Dutch police are testing Birds of Prey to see how good they are at catching illegal drones

[G+_George Kozi]

Originally shared by Weirdopedia.org

 

Dutch police are testing Birds of Prey to see how good they are at catching illegal drones.

[G+_Paul Dail]

Here Kitty Kitty...

[G+_Keith Mallett]

That's cool... Until it rips out the drone's guts for lunch... Not sure the drones were built for that type of challenge!

[G+_Robert Moreno]

Isn't this animal cruelty? Those propellers have to hurt like a mofo.

[G+_George Kozi]

easily prevented: hard leather "socks" wold do it.

[G+_Ben Reese]

It seems people are going about this drone scare all wrong. They're too distracted by "DRONES ARE BAD" to see that drones capable of carrying explosive payloads might be bad.

 

If they're trying to keep a Syma out of the airport then go with the bird/net/whatever. If they're trying to keep the terrorists drone carrying explosives out of the airport, they'll have to go back to the shotgun idea. Even that might not be enough though...

[G+_610GARAGE]

Ben Reese A drone would be the worst platform for such a purpose. An rc plane would have a greater load capacity, faster, and more robust. And the technology has been around for decades. And yet, I have never heard of an outcry of terrorist using rc planes.

 

Just goes to show, its not what could happen, it's what sounds the most scarry.

[G+_George Kozi]

Rubbish. The EU drone regulations are far more permissive than anything around the world. That doesn't mean that the sky should be the new Wild West. For us, Government is not the enemy.

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregorymcneal/2015/03/23/european-drone-regulations-are-about-to-get-smarter-and-more-permissive/#47e3317526c7

[G+_Ben Reese]

610bob?? there's not really any reason a fixed wing can't fall into the "drone" label, but I completely agree. Many of the "drones" (I starting to hate that term even more and more) that Google and Amazon are experimenting with are as much fixed wing as they are multi-rotor. ?

 

But I agree with what you're saying. Quadcopters are easy to fly (for most people), so they get all the press.

[G+_Brandon Cook]

Wow. And they say Open Carry people are paranoid.

[G+_George Kozi]

Okay, what exactly is wrong with this? The Police doing its job? The job that we as a society ask them to do and pay them to do?  Do we want them to be prepared to tackle this drone thing should need arise, or do we want them unprepared and going "geez Bubba, what's that buzzing whatchamadooda up in the air"?

[G+_Ben Reese]

Well, as was discussed... There probably won't ever be a real problem with quadcopters, but that's what everyone is trying to stop. The biggest risk is someone taking a video of their neighbors sunbathing.

 

The problem with this solution is that props hurt when you get hit - especially if those props are holding up a "drone" big enough to actually cause damage. Not that I care that much about birds, but they're unlikely to get away without serious damage.

[G+_610GARAGE]

Ben Reese Hey man birds are cool. But yea, it's more hype than problem, which is a problem. It causes people to look down on something simply because they perceive it as "bad". Having these ridiculous solutions that are always talked about reinforces those bad feelings toward MRs. If the police are looking at ways to take down a quad, then they must be bad. Kindof like bitcoin or torrents.

 

Lets be honest, most people grab onto FUD like a security blanket. Why understand something when we can fear it.

 

This solution is also really bad for the birds. Bird legs are rather thin and there bones are holo. So a large carbon fiber blade could snap, if not sever a bird's leg.

 

It would also be trivial to get the bird to release the quad. 10kv would teach the bird to never grab a quad again. Which is also mean.

 

George Kozi We also have tools to take down drones. We came up with it in world war II (or was it one). Anyway, it's flack. Use a shotgun with birdshot or even rubber shot and any quad will come down. Sure, not elegant, not perfect, but I don't think it will be such a huge problem that we would need another solution.

[G+_George Kozi]

who said the police isn't investing in drones? The police around here have drones already. As for stupid ideas, you can't know until you try something. And looking at that, the bird plucked that thing right out of the air. Birds like that are used in airports too to keep other birds away from the runaway. By the logic mentioned previously, that should also be a stupid idea, because you could shoot the intruding birds, or blast a Donald Trump speech at them through some sprekers. This thing is just something people are looking at. Who knows if it's a bad idea or not? I suspect that the aversion to this may also come from the fact that a very old technique is used to disable the latest tech. The dumb animal claws the chip... There's something about that that disturbs us. Perhaps it's the fact that after all our technological advances, Mother Nature is still the Boss. A while ago I posted something about one drone netting another drone in the air, and everyone went "wow"

[G+_George Kozi]

The trainers of those bird say: " "What I find fascinating is that birds can hit the drone in such a way that they don't get injured by the rotors. They seem to be whacking the drone right in the centre so they don't get hit; they have incredible visual acuity and they can probably actually see the rotors."