Drone pilot arrested

[Daveroo]

the pilot of a drone that caused the grounding of fire fighting aircraft over the "Trailhead fire" near Foresthill California was arrested on Friday the 15th.this fire is not 100% contained as of today its at 98%..lol..anyway...i think this is cool...and the guy is in his later 50s...old enough to not only know better,but old enough he should raked over the coals.......

<header class="entry-header" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28px; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252);">[h=2]California man arrested for flying drone over the Trailhead Fire[/h]</header>The drone forced the grounding of firefighting aircraft.

Officers with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection arrested a Placer County man Friday who allegedly interfered with firefighting operations recently on the Trailhead Fire by flying a drone over the fire, forcing fire managers to ground aircraft rather than risk a collision.
Information posted on social media helped lead law enforcement officers to Eric Wamser, 57, of Foresthill. He was arrested Friday afternoon, booked into the Placer County jail in Auburn and charged with interfering with firefighting operations. This is the first arrest by CAL FIRE law enforcement of a drone operator for interfering with firefighting.
Chief of CAL FIRE Ken Pimlott sent out a Tweet Friday night saying, “We will seek to prosecute those who put the public and our firefighters in peril with irresponsible use of drones.”
Mr. Wamser’s alleged actions delayed aerial firefighting on a fire burning in the steep canyon along the Middle Fork of the American River near Todd Valley. The Trailhead Fire started June 28 and is now 98 percent contained, according to CAL FIRE. It burned more than 5,600 acres and forced hundreds of residents of Placer and El Dorado counties to evacuate.
“The Trailhead Fire was burning in such a remote area that our aircraft were critical to stopping the fire,” said Chief George Morris III, CAL FIRE’s Nevada-Yuba-Placer unit chief. “Every minute we couldn’t fly our aircraft because of this drone, the fire was able to grow and do more damage.”

 

[Obie311]

Good Work! I hope there are severe penalties for this jacka$$ to discourage others from doing the same. Thanks for posting this Dave. We recently had a fire near the Stevenson Ranch/Towsley Cyn area that was very close to a lot of homes. They had the SuperScoopers and Skycranes flying on it as well as the usual LA County FD birds.

Obie

 

[scotth6]

Absolutely! I saw a doco/show on a similar subject recently where these business developers were trying to sell the idea of drone deliveries. I don't buy it. Imagine thousands of these things buzzing around everywhere. Real aircraft everywhere will be in more danger.

 

[modelr]

Absolutely! I saw a doco/show on a similar subject recently where these business developers were trying to sell the idea of drone deliveries. I don't buy it. Imagine thousands of these things buzzing around everywhere. Real aircraft everywhere will be in more danger.

While not wanting to put a damper on the fool who flew this drone at the fire, your final statement shows your ignorance of the real facts about these "drones". First off, the ones being flown by the public and delivery companies are not capable of flying in the general airspace of real aircraft, their radio control signals are not strong enough. Also, there is no reason for them to be at altitudes used by real aircraft, as well as not being capable. The only ones that can, and do, fly in the general airspace are military drones and remotely piloted aircraft, of which, in actuality, were nearly 99% of the "drones" reported by pilots in the past, which were not later proven to be birds.

As for them being used to make deliveries, there will not be "thousands of these things buzzing around everywhere." They will be at low altitude, in congested traffic areas where it would be quicker and more economical to get small packages from the distribution point to nearby delivery points. Remember, these things are battery powered, so flight time is limited to maybe 15 minutes per battery. That would be a long flight.

As for the idiot flying at the fire, this is why the aeromodeling community, (the law abiding ones, myself included,) are so upset with the FAA's requirement that we register our models with them, (in actuality, the PILOT is the one registered, not the aircraft, but the number must be on the aircraft,) as we know better than to do this kind of stuff, and our flight rules prohibit it. Those who would do this stuff won't register anyway, making them outlaws in the first place. Just so you know, if you were to go to your local Target store, or anywhere else that sells these "toys" to the general public, if it weighs more than 5.5 pounds, ready to fly, YOU must register with the FAA if you intend to fly it outdoors, including in your own backyard.



I'll step off my soapbox for now. If any of the mods, deem this post offensive, please remove it. But I stand by it. Disinformation is worse than no information.

