Western Railroad Discussion > Drone Foaming Mormon Rocks Cajon Pass

Video shot this past Sunday at Mormon Rocks by TO member "curt" and myself. Curt was "trackside" and I was flying the drone.
For those curious; I dubbed in audio for the pacing the power sequence from another train on a different day. The rest of the audio for the drone came from Curt's camcorder.

George Cataulin
San Diego, CA
Left Coast Rail Videos

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Once again Excellent, Excellent, Awesome.
No more trespassing.
Never thought I would be around to see this type of railroad filming.
Thanks for sharing.
bcd9 ∑:=)

Amazing video. Were you at the 138 crossover or up the line? How far from where you are is the range of the drone?

Steve

How high are flying the drone for your pictures and its Well not quite no trespassing. If you fly over a piece of railroad property , they under most instance own the air rights above subject to local codes etc. Can a plane fly over you , probably yes because it has been ruled it is in the public good but below 500 feet , probably not in uncongested airspace. So if you fly over someones property and they shoot you down , and their use of a shotgun is not illegal you may have to buy a new drone. This drone nonsense is going to get real interesting since rules of flight all contiguous airspace in the US rests with the FAA. But the pictures and videos are great lol and this one the way you directed it, superb.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/14 10:20 by kingman.

SGillings Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Amazing video. Were you at the 138 crossover or
> up the line? How far from where you are is the
> range of the drone?
>
> Steve

Hi Steve,
At about the 42 second mark you can see my SUV. You can see me, I'm at the top of the rock towards the left of my SUV. I'm not sure of the distance when I stopped the pace. Just a guess, but I think the drone was just about 1200 ft away from me.

George Cataulin
San Diego, CA
Left Coast Rail Videos

A great presentation! I guess the next step will be for the railroads to buy their own drones to film and ID the foamers flying drones over their property!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/14 12:14 by ceedy.

Fantastic videos and photos. Do it now before new laws restricting drones are enacted. As drones become more common, restrictions will almost certainly be imposed.
- Eric Blasko

Follow this link for info on the FAA and model aircraft:

http://www.modelaircraft.org/aboutama/AMAInterpretiveRuleResponse.aspx

It has Horizon Hobby quite concerned.

Northridge Switcher

George

Out of ALL your uploads, this is definitely top 3! Did it take you long to learn how to operate the drone so smoothly and what camera did you have attached to it . . . great vid!! An automatic for VOTD!!

Craig
http://mcmrailvideos.com/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/14 13:50 by spdaylight.

Great video, George! Keep 'em coming.
GK

This is the first train drone video I've seen with non drone audio. Great stuff.

I agree with everyone that these devices take the hobby to a place I never even thought was possible.

Posted from iPhone

Superb video. Congratulations on VOID.
John

Great video George! congratulations on VOTD
Alan

Nice.

Impressive stuff.

Steve



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/14 07:44 by driver.

How much do they cost and where do you get one?

Sadly, the present state of affairs leaves it open for aggressive inspectors and prosecutors to file charges on a whim. Like laser pointers, legal to sell them, but illegal for a buyer to use except under extreme discretion. It has always been a grey area. And strictly illegal under both FAA and FCC regulations if you try to make any economic gain, such as charging somebody to make a flight for them, or sell the video or any data gathered from the flight, etc. That probably requires both a commercial pilots license, and a license landmobile commercial radio license from the FCC. Up to $10,000 and more fines, and probably prison time if you interfered with any other type of aviation or any other form of radio communcations.

One would hope that hobby flights won't be overly regulated, and probably if everyone cooperated, they wouldn't be. Unfortunately, you already have big companies selling equipment to farmers and ranchers and real estate people that is totally illegal to operate under present "law" and "clarifying memoranda." You also have the overzealous, who have already ruined the hobby, and just wait, the criminal element looking to figure out more ways to avoid a legitimate job by finding sneaky ways to steal from the air.

Another classic case of government being caught totally flatfooted by technology, and probably going to lump everything into one size fits all, whether it is a Boeing 777 sized drone equipped with 2,000 pound bombs, or a hobby quadcopter. Not only that, probably going to take decades to clarify the "rules," particularly if the present FAA and FCC administrators have anything to say about it.

Saying all that, its still very cool to get the vantage point that previously one could only obtain from an on-board piloted helicopter! I think the fish eye lenses of the go-pro's and genre will get annoying after a while, but nifty nevertheless.







AlcoRSD15 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fantastic videos and photos. Do it now before new
> laws restricting drones are enacted. As drones
> become more common, restrictions will almost
> certainly be imposed.
> - Eric Blasko

Hey George , That was by far the best work l have seen with a drone. Your side views and height were good and dubbing in the sound worked well. Also your friend on the ground caught some good stuff. Just remember ,once you see the top of a train there's not much to see but height and a side view is a whole new picture . Keep up the good work

I have to say the side view is the hardest to get. You need lots of clearance, no obstacles in your path. If there are telephone poles, etc you have no choice but to go high and closer to the tracks which eliminates the side view.

George Cataulin
San Diego, CA
Left Coast Rail Videos

NICE video!!! Thanks for posting.