Mystery Drones

[Chuckanut]

IMO, The hacking of our Telecom networks and various industrial and government institutions by foreign adversaries is far more threatening than this fuss over drones.

 

[Pellice]

I live in NJ; haven't myself seen any drones, but enough reliable observers have that I am convinced they are out there. The drone area IS on the flightpath for several large airports, so some, maybe most, are airplanes. But - not all of them. People are trying to panic (you should read Nextdoor Neighbor these days, lol) but haven't talked themselves into it yet. Because everyone is convinced they are "our" drones.

The spokespersons from the government are very carefully wording their responses. There are very strong declarations that "there is no evidence of hostile intent from the drones." But the affirmations that the origins of the drones are unknown are worded much more carefully. "These are not military drones" does NOT mean they are not contractor drones, or intelligence drones, for example.

It is simply not believable that scores or hundreds of hobbyists suddenly acquired large, heavy drones 3 weeks ago and began simultaneously flying them at night. Large, expensive ($1000s) drones are not being acquired and bought and flown in tandem as teen pranks (where are they keeping drones the size of small cars?) You can't take pictures for your Instagram page with drones at night, other than lights. Several nights of drone activity have been bitterly cold and/or drizzly and rainy, and it's hard to imagine someone standing around in the 12F cold trying to fly a drone for fun. 50+ lb drones are supposed to be registered, have transponders, and file flight plans with the FAA. I heard some commentator suggest that their new owners "forgot" to do this. Night after night.

 

[folivier]

Read a report this morning about radioactive material was "lost" a couple weeks ago and the drones may be searching for this? This was material used in medical devices.

 

[GamblingMan]

I heard/read in a news report that a possible explanation is that the FAA opened up the rules about drones flying at night. Makes sense to me that night operation requires the appropriate hazzard lights. I am surprised this possibility is not getting more play in news coverage and this thread.

 

[misanman]

Drones Flying Over US Airbases

From Air and Space Force Daily Report - some bases suspend operations due to drones

 

[jazz4cash]

I heard/read in a news report that a possible explanation is that the FAA opened up the rules about drones flying at night. Makes sense to me that night operation requires the appropriate hazzard lights. I am surprised this possibility is not getting more play in news coverage and this thread.

If the FAA recently opened up rules about drones flying at night I think that should be easy to verify and the FAA would be anxious to do so.

 

[sdtech]

If the FAA recently opened up rules about drones flying at night I think that should be easy to verify and the FAA would be anxious to do so.

They changed the rules about night flying drones 3 years ago...

Basically you need lights, stay within the operators sight and under 400 feet. No restrictions over private property.

 

[CRLLS]

I had another conspiracy thought. Could it be that those drones are part of Jeff Bezo's last-mile Amazon delivery plans being tested in NJ? Just kidding of course. I just hadn't heard anyone offer that one as a possibility.

Okay, back to my meds.

 

[AllDone]

Two or three days ago, I saw a picture of a "drone" on Nextdoor. It was a nice, clear picture of Mars. The good thing about this panic is that it gets people outdoors and looking up at the night sky!

 

[disneysteve]

The military has deployed drone busting equipment to a couple of bases here in NJ.

 

[Pellice]

FAA has just issued a ban on drones over some of the most urbanized areas in NJ.

 

[TheWizard]

FAA has just issued a ban on drones over some of the most urbanized areas in NJ.

Government agencies can probably ignore that ban...

 

[marko]

So, it's been almost two weeks and not a peep in the media about these drones (that I'm aware of anyway).

Where'd they go? Another group hallucination?

 

[disneysteve]

So, it's been almost two weeks and not a peep in the media about these drones (that I'm aware of anyway).

Where'd they go? Another group hallucination?

They were here searching for intelligent life and didn't find any so they left.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

We've been getting claims of mystery objects in the sky above our city and everyone is pretty ignoring it. In my opinion just a bunch of morons looking for attention and to create some drama.

 

[KarenF]

It is a bunch of hooey and what is being sighted is planes and helicopters. My husband has a drone and we belong to drone forums. This is literally nothing.

 

[jazz4cash]

So, it's been almost two weeks and not a peep in the media about these drones (that I'm aware of anyway).

Where'd they go? Another group hallucination?

They are still being widely reported on social media but mainstream has not had much to report and gov’t is not feeding into the story.

 

[JoeWras]

When this first hit the news and people were saying they were aliens or other countries, I thought: Why would they have standard navigation lights on and enabled?

As a matter of fact, when the Starship Enterprise goes into battle, they sometimes keep their navigation lights on. Why?

 

[Tetto]

When this first hit the news and people were saying they were aliens or other countries, I thought: Why would they have standard navigation lights on and enabled?

As a matter of fact, when the Starship Enterprise goes into battle, they sometimes keep their navigation lights on. Why?

Even during battle in space, regulations require nav lights on at all times!

 

[folivier]

That's so they can coordinate the "pew pew" sounds of lasers firing.

 

[jazz4cash]

Worked on lighting for military vehicles. They would illuminate the ground for a few feet ahead of the vehicle but could not be seen from a distance.

I see tons of reports on the Reddit UFO sub but that group seems hypersensitive. I really only went there to follow the fixed income thread that was shut down here. Fidelity also has a great moderated forum there also. ER is a very safe and sane space compared to Reddit.

 

[JoeWras]

Fidelity also has a great moderated forum there also. ER is a very safe and sane space compared to Reddit.

Fidelity forum is very useful. There are other good subreddits.

But, yeah, it is a weird place. Frequently the subreddit names and especially the user names are insane and dangerous enough.

 

[More Cowbell]

True story! Neighbor rings our doorbell with his SIL and GSs. His GS was flying his new drone and it got stuck on our roof! We got it down, and the kid must be flying it elsewhere since I haven’t seen it since.

 

[Alan]

True story! Neighbor rings our doorbell with his SIL and GSs. His GS was flying his new drone and it got stuck on our roof! We got it down, and the kid must be flying it elsewhere since I haven’t seen it since.

In Australia a few years back my brother bought his adult son a drone for Christmas. After spending hours charging it up and reading the manual he took it out into the garden for its inaugural flight. He flew it over the top of the house and out of sight where he promptly lost control of it. They all rushed around the house but by then it was out of range of the controller and the family watched the drone disappear into the distance over the sugar cane fields.

 

[camfused]

^^^ Yes, that must have been a few years ago, since I believe all the current drones will return to the point of origin if they lose the signal (unless massive interference with GPS).