From the Telegraph Snow and Ski site. The first drone bands are proposed in American resorts, others will require permits. In Switzerland, you don't need a license for drones weighing 30kg or less (which must allow practically all domestic models).
I my view drone designers fall into the same category as the dinosaur creators in Jurassic Park......"They spent so much time wondering if they could, they never thought if they should". Drones should be thought of as the flying selfie stick
The estimate of 1,000,000 drones as Christmas presents is scary.
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
"In one case a Kentucky man shot down a neighbour's drone that he said had flown over his property.
Earlier this week, a judge dismissed charges against William Meredith of first degree criminal mischief and first degree wanton endangerment."
I like it.
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
I love that someone using a drone can give you an idea of a ski run as it is from top to bottom. Great idea.
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
biddpyat wrote:
I love that someone using a drone can give you an idea of a ski run as it is from top to bottom. Great idea.
Alternatively learn to ski so you can take whatever the run throws at you in your stride?
If you mean "official" fly thrus on the resort website I've got no real problem with that. The idea of gadget dads checking out the black in advance of sending kids and spouse down it is frankly a terrifying prospect.
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
I'm sure it should be possible to have a small drone that can lock on to a hidden Avi beacon and locate it far more quickly than a human
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
@cameronphillips2000, I'm sure that is possible - the issue will be getting everyone else in the area to turn theirs off as any beacon on the surface in line of sight of the drone will be potentially giving off a stronger signal.
Happy for a resort to take pictures over closed runs, if the resort is open then they should be banned as these things have a regular habit of dropping out of the sky - imagine the horror of one dropping on to a nursery slope after a parent saw a drone as the ultimate extension of a selfie stick....
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
@cameronphillips2000, hmm... plausible, as most auto-drones like Lily et al use a WiFi beacon to follow their target, if one was following you and you get rolled in an avalanche, the possibility is there to track the target to a stop and therefore rapidly decrease the search area using traditional beacons. Admittedly, WiFi is quickly impaired under a relatively small amount of snow, and you need to ensure that the WiFi signal doesn't interfere with your avi beacon signal.
@cameronphillips2000, hmm... plausible, as most auto-drones like Lily et al use a WiFi beacon to follow their target, if one was following you and you get rolled in an avalanche, the possibility is there to track the target to a stop and therefore rapidly decrease the search area using traditional beacons. Admittedly, WiFi is quickly impaired under a relatively small amount of snow, and you need to ensure that the WiFi signal doesn't interfere with your avi beacon signal.
i was thinking more along the lines of relasing it towards another member of your group that had become lost in an avi.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Nah, it'd have to be within signal range to keep track from the start, but if it could keep tethered to the beacon for the duration of the slide or until it lost signal then stop dead - it'd act as a potential 'last known position' marker for a recovery.
I'd have thought a drone with a receiver that could run a search pattern across a defined track quickly and then drop a marker (paintball as a example) at each location it identifies a signal which could be a starting point for real people with proper search equipment could then use as starting points might work.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
That's actually not too dissimilar to a project (well more of an idea) that I'm working on. Use of aerial and land based receivers to home in on an RF target. Drones, if you insist on calling them that, have battery life of typically 20 minutes absolute max. Fixed wing can map an area much faster, and stay up longer. Once that RF target hits the ground, the signal virtually vanishes, until something is virtually on top of it, so I'd hate to think what happens under 1m of snow. Then get the multirotor to hover over where the other detectors have told it where the target is. And hope that LiPo batteries work well sub-zero.
After all it is free
After all it is free
What about a drone/plane flying over the patrolled area taking high res images, bash up some code so it can differentiate between pisted, unpisted and avalanche debris, as soon as it finds some avi debris set off alarms, send a fleet of other uav's with thermal imaging (ok not going to see far through the snow), beacons, shovels whatever.
Instead of batteries you could use a combustion engine or perhaps solar depending on the payload.
Drones/uav's whatever you want to call them aint nothing new, no one freaked out when model planes appeared or more recently model helicopters all of which have basically the same capabilities as the feared drone, the real enhancement is in the control electronics and camera's getting smaller and batteries getting better, while it all gets cheaper and cheaper, the luddites among you will just have to blame technology again.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Richard_Sideways wrote:
Nah, it'd have to be within signal range to keep track from the start, but if it could keep tethered to the beacon for the duration of the slide or until it lost signal then stop dead - it'd act as a potential 'last known position' marker for a recovery.
I disagree. When an a avi hits a member of a group the others put their tranceivers to scan ans staart scanning. A small drone released from a rucksack could locate it far more quickly given the correct algorythms
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
It should be able to track a phone's GPS signal if it has its own GPS. You should be able to write an app that allows group members to share data and then if one member is buried you can get it to track that data. However, I don't know how much the accuracy of GPS is affected by the snow. It is a military system so it ought to cope with someone hiding from it.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
that sort of thing probably belongs more on an avy beacon thread, and I think there was such a topic last year.
the problem is not so much the GPS, but the constantly updating each other or a server of the location (which isn't that much of a problem normally, given that there are 1000's of apps that do exactly that) in subzero, in a situation where signals get lost very quickly. I'm sure "last known position" is useful for all kinds of incidents needing a search party, but in avy debris, the only position that matters is the one where the victim is.
All of the RF tracking we do searching for targets can use all the technology in the world, but that last 100m invariably relies on getting out the hand tracker and doing it the old school way.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
henzerani wrote:
However, I don't know how much the accuracy of GPS is affected by the snow. It is a military system so it ought to cope with someone hiding from it.
It's got more to do with the attenuation in snow of the radio frequencies used by GPS systems, according to Wikipedia these are 1575.42MHz and 1227.60MHz, which for comparison are higher in frequency than the UHF bands used for terrestrial TV transmission (and therefore are likely to be severely attenuated by just a few cms of snow). It may be a military system but in the words of Scotty from Star Trek:
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
@geeo, may be better to nest a series of vibration sensors in known troublespots reporting back when avi events happen or even shifts in the snowpack.
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
@Dave of the Marmottes, Yes I mean, when looking up a resort, you get a view of the different runs, it makes me want to go and put my skis on. Much better than the years I spent looking up pdf piste maps, trying to compare resorts.
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Interesting. I asked Les 3 Vallees and they have no policy in place at present. It'll be a surprise if that remains the case to the end of the season
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
It looks like Tokyo has had enough of drones already.......use a drone to catch a drone
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
I found out last night they are illegal in the Vanoise National Park and it is also illegal to fly them over a piste in France (source: a friendly multilingual pisteur)
FAQ
Poster: A snowHead
