I’ve been debating a bit on whether or not to post this one - but I think it’s necessary - so here goes:

New technology is great.  It allows us to do things we previously thought impossible.  It empowers us to “push the envelope” if you will.

That being said, one of my favorite axioms came to mind after I read the PDN Article at left, namely: “Just because you can - doesn’t mean you should.”

First - I should say that I don’t know Jason Lam (the person selling these helicopters) nor is this aimed at him or critical of him.  Jason has EVERY right to sell his services and helicopters - unequivocally.

But I do think it’s a tad bit irresponsible for PDN (and perhaps Jason’s site as well) to fail to mention two very key things in their article/site:

1. Flying a remote control helicopter over New York City (as in the island of Manhattan) is ILLEGAL. (w/o a special permit - which is virtually impossible to obtain due to safety concerns.)

2. It’s extremely dangerous to fly such a helicopter (1. in general and 2. especially over a heavily populated place such as NYC.) Think of a flying blender if you will… if the operator/pilot makes a mistake the thing will crash or worse maim someone.

God forbid an errant radio signal interferes with the helicopter’s signal and the thing goes haywire (these things don’t exactly float down if you catch my drift.)

What I’m trying to say is:  you can kill someone (or yourself) if you don’t know what you’re doing.  Trying to fly a helicopter and trying to take pictures as well - is more that twice as dangerous! (more…)