts” say that the drones are on clandestine spy missions only under the cloak of night. If true, why aren’t the spymasters removing or blocking out the lights?

[A64Pilot]

16 minutes ago, flyboy0681 said:

Another thing, many of the “experts” say that the drones are on clandestine spy missions only under the cloak of night. If true, why aren’t the spymasters removing or blocking out the lights?

That’s what I was saying, but also they are reporting they must be very high tech because we can’t intercept any control signals to them.

So if we have even rudimentary frequency monitoring equipment listening, then why not cameras taking pictures? A drone at 200 ft looks nothing like a 737 on approach at 3,000 ft. Surely there are lots of cameras in civilians hands that would do the job.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=night+vision+camcorder&crid=1JZW9YKPAUDBP&sprefix=night+vision+camcorder%2Caps%2C167&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

But there was a report of a police helicopter hovering over one, so either completely false or a drone?

However you slice it, if it’s full sized aircraft that’s so easily busted, why hasn’t the Feds busted the story so they don’t continue to look like inept fools?

None of it makes sense to me, why don’t the Feds do something, what’s gained by letting it continue?

Edited December 16 by A64Pilot

[N201MKTurbo]

https://medium.com/climate-conscious/the-policy-slogan-build-back-better-has-an-interesting-backstory-c41731e8282

https://theconversation.com/building-back-better-may-seem-like-a-noble-idea-but-caution-is-needed-154587

 

Covid gave the world something to Build Back Better from. Now that it has ran its course, what’s next?

[PeteMc]

Heard they arrested two guys for flying a drone around BOS.  They were operating the drone from some island and a third guy escaped in a boat. 

 

[dkkim73]

Those photos clearly show an unnatural, even disturbing device... a helicopter. These are quite dangerous. 

More seriously, the whole shape of the discussion publicly does make you wonder about either gross incompetence (in several areas) or a desire to sow confusion and demoralization. There have been several other examples of manufactured or emergent hysteria in the last few years (UFO's seem a recurring thread). Even real things like coronal mass ejections get played up. Put all this against the background of increased probing by adversarial entities (writ large). And as others have pointed out, there are always those waiting to step in and use any set of events. 

The real minority viewpoint is not to be totally paranoid. 

My guess? It's a psyop disguised as another psyop, feigning a viral marketing campaign, but really distracting from a different psyop combined with degradation of the power grid. By a combination of Iran and the chicoms. Or it could kids with drones. Or maybe salafist terrorists. I forget...  Perhaps it's aliens trying to work out LOP power settings? 

[Pinecone]

18 hours ago, A64Pilot said:

That’s what I was saying, but also they are reporting they must be very high tech because we can’t intercept any control signals to them.

So if we have even rudimentary frequency monitoring equipment listening, then why not cameras taking pictures? A drone at 200 ft looks nothing like a 737 on approach at 3,000 ft. Surely there are lots of cameras in civilians hands that would do the job.

Modern model airplane and drone radio control uses frequency hopping, spread spectrum on 2.4 GHz.

[dkkim73]

On related humorous note: 

[jlunseth]

Sorry to say it but this is not a liberal playbook. Fox ran all these stories the past week complete with some hysterical, demanding "cross examination" of FAA officials. The helicopter photo appeared as the front headline on Fox's internet news several times, along with photos of what were clearly manned aircraft. Fox ran a quote from some guy on the street, hysterical about all the drones with "red, green and white lights." Someone at Fox needs to get an education on legal aircraft, aircraft lighting, and ways of flying VFR, IFR, etc. I vaguely recall that at least one of their reporters or anchors is a pilot. If it were just the liberal media it could be laughed off, but unfortunately in this case the stupidity is spread far and wide.

[PeteMc]

17 minutes ago, jlunseth said:

Sorry to say it but this is not a liberal playbook. Fox ran all these stories the past week complete with some hysterical, demanding "cross examination" of FAA officials.

10+ years ago, FOX was a News organization.  I used to like switching between them and the other stations to get a better view from both sides.  But now, your comments are maybe even a little to polite.   

And don't get me started on CNN Headline News!!   I used to love them 20 some years ago.  I'd turn it on between calls or meetings while I was catching up on emails, etc.  It was great for getting the "headlines" of what was going on in the US and the world.  I don't have facts, but I'm guessing it wasn't as profitable as Smart Phones started taking over and online news searches became a lot easier. 

 

[flyboy0681]

4 hours ago, PeteMc said:

And don't get me started on CNN Headline News!!   I used to love them 20 some years ago.  I'd turn it on between calls or meetings while I was catching up on emails, etc. 

 

Headline News is to news what Travel Channel is to travel, Discovery Channel is to science and History Channel is to history,

[Hank]

1 hour ago, flyboy0681 said:

Headline News is to news what Travel Channel is to travel, Discovery Channel is to science and History Channel is to history,

And The Learning Channel is to education . . .

Or Music TV is to music . . . . .