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Almost impact

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Apr 16, 2015
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Just noticed in the news that a drone fell down behind some guy skiing in a race. Seems like a 1000 or something? That thing blasts to the ground.

 
Just noticed in the news that a drone fell down behind some guy skiing in a race. Seems like a 1000 or something? That thing blasts to the ground.

Holy cr*p - that could have been so much worse a split second sooner!!!
That's an X8 dropping like a stone so had to be some kind of power loss I would imagine for it to come down like that.
 
I know they've been using drones more and more to cover winter sports but I'm really surprised to see it was flying directly over the participant. Usually they follow a path a few dozen feet parallel to the course. I wonder if there's footage of this from any other angles.
 
Holy cr*p - that could have been so much worse a split second sooner!!!
That's an X8 dropping like a stone so had to be some kind of power loss I would imagine for it to come down like that.

I agree, Ed. Flight battery failure or connector wiring problem (any votes for a melted EC5 solder job?). I looked at it frame by frame and it appears to be coming down vertically, impacts the snow, bounces vertically, and then on the second impact starts to slide downhill.

Classic example of RUD** and the dangers of flight operations over people.

Andy.

**Rapid unplanned disassembly.
 
I'm not justifying the fact that he was flying a drone directly over head of the athlete but I hope the operators get a chance to explain what went wrong before the media go crazy, jumping to assumptions... May be a bit late for that now though...
 
Found this on fb.

"During the slalom race of the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup in Madonna di Campiglio/Italy in the evening of 22 December 2015, an unmanned drone DFC-COPTER XR1 carrying a broadcast camera crashed into the snow during the second run of Austrian ski racer Marcel Hirscher.

The drone had been used to provide aerial shots of the slalom race, and was part of the host broadcast operation of Infront Sports & Media. The drone and the drone pilot have been provided by a third party service to Infront Sports & Media.

The initial technical report indicates a malfunction of the drone. According to the drone operating company, the most likely reason is a strong and unforeseen interference on the operating frequency, leading to limited operability. Detecting this, the pilot followed the official security procedure, purposely flying the drone as close as possible to the ground before releasing it. The aim was to destroy the drone, in order to prevent it from losing control.

We very much regret that this happened and especially that it was in close proximity to an athlete, in this case Marcel Hirscher. We are extremely relieved that no one was hurt and apologise once again to Marcel Hirscher, as well as to the FIS, the Austrian and Italian Ski Federations and the Local Organising Committee.

Infront has decided to mandate an external independent expert with a formal investigation of the matter.

For the time being, FIS and Infront have decided to refrain from using drones for broadcast purposes until a fully secured operation can be ensured."
 
Whole truth: "The operator was desperately trying to regain control and land when all control was lost..."
 
What the heck is a DFC-Copter XR1? Google just turns up links to news about the crash. I can't find anything on the actual craft itself.
 
What the heck is a DFC-Copter XR1? Google just turns up links to news about the crash. I can't find anything on the actual craft itself.
from what i have seen it resembled to an x8 hammer from kopterworx in slovenia. they make the monster frame and sell it with dji electronics for a fortune.
www.kopterworx.com
they have kind of everything and also pricey.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Here is an image of it.

Ski federation bans drones after one almost hits skier


547452952.jpg
 
Radio Interference I am not sure if I would buy that explanation, How can a pilot be so certain that it was radio interference without having and monitoring with a spectrum analyzer, at the time when this happened. To make a conclusion just because the multirotor was not flying properly does not work. There are so many things that could come into play here, the rc transmitter, the receiver, the flight controller, GPS signal, Magnetic Compass, and more including pilot’s error.

I do not rule out RF signal interference but from my experiences with building and testing these devices, I would start somewhere else. There’s a good chance we will never know the true answer.

From what I can see in the video, I definitely would have questions in the operations, with safety and the path of choice while flying when the course was hot. Also the pilot did not adhere to the Federations request for distance and location.

At some point during this run the copter was directly over the skier, and if by coincidence it just happens to be at a time where the copter was out of control, I’m finding that hard to believe and feel the risk taken for this activity was beyond the scope to ensure safe operations, the duty of a PIC.

It’s easy to pass judgment but when we’re very limited with information and see something like this happen; one can’t help to think carelessness played some type of role.
 
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