Inspire 1 for Tuna Spotting

damoncooper · Jul 19, 2015

Out flying today in Plymouth, MA and an older gentleman sauntered up as I was flying and started chatting about the Inspire. He seemed well educated and very polite and explained he had been researching drones to use for tuna fishing to spot them off his boat.

He hadn't encountered the Inspire 1 but when I answered his questions about range, being able to launch off a boat, using dynamic home points, battery life and max speed/distance, he was clearly blown away. I guess he had never come across a drone like the Inspire. He was furiously taking notes as we talked and he remarked that his boat was docked in the harbor I was just then flying over.

I wish I had thought to swap info with him as I could have volunteered to help him on a few trial runs, out looking for 450lb fish!

Anyway, fantastic encounter, thought I'd share. Not everyone is out to cause trouble out there.

turbodronepilot · Jul 19, 2015

Sounds like you're causing problems for the Tunas. ..
I personally don't agree with using drones or other high tech tools to hunt..

damoncooper · Jul 19, 2015

turbodronepilot said:
Sounds like you're causing problems for the Tunas. ..
I personally don't agree with using drones or other high tech tools to hunt..

They have been using private pilots and Cesnas for 30 years up here for tuna spotting. If you like tuna, this is one of the places it comes from.

Gregg G · Jul 19, 2015

turbodronepilot said:
Sounds like you're causing problems for the Tunas. ..
I personally don't agree with using drones or other high tech tools to hunt..

buddy flys bell jet rangers scouting tuna...whats the diff??

m00se · Jul 19, 2015

I think people should have to hunt animals naked with nothing but their bare hands

damoncooper · Jul 19, 2015

m00se said:
I think people should have to hunt animals naked with nothing but their bare hands

We would all be vegetarians if that were the case.

m00se · Jul 19, 2015

We probably wouldn't have progressed much as the human race if we had done this TBH
it would be fun watching all those macho hunters stalking deer and boar in the cold with tiny wieners though.... see how macho they feel then

damoncooper · Jul 19, 2015

m00se said:
We probably wouldn't have progressed much as the human race if we had done this TBH
it would be fun watching all those macho hunters stalking deer and boar in the cold with tiny wieners though.... see how macho they feel then

I think this fisherman was more of the "I need to pay my mortgage and feed my family" type than a "macho boar stalking hunter with a bazooka" type.

Anyway, it was a pleasant encounter and it was followed by a very nice lady who asked my wife (who was my camera op yesterday) if it was our first time there and suggested we should come back and get the sunset from out over the harbor. Very nice encounters. I do suspect having my wife there actively involved eliminated any crazy thoughts of "evil drone people". Food for thought there

m00se · Jul 19, 2015

Women frequently seem to lend a degree of credibility to men hey?

I think any small scale family feeding venture is fair game, Id use FLIRs and guns on my I1 in that case.
But industrial fishing WILL exhaust our resources, and I dont think we should encourage them to get any better and faster at it

NEJO/Wisconsin · Jul 20, 2015

Back to hunting with nothing but bare hands is a fig leaf ok and mabey some home made cardboard shoes and a barret .50 cal if that not back to basics what is

LonieJr · May 13, 2018

damoncooper said:
Out flying today in Plymouth, MA and an older gentleman sauntered up as I was flying and started chatting about the Inspire. He seemed well educated and very polite and explained he had been researching drones to use for tuna fishing to spot them off his boat.

He hadn't encountered the Inspire 1 but when I answered his questions about range, being able to launch off a boat, using dynamic home points, battery life and max speed/distance, he was clearly blown away. I guess he had never come across a drone like the Inspire. He was furiously taking notes as we talked and he remarked that his boat was docked in the harbor I was just then flying over.

I wish I had thought to swap info with him as I could have volunteered to help him on a few trial runs, out looking for 450lb fish!

Anyway, fantastic encounter, thought I'd share. Not everyone is out to cause trouble out there.

Are you based in Devon... Plymouth here.