Hhhmmmmm I was thought that flying near powerlines interfered? Maybe Not?

DroneFlying Posted at 2017-11-15 10:41
Thank you for demonstrating my point about people who knowingly violate rules and invent their own for others to follow. As you well know, using a second / shill account is a violation of the forum rules.

To address the one valid question you raised, here's what the police had to say:

I was replying to the "E" talking about you...

Now you are acting like DJT thinking you are the center of the universe  and pretend to know everything under the sun

Boston_H Posted at 2017-11-15 11:14
Hhhmmmmm I was thought that flying near powerlines interfered? Maybe Not?

If it does I haven't noticed it. And while colliding with one certainly can damage the drone, it seems to present little risk to the power line. In fact, power companies are starting to use drones for power line inspection.

Here's a YouTube video of a guy whose Phantom hit a transmission line. It did significantly damage the drone but he still managed to fly it afterwards:

DroneFlying Posted at 2017-11-15 13:32
If it does I haven't noticed it. And while colliding with one certainly can damage the drone, it seems to present little risk to the power line. In fact, power companies are starting to use drones for power line inspection.

Here's a YouTube video of a guy whose phantom hit a transmission line. It did significantly damage the drone but he still managed to fly it afterwards:

So are you back in Canada now???  

Lots of interesting points about the Mountain View incident. The only power lines I found in the area indicated are primary customer lines which would be 1300 or 4000 Volts, the upper wires, and 240 Volts for the lower wires. The nearest high voltage lines are a mile away. Birds sit on these wires all the time. Neither they nor a Mavic sized drone are going to short out the wires, unless they short an insulator or parts of a transformer. The indications are that the Mountain View power outage was from something shorting out a transformer. And there seem to be no confirmations I can find that the picture is really part of a drone.

I doubt if a Mavic prop could sever a power line, especially as the props are thin flimsy plastic and also fold. I whopped my finger once catching mine. That hurt but did not break anything. Nevertheless hitting a power line will invariably crash your drone.

Moffett is class D airspace and the only FAA rule I can see violated would be failure to notify the airport (other than obviously flying in a 'hazardous' manner). I and many other drone operators fly at the Sunnyvale Baylands park which is on the other side of Moffett but well within its five mile radius. For my interest I've emailed Moffett to see if they really do want notification but my guess is that few flying at Baylands do notify the airport and that the information would be of no use anyway. Moffett flight paths are limited to one runway direction.

It would be nice to know what really happened in the Mountain View incident, but it's unlikely all the information will come out.

The issues of interference are more interesting. Bax's video power lines are the real high voltage lines and there is a lot more metal in the vicinity. The metal could affect the compass readings and there could be a lot of 60Hz electrical noise which I might affect electronics in the Mavic.  I've seen one or two crash reports where flying near high power lines might have been the cause. Bak, how close do you think you were?

Anyway I don't see that it's particularly any more illegal to fly near or above a power line than it is to drive your car underneath one. Caution tells you not to get too close.

DroneFlying Posted at 2017-11-15 09:46
here is the meaning of "criminal Mischief" by your canadian law:

I'm not in Canada, nor, apparently is the OP.

Actually they did not and if they did they won't post that they information about the white hatchback and on your other facebook link they had an update:

UPDATE 3:52 pm: Have information that may help us identify the man in our drone case? Give us a call on our anonymous tip line: 650-386-8063.

Again as the "E" has asked you... Are they searching for him to built a statue? or as I replied to the "E" maybe the police are searching for him because they want to throw him a parade on Main Street?  

Dude, it is up to you to decide...

Boston_H Posted at 2017-11-15 11:14
Hhhmmmmm I was thought that flying near powerlines interfered? Maybe Not?

Dude, don't bet your drone on it!

FatherXmas Posted at 2017-11-13 18:12
Keep in mind the primary high voltage lines (in the US anyway) are 500,000 volts and the secondaries are 161,000 volts.  Either one would pretty much vaporize your AC if you made contact.

Only if the drone is grounded.

is what actually happens when a drone contacts power lines. Remember, birds sit on power lines all day long without any harm whatsoever.

dvarapala Posted at 2017-11-16 08:03
Only if the drone is grounded.

Here is what actually happens when a drone contacts power lines. Remember, birds sit on power lines all day long without any harm whatsoever.

I'm not worried so much about what happens when you contact the lines, trick there is to not do it. My worry about getting too close is that with the high voltage going through the wires, a lot of electro magnetic force is created which could screw up your compass and cause bad things to happen.

FatherXmas Posted at 2017-11-13 18:12
Keep in mind the primary high voltage lines (in the US anyway) are 500,000 volts and the secondaries are 161,000 volts.  Either one would pretty much vaporize your AC if you made contact.

Wouldn't the Mavic have to complete a ground before it could present a problem? (Little off Topic) I have watched some safety videos where a couple of guys were trying to steal copper wires from a sub-station, obviously they didn't know what they were doing as one of them was absolutely vaporized, grizzly photos, bacon on a bone type!

QuadKid Posted at 2017-11-16 14:24
Wouldn't the Mavic have to complete a ground before it could present a problem? (Little off Topic) I have watched some safety videos where a couple of guys were trying to steal copper wires from a sub-station, obviously they didn't know what they were doing as one of them was absolutely vaporized, grizzly photos, bacon on a bone type!

I think the bigger issue would be the magnetic interference caused by the high voltage traveling through the wire.

Well, I've flown near power lines many times with no issues. And so has Ken Heron.

Jos A Posted at 2017-11-13 01:00
Not with a Powerline, I have compass faillure near a harbour approach radar, its strange because it's a whole diffrent radio frequency . (9.2 and 3 ghz.)
Try to shoot a photo but MP was slowly turning.

Lots of people make that mistake but have no idea how radios actually work.
The *final* transmission frequency maybe difference but they have several stages of intermediate frequencies used to get up to that and thats without considering harmonics and poor RF filters.

Hi guys,

we are a german power supply company and bought us a DJI Mavic Pro to inspect our 220/380kV power lines and towers.
Does anyone knows how close we can flight at our power lines / towers?
Currently we tried it with five meters away without any problems. But could we get closer, for pictures with more details?
Only if we get to close to the tribe of the towers, we sometimes got some compass failures.
But that is no problem, cause we are only allowed to fly, when we can see the drone. So we can act fast if there is a problem.

Thanks.
Nico

Here are some pictures with power off



and on

I have powerlines near my home like that.  I simply always make sure I don't put the powerlines in between the remote and the drone, to avoid any interference.

FatherXmas Posted at 2017-11-13 18:12
Keep in mind the primary high voltage lines (in the US anyway) are 500,000 volts and the secondaries are 161,000 volts.  Either one would pretty much vaporize your AC if you made contact.

it would have to ground out, which would not happen just by touching a line.. he would have to jump an insulator at the tower or find some other path for the juice...

either way flying around high tension lines seems a bit risky and frought with liability but to each their own

there are old pilots and bold pilots, but no old bold pilots....

Great to know.