Tested: Taking SenseFly's Personal Spy Drone For a Spin Above California

Rich sex fiends that have a voyeur fetish anyone?

...and also completely illegal to fly autonomous aircraft in the national airspace without explicit permission from FAA(COA, and even then only by a government entity) . What's FAA's hot line phone number?

how sweet would it be to take one of these with a live video feed on an offshore fishing trip?

Its illegal to fly a tiny 80-centimeter wingspan plane at 100 meters up now? I've shot rockets higher than that.

It is a SPY drone....who cares if it's legal or not.

It is totally illegal to fly this drone without an authorization from the FAA. FAA and Transport Canada are working on the writing of more advanced regulations for unmanned aerial vehicles. But for the moment, you have to submit an application to request for the permission to fly. Applications are evaluated on a case-by-case basis and you have to make the demonstration that you can fly your drone safely without being a danger for the population below and the other users of the national airspace. You should think about it twice before you fly that thing without authorization:
1) if the drone causes an accident, you won't be covered by any insurance and you will sued for breaking FAA or TC regulations;
2) everytime people like you fly without authorization, it is done to the detrimental of the scientists or people that started a business in the drone industry. It forces the FAA and TC to make regulations even stricter that will prevent us to do our job correctly.

I'd be you, I would remove that paper ASAP from the webiste or you may have to respond to the FAA very soon if they hear about your experiment... Good luck.

Under 1000 feet above surface, the FAA does not require authorization. That is why we are allowed to fly model aircraft, launch rockets, and fly kites without the USAF coming in and blowing the object out of the sky. The objects are not a hazard to regular flight paths. They travel below standard flight altitude. Please read regulations before you go around spreading fear and malcontent. Ignorance kills.

Patron, you beat me to it on the 1000 foot thing.

I think depthhoar's comment was relating to UAVs in particular, not to the use of air space. Different rules govern their use. Also, there's the problem of not being able to manually assume control of the thing in the case of an emergency.

Can I still fly a paper airplane?

www.tc.faa.gov/its/worldpac/techrpt/ar097.pdf Google is god And U are all outside that 10%

@patron " Ignorance kills."
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I agree with that. Might want to educate yourself in this case. Current FAA regulations are really messed up. They don't care if you fly an RC aircraft or tethered aircraft (kite, balloon etc.) as an individual. However, even in case of the RC, if you use it as a business, and not as a hobbyist, FAA will shut you down, regardless how low you fly. That's why there were multiple cases around the country when FAA bullied RC areal photography businesses and forced them to be shut down using threats of fines and lawsuits. Now as soon as you put an autopilot in any model aircraft it becomes a UAV (by the way, there is no such a thing as drones, except for the male bees) and in that case you are not authorized to fly in the national airspace except you get a Certificate of Authorization or Waiver from FAA (COA) which you won't unless you are a government entity (police, forestry service etc.) You can, however, fly in a restricted airspace and that's how responsible UAV companies and operators have been surviving this far, but it is not easy to get time allocated and there are not that many of them around.

PopSci, just a suggestion, maybe you can defeat the spammers with a simple algorithm such as:
When a username reports "x" number of comments as spam successfully, that user is then given the ability to remove spam mailings rather than just report them. Then whatever vetting process your side does to review spam complaints, you carry on doing checking the reader-deleted spams to make sure they are not abusing that power. Maybe this would improve the reading experience for your readers and make it a pointless task for the spammers to bother uploading comments (unless spammers are automatically generating PopSci logons and submitting spam, which maybe they are?).

feel like the right to privacy is slightly invaded here... the idea ppl can send drones over ur house and ur neighborhood is kinda freaky. i mean there is already satellites that can do that, but if this is something pretty much anyone can use, ya don't really like that idea

or make an algorithm that blocks users from commenting if they make more than 10 comments an hour

The difference between a UAV and a radio controlled airplane is that the operator of an RC plane will see the other aircraft and take evasive action. Also, how easy would it be to load a UAV with a toxin and program it to fly over a parade? Mohamed would be miles away by then. Or the Zetas could load it with coke, fly it over the border and pick it up at the assigned location.

THAT'S why the FAA bans these things... Sometimes life is a little more complicated than, "Cool! I want to build one!"

@android
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FAA doesn't allow UAVs in the national airspace because it is a government organization, and as such, slow to react to any changes. I don't think a terrorist would really care if FAA did not allow him to fly in a national airspace.

By the way, smuggling drugs by a UAV would take a LOT of trips for any sizable amount.

OMG! - Sky Paparazzi are enabled! I guess that explains the recent interest by Malibu celebrities for barrage balloons (stationary blimps), laser targeting optics, and pulse rifles. Johnny Depp has it right: The only way to maintain your privacy these days is to go ahead and buy the island!

I can tell no one actually went to research this from the maker, it is simply a flying platform, you can customize it to fit your needs, there is a video camera option as well as still photography, it is a radio controlled flying wing, which is set up for manual operation, but yes you can program a course which can then be monitored real time and changed on the fly so you are essentially in control the entire time, the flight time is only 30 minuts and the range is 2km which isn't that far when you're talking about flying, so if you do see this thing snap a picture of you while you're having sex on your roof then you'll most likely be able to see the guy controlling it out of the back of his truck. there are other sensors available with this platform as well including Weather monitoring and atmospheric sampling, Pollution monitoring, 2D/3D Mapping (think about doing a land survey of your own property), and if you really just want an expensive toy, its good for Aerobatics, this is not going to swoop by your window and take a picture of you in the shower, you all need to think outside the box, the FAA isn't going to sue you or arrest you this wing is maybe 3ft wide and weighs a wopping 150grams, its a foam wing, maximum flight weight is 500grams. I've said my peace, I think this thing is awesome!