Don Horneff,
AMA #55417
FAA #FA3W4TCM9X

 

[scotth6]

That's all fine. However I believe you are being "ignorant" about the meaning of "disinformation". I also believe you are being "ignorant" about the misuse of drones that has occurred and will continue to occur.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/disinformation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disinformation

 

[modelr]

That's all fine. However I believe you are being "ignorant" about the meaning of "disinformation". I also believe you are being "ignorant" about the misuse of drones that has occurred and will continue to occur.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/disinformation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disinformation

No, I am not. Not wanting to start a P***ing contest, but I am coming from the law abiding side of this argument, of those of us who do legally fly "drones,"
which these are not. These are "remotely piloted aircraft," which is what I fly. (R/C) "Drones" is a name given them by the news media, just as "assault weapon" is that given to modern sporting rifles. "Drones" are onboard computer flown by preprogrammed flight plan, which may be used in the delivery units, when fully developed. And these will ALL be licensed and registered with the FAA, and other agencies. You may have posted it as "misinformation," not really knowing the full facts, but the news media, and those pushing this are feeding "disinformation." And, I do know the meaning of "ignorant." It was not meant to be demeaning, as I am sure your post was not. I was merely trying to correct a misconception. As I started out, the person in the story was totally wrong, however, your statement was also. No disrespect intended.

As for "the misuse of drones that has occurred and will continue to occur." I fully concur, but without trying to go political, this happens with everything, what should we do? Outlaw living? That's the only way to stop it entirely. As the law abiding people of any given group have to keep reminding those who want to register / outlaw any activity because of a few miscreants, the outlaws never register, or obey the common sense laws. That's why they call them "outlaws," as this person was.

 

[Daveroo]

as the original poster of this thread and a mod here,i completely agree with Dons statements,that said..i'm not saying i disagree with scott..ok maybe i'm wishywashy..sue me..lol..but lets get back on track with the original post..and that has to do with idiots frying these things to take video or photos of wildfire and endangering firefighting aircraft which include very low level helicopter ops (the tanked ones fly much lower than the bucket equipped ones,airtankers which normally drop at 150' AGL,on the trailhead fire,they were flying below the ridge tops,i mean deep into the canyons,the terrain there is very steep with deep canyons,so steep that some crews that came in were doing helicopter repelling as well as rope repelling down cliffs,which meant after several long hot days they had to walk down the river to a pick up point,its pretty awesome to be in a canyon bottom thats so tight and narrow the rotor diameter is greater than the distance between the canyon walls.

my point is,when these aircraft were told to return and hold on base for two days in a row,for more than an hour both times,that caused firefighters to have to do the canyon wall repelling ,which is more dangerous than you might think.

 

[joe bob]

I think that when you have something like this that doesn't take skill, like the original RC aircraft, but only the means to pay for it, then you are going to get a whole different kind of user.
It is tempting to say stupid but lacking in imagination would probably be more accurate. They don't visualize the danger until something happens, if there was danger they wouldn't have sold me this thing.
When someone gets hurt it will probably be that kind of person, not an evil ne'er do well out to do mischief.
As with most things like this, it is a shame that it quickly becomes us vs them rather than coming together to figure out a common sense solution.

 

[modelr]

I agree Dave, this guy was an idiot. Common sense, (is that even required to be used anymore?) says you don't fly small, remotely piloted R/C aircraft anywhere near full size operations. He deserves the full treatment, whatever that may be.

However, on a related note, I have to ask, in at least the two instances I've read about here, just how close to those operations was the "drone" being flown?? And, was it a fixed wing aircraft, or the more common for photo use, a multi-rotor? Not saying it was proper in either case, but sometimes I have known pilots to be "concerned" if hobby operations occur within ten miles of an airport, when they, the full scale pilot, doesn't get within 15 miles of the hobby operations, which are normally kept within 500' AGL, and rarely more than 5-600' horizontally from the model runway. We have one of these in our local area, while our club includes 8 full scale pilots, and the airport operator has expressed interest in joining and learning to fly R/C!

 

[Daveroo]

hey Don..this:



However, on a related note, I have to ask, in at least the two instances I've read about here, just how close to those operations was the "drone" being flown?? And, was it a fixed wing aircraft, or the more common for photo use, a multi-rotor? Not saying it was proper in either case, but sometimes I have known pilots to be "concerned" if hobby operations occur within ten miles of an airport, when they, the full scale pilot, doesn't get within 15 miles of the hobby operations, which are normally kept within 500' AGL, and rarely more than 5-600' horizontally from the model runway. We have one of these in our local area, while our club includes 8 full scale pilots, and the airport operator has expressed interest in joining and learning to fly R/C!

got me to thinking..first it was one of those small four bladed helicopter like things with a video camera.

but..in Lincoln Cal,there is a RC airport just south of the runway...now imma have to go look at google earth and see how close it is.lol