Mystery Drones

[RM2]

Long ago when I was a teenager there used to be a local radio station that would replay the entire radio broadcast every Halloween

[RM2]

It really is sort of ridiculous at this point that the Feds provide no real info when an airport was now interfered with: An airport in Orange County, New York, was forced to shut down on Friday night for 1 hour as mysterious drone activity blocked the airspace, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Saturday, saying, "This has gone too far.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/myste ... ewsVerpone

[Holman]

At this point I imagine that there are a lot of copycat dronesters out there looking to join in the fun. Add some Christmas lights and you can try to pull off the climax to Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

[jztemple2]

Everybody is getting in on the act. This is from today's Facebook post by the guy at papercartridges.com. Note that last line

[Jeff V]

Is this by chance near Trump's Jersey golf club?

There were sightings near his NJ golf course, yes.

OK, just recon then. The purpose will be revealed when the orange POS plays his next round there.

[Holman]

Forgive the Twitter, but this is hilarious.

Spoiler:

Maryland GOP governor Larry Hogan posted phone video of bright lights in the sky over his residence, declaring that it was high time for the government to get to the bottom of this crisis.

It's hard to see what he's on about because he won't hold the phone still, but replies from people who spent time looking closely indicate that the strange bright lights are, besides a couple of airplanes, the constellation Orion and the stars Sirius and Procyon.

[Smoove_B]

Yeah, it's insane to see on local social media how many people are clearly only paying attention to the night sky for the first time. So many people posting videos of things that are clearly airplanes, helicopters or planets. There are absolutely drones flying around, but when you can clearly hear the noises associated with helicopters or airplanes, I am even more convinced education is in dire need of modernization.

[Sudy]

Last night an ISS astronaut also posted this stunning photo of myriad drones he took with a 30-second exposure utilizing tracking that compensates for the pitch rate of the space station.



https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments ... _comments/

[Sudy]

[Holman]

Yeah, it's insane to see on local social media how many people are clearly only paying attention to the night sky for the first time. So many people posting videos of things that are clearly airplanes, helicopters or planets. There are absolutely drones flying around, but when you can clearly hear the noises associated with helicopters or airplanes, I am even more convinced education is in dire need of modernization.

Lots of people are also legitimately unaware that, under decent night-sky conditions, you can sometimes see satellites flying overhead. And there are a lot more satellites up now than there were even five or ten years ago.

[$iljanus]

It's hard to see what he's on about because he won't hold the phone still, but replies from people who spent time looking closely indicate that the strange bright lights are, besides a couple of airplanes, the constellation Orion…

ORION PIRATES! It’s the Mistress of the Winter Constellations!

[Smoove_B]

After gaslighting us last week and saying nothing at all was going on, the feds are now saying they're sending resources to help.

I wonder what changed?

[Fardaza]

OK, just recon then. The purpose will be revealed when the orange POS plays his next round there.

This is a totally unnecessary attack on the President elect. If you want to talk politics, go to R&P.

Otherwise I'm going to have to start talking about the cackling, word salad creating, airhead that the drones can't seem to find any reason worth wasting their time even looking for.

[hepcat]

Otherwise I'm going to have to start talking about the cackling, word salad creating, airhead that the drones can't seem to find any reason worth wasting their time even looking for.

That was a totally unnecessary attack on the president elect. Please take that crap to R&P.

[Sudy]

[hepcat]

And that was a totally unnecessary attack on popcorn.

Anyway, about those drones. Anyone else think Johnny Five is involved?

[geezer]

OK, just recon then. The purpose will be revealed when the orange POS plays his next round there.

This is a totally unnecessary attack on the President elect. If you want to talk politics, go to R&P.

Otherwise I'm going to have to start talking about the cackling, word salad creating, airhead that the drones can't seem to find any reason worth wasting their time even looking for.

Misogyny much?

[Smoove_B]

At the risk of throwing gas on the fire, it should surprise no one (given the trajectory here) that it has absolutely become a political issue in NJ, with my local and state officials slinging all kinds of nonsense as a way to score points - as to be expected.

[LawBeefaroni]

I hear that the strict NJ gun laws are to blame.

[Smoove_B]

I hear that the strict NJ gun laws are to blame.

They're still pretty strict, but where I live they're are now at least two companies that are offering classes on CCW rules and regulations, as well as how to be prepared to blast now that you've been granted a CCW license in the state. Everything changed in 2022.

[YellowKing]

Went down the YouTube rabbit hole a bit on this today and didn't realize that federal law requires drone operators (even recreational) to broadcast remote ID.

So either these drones are in compliance with law - in which case, the feds know exactly who they belong to. Or they are not in compliance with the law, in which case the feds aren't doing jack shit to stop the illegal activity.

Neither scenario makes any sense, which is why a lot of folks suspect that these are US government aircraft. This would also explain why they can claim they have no clue where they're coming from while assuring you that they're absolutely not a threat.

[jztemple2]

Went down the YouTube rabbit hole a bit on this today and didn't realize that federal law requires drone operators (even recreational) to broadcast remote ID.

So either these drones are in compliance with law - in which case, the feds know exactly who they belong to. Or they are not in compliance with the law, in which case the feds aren't doing jack shit to stop the illegal activity.

Neither scenario makes any sense, which is why a lot of folks suspect that these are US government aircraft. This would also explain why they can claim they have no clue where they're coming from while assuring you that they're absolutely not a threat.

