OK. Who Was It?

[ianwood]

Drone hits West Hollywood power lines, causes power outage

 

[skylabimaging]

...awesome

 

[padrino]

I have a feeling they are not speaking up if they are on here...

That sucks, selfishly the bad press stinks when CA is currently considering some bills to make life more painful for us...

 

[turbodronepilot]

Looks like dude was in stealth mode...
all blacked out..
I bet his name wasn't on it...
if only it was registered with the feds...hahahah....

 

[Scotflieger]

Idiot. Only one comment. I live in a rural area and have overhead power lines. But this is in the middle of the No 1 nation in the world. Why aren't the power lines underground instead of making the town look third world?

 

[Machoman]

No casualties but maximum liepress feedback. Was obvious something like this will happen just before they try to bring up the FAA registration law. Typical government action.

 

[Phatzo]

Hi, it wasn't me, I live in Hungary (europe) - I know you have three Budapest in the US that is why my emphasis in (). I would also not fly against power lines as I do a flight check and look around for obstacles before I get airborne **** happens. on the other hand I think I would speak up and admit what happened and take the responsibility on what I did. - I think. I do not know what charges or penalty is awaiting the owner but what I do know is that in the US you are doomed when you get a lawsuit.
cheers.

 

[CaptainBadge]

All right Tpoze41 where were you when this happened?

 

[steelkite]

I hit an old analog phone line yesterday, stringing across the width of a large parking lot at a beach .. totally my fault. Knew it was there, thought that I was clear from my point of view.

 

[Jenn348]

Hmmm. Could be an intentional attack on the power lines. You'd have to hit the right spot to create a power outage.

 

[AutoAir]

It's bound to happen more. Power lines are very hard to see. A relatively small disturbance can short a line into another causing breakers to trip.

However we probably don't need a registry that can log who did this to have them pay for damages. Right?

 

[SultanGris]

I curious to know how a plastic drone takes out a power line. No possible way it broke the line and I don't see how it could've completed a circuit and cause a short. I say it's a plant by the fear mongers to stir up anti drone news.

 

[AutoAir]

I curious to know how a plastic drone takes out a power line. No possible way it broke the line and I don't see how it could've completed a circuit and cause a short. I say it's a plant by the fear mongers to stir up anti drone news.

Drone Flies Into Electrical Lines, Knocking Out Power in West Hollywood

All the local reports I have seen suggest the power line was knocked down. If you don't think a UAS could do that you are pretty naive. Stick your finger in your blades at full power and tell me how that works for you.

 

[turbodronepilot]

If that drone was the one involved in the crash I'm pretty sure it didn't break any power lines ..
the i1 shows the usual damage that we've seen a thousand times on this site...

 

[AutoAir]

If that drone was the one involved in the crash I'm pretty sure it didn't break any power lines ..
the i1 shows the usual damage that we've seen a thousand times on this site...

Yeah my guess is that the photo is not of the actual UAV.

 

[SultanGris]

Drone Flies Into Electrical Lines, Knocking Out Power in West Hollywood

All the local reports I have seen suggest the power line was knocked down. If you don't think a UAS could do that you are pretty naive. Stick your finger in your blades at full power and tell me how that works for you.

You are the one who's naive. There's no way in Hell a plastic prop is cutting a thick metal power line, lol! It's pretty **** funny you think a prop it's gonna win that fight. I really hope you were joking.

 

[AutoAir]

You are the one who's naive. There's no way in Hell a plastic prop is cutting a thick metal power line, lol! It's pretty **** funny you think a prop it's gonna win that fight. I really hope you were joking.

It doesn't have to cut a cable to knock the wire down all it has to do is bash the UAV into the hardware holding the wire. Props and or the UAV itself could dislodge a wire no problem.

It's not even clear that this was an Inspire 1 I've seen stories with an s1000 pictured. Plenty of weight to do damage throughout DJI's lineup though.

Power lines are set up to deal with high winds and rain not hard things bashing into them. It's also LA so no need to arrest the wires with anything to deal with icing. It doesn't take much to take a wire down.

 

[SultanGris]

I think you are very misinformed about strength of power lines. They are connected quite well. I live in the country and have been shooting birds off of them with a .22 rifle since I was about 8 years old. I've accidentally hit the line instead of the bird a few times and ask they do it's wiggle a little. Agricultural spray planes have clipped them at 140+ mph before resulting in the crash of the plane while leaving the wire intact. There is zero possibility a drone knocked a wire loose unless it was already severely damaged and about to fall off all by itself in the next light breeze.

Grounding the wire and blowing the circuit I could maybe see happening, but knocking wires off the pole not a chance in Hell.

 

[ianwood]

There is absolutely no way an Inspire could snap a power line like that in half. You could tow a couple tons with those cables. They weigh several dozens of pounds. The only way the cable could snap is if the arc from the short circuit caused enough explosive force to disconnect the wire at the terminal.

 

[SultanGris]

Actually I didn't know carbon fiber conducted electricity. Thanks for the tip. Like I said however, there's no way at all an inspire is breaking a power line unless maybe like ianwood said from the short circuit arc.