On February 4th, during a segment on “Fox and Friends” a quad-copter being flown by an editor from Popular Science magazine was seen flying, uncontrolled, into the morning show’s production crew. AMA believes the demonstration was conducted in an unsafe and irresponsible manner and has sent letters to Fox News Senior Vice President Michael Clemente, and Cliff Ransom, Editor in Chief at Popular Science, expressing its concern.
Click the link below to view the FoxNews.com video segment…
As soon as I watched the video I was wondering what was wrong with these people? It\’s a device with a spinning propeller inside a building… DUH! Go out in a field and show them what this is all about, not in a SUPER populated city with tons of a frequencies probably causing piloting issues – Ignorant!
Not only that, the reporter clearly had his facts wrong about the Florida accident, which occurred with a large electric helicopter, Not a “drone”. I guess the saying’s true, don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story.
Being flown by an idiot has no business flying anything radio controlled.
the only thing that crossed my mind was how absolutely naieve both of the news casters were since they had no clue on how to fly a quad. give it to a six year old they will show them. The darn things pretty much fly themselves. just take a minute and read the instructions. the front is always marked by either a different color or a face. I know they were really trying to show how fun they are and really didn\’t factor in any causalities or damage. they really were pathetic but funny.
While your letter discussed the safety aspect of the demonstration, it completely ignored the FACTUAL INACCURACY’S put forward by the editor from Popular Science. The individual in Brooklyn was NOT killed by a quadcopter, but instead by a very much more powerful single rotor helicopter with carbon fiber blades and was being flown at the edge and probably beyond the edge of it’s flight control envelope. That you let this unfortunate accident be blamed on a Multi-rotor is inexcusable. To my knowledge nobody and I mean NOBODY has been killed or even gravely injured by a multi-rotor. Yes they can be dangerous, yes they need common sense regulations, but to allow people to believe that deaths have been caused by one is irresponsible and both bad journalism, and makes me think the AMA really does not care about the Multi-Rotor community, except as a revenue stream, and does not understand the challenges faced by our community. I have corrected scores of people on that fact alone, and yet it still pops up, and in this case from someone who SHOULD know better.
The AMA needs to do a better job at quelling the rumors, half truths and outright falsehoods pro ported as facts in the media.