As I understand it, the purchaser of a recreational drone fills out a form with the drone info and submits it. So it's quite possible that the form was never submitted or it had false info.

[Alefroth]

Did you learn how the remote ID is transmitted and how close you have to be to receive it?

[Alefroth]

Looks like my drone which is intentionally 249g is under the requirement for remote ID.

[msduncan]

Two conflicting things bother me about this whole situation:

1. Some are being reported to be "SUV" sized. I don't know too many private drones that size. Actually I'm not familiar with any.

2. If they were military (testing) or foreign military (recon), you'd think they'd turn their lights off and not fly around with red and green blinking lights all over the place.

So I don't know what the heck is going on.

[Max Peck]

Apparently one thing that might be going on is that people on the ground are shining lasers at "mystery drones", while there has been an uptick in reports of pilots being hit in the eyes by lasers.

Perhaps some of these "mystery drones" are in fact much larger than SUVs.

[jztemple2]

Apparently one thing that might be going on is that people on the ground are shining lasers at "mystery drones", while there has been an uptick in reports of pilots being hit in the eyes by lasers.

I remember a case a few years ago when someone was deliberately shining a laser at incoming aircraft; the person went to jail. The feds are pretty serious about lasers and aircraft.

[RM2]

Last federal government I saw was that of 5000 reports they got 100 that remain unexplained. The rest are identified as legal drones or aircraft.

[YellowKing]

Yeah it definitely smacks a bit of the "scary clown" hysteria of a few years back.

[Holman]

As for "SUV-sized drones," people are famously bad at judging size, altitude, and speed of flying objects, especially at night. Evolution never had any reason for us to get good at that.

[Holman]

I've managed to train Reddit to show me tons of UFO discussions. It's my fault for clicking on videos.

People are getting just breathlessly excited over poor-quality camera vids of UAP's and "orbs" that a reasonable person would easily accept as aircraft or helicopters or mischief-making private drones. There are plenty of instances of people zooming way in to a point where distant aircraft lights get fuzzy and "orb-like" and then taking this as proof of alien intelligence. From there it's just a few steps to the conspiracy theories and numerology and Ancient Aliens shtick that seems to be the real force holding the discourse together.

I've seen a few somewhat more convincing videos, but then some of these have been exposed as already-known fakes from years past. It's not hard to remain skeptical of the "evidence" being presented.

[Max Peck]

[Holman]

People are saying stuff like "But police officers are saying these are unknown technology!" as if cops don't routinely identify cell phones as handguns.

[RM2]

Drone flying banned in some NJ areas.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/drone-updates ... =116936091

[GreenGoo]

At least crop circles were stationary and easily investigated.

[YellowKing]

So they're not a threat, we've determined they're a mix of hobbyists, commercial drones, and mistaken identity, but we're going to blow your ass out of the sky now ...... because security reasons?

[Smoove_B]

So they're not a threat, we've determined they're a mix of hobbyists, commercial drones, and mistaken identity, but we're going to blow your ass out of the sky now ...... because security reasons?

I think there's some hope that by enacting these policies it will cut down on the chaos goblins that are out flying drones for attention. I'm not so sure, but we'll see. It's been very rainy and overcast in my part of NJ these last few days and not surprisingly the number of sightings has plummeted.

It's going to be cold (but clear) tonight and then back to overcast tomorrow night so I'll be curious to see if there's an uptick in reports on the overnight.

Two conflicting things bother me about this whole situation:

1. Some are being reported to be "SUV" sized. I don't know too many private drones that size. Actually I'm not familiar with any.

I think you can chalk this up to people being unable to estimate size, especially when things are in the sky. Kinda similar to how people think the moon is "bigger" when it's closer, but it's actually just closer to the horizon.

2. If they were military (testing) or foreign military (recon), you'd think they'd turn their lights off and not fly around with red and green blinking lights all over the place.

Because of course you want to blend in. A drone flying in the sky without any lights is clearly up to no good. But if it has FAA compliant lights it must be legit.

[LawBeefaroni]

Went down the YouTube rabbit hole a bit on this today and didn't realize that federal law requires drone operators (even recreational) to broadcast remote ID.

So either these drones are in compliance with law - in which case, the feds know exactly who they belong to. Or they are not in compliance with the law, in which case the feds aren't doing jack shit to stop the illegal activity.

Neither scenario makes any sense, which is why a lot of folks suspect that these are US government aircraft. This would also explain why they can claim they have no clue where they're coming from while assuring you that they're absolutely not a threat.

As far as I know, and I've been legally flying a Mavic 2 Pro for 6 years or so, you are required to put your registration number on the drone physically. The drone is required broadcast a remote ID but this is easily disabled and not required for drones under 250 grams. In the event it is lost or crashes into something, this will allow the operator to be identified. Of course, anyone who doesn't care about operating legally won't register or put their number on their drone.


Regarding "SUV sized" drones, many commercial drones can have arrays that can be make them appear ro be greater in mass than they really are. Primarily light arrays but there are also spray drones, etc.

[Jeff V]

Otherwise I'm going to have to start talking about the cackling, word salad creating, airhead that the drones can't seem to find any reason worth wasting their time even looking for.

That was a totally unnecessary attack on the president elect. Please take that crap to R&P.

ANY attack on that POS is necessary.

[Jeff V]

Regarding "SUV sized" drones, many commercial drones can have arrays that can be make them appear ro be greater in mass than they really are. Primarily light arrays but there are also spray drones, etc.

I saw a drone light show in Wisconsin a few years ago and it was pretty amazing.