I was flicking through a Ski Solutions insert into Ski Club 1.0's latest magazine when I saw an article on self tracking drones. Téléverbier are offering drones for hire that 'track' your progress down the slopes using your smartphone's GPS combined with bluetooth' so you can record blah blah blah....
Now I assume that they have thought this through but I can see a number of snags here:
Does the drone know when you ski under a ski lift and adjust its height?
What happens when the smartphone's battery goes flat, both Bluetooth and GPS use a fair chunk of power, when combined with the cold this will eventually happen?
What happens if someone has 'just another cheeky run' when the battery on the drone runs out and gravity takes over.
I have had a shufty at the Hexo+ website, its about 40cm square by 25cm deep, weighs 1.7kg and does 45 miles per hour. That is a lot of momentum if it hits another snow user.
Granted as a professional retired aviator I am cautious and believe that things that fly should be controlled carefully but is this a step to far?
Interestingly, a pisteur in Tignes told me that Drones are banned from flying over pistes in France and are banned in total in the Vanoise National Park.
Over to the wise court that is snowHeads
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Just done some crawling around the Verbs site and found this:
A piste that is fun and entertaining, and completely dedicated to drones – that is what Téléverbier is offering you, new for this winter. Every Saturday you will have the opportunity, on the Drone Slope, to film your descent from the air, over a route strewn with obstacles and modules specially reserved for this purpose.
For CHF 20.-, you will receive two descents filmed by our pilot plus the video of your exploits, sent to you the same evening by email.
So it appears Ski Solutions have put 2 and 2 together and got half a million.
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 can only imagine it's quite a small slope like snowdome sized, in the UK you would have to be in VLOS to do this and i doubt the swiss are more lenient
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.
On power running low, I understand most tend to self land before the power is out rather than letting gravity do it's thing. But in the mountains that self land could be in a position that really is not easy/safe to get to...
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Quote:
But, as mentioned, several big resorts, like Tignes, are trying to ban them.
They are banned throughout Europe already except under special circumstances - within visual control of the user, not in built up areas, more than 100m from other people etc.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
NearlyFlying wrote:
On power running low, I understand most tend to self land before the power is out rather than letting gravity do it's thing. But in the mountains that self land could be in a position that really is not easy/safe to get to...
AFAK most head back to base before they self-land. They don't just decide to put down wherever they are.
FAQ
Poster: A snowHead
Bloody things. Didn't put him off his stroke, any way.
