# Just to make our skies even friendlier to medevacs...



## mycrofft (Dec 16, 2011)

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/15/9476623-domestic-drones-coming-soon-over-a-home-near-you

Imagine coming into an emergency's airspace, made it past the newsies and the LE helos, when in comes a drone being piloted from Travis AFB, Minot ND, or a Safe and Undisclosed Location, VA? Those craft are designed not to be detected.


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## Akulahawk (Dec 16, 2011)

Those drones have excellent camera systems that allow them to fly well above the news, LE, and medical evac helos and still get pretty good images. I doubt that most of the time we'd have those aircraft flying above 15,000 feet, let alone a couple thousand feet AGL. I'd be more concerned with domestic Gen Aviation traffic flying VFR in the area hitting one of those drones than anything else. If they were flown at 25,000 feet (approx ceiling for them) they'd be right in IFR airspace and it might be a bit easier to deconflict air traffic around the drone.


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## rwik123 (Dec 16, 2011)

I don't understand how this is an issue. A predator drone isn't "stealth". It would still be monitored by air traffic control. Having a drone up there isn't going to endanger medflights. The service ceiling of a drone is 25,000 feet. When's the last time a helicopter went that high?


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## mycrofft (Dec 16, 2011)

*Good then.*

Then sort of like fearing airliners getting into the act. Got it.
Drones are designed to be "low observability", that's why they have the "V" tail and rounded surfaces and relatively small camera ports, to cut radar "corners" and reflectivity.


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## usafmedic45 (Dec 16, 2011)

> If they were flown at 25,000 feet (approx ceiling for them) they'd be right in IFR airspace and it might be a bit easier to deconflict air traffic around the drone.



Class A airspace starts at 18,000.


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## usafmedic45 (Dec 16, 2011)

mycrofft said:


> http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/15/9476623-domestic-drones-coming-soon-over-a-home-near-you
> 
> Imagine coming into an emergency's airspace, made it past the newsies and the LE helos, when in comes a drone being piloted from Travis AFB, Minot ND, or a Safe and Undisclosed Location, VA? Those craft are designed not to be detected.



Hell....a lot of airports already carry NOTAMs about heavy UAV traffic.  It's not that big of a deal.  Even the "stealth" aircraft F-117 and B-2 have to be tracked by civilian radar here in the states unless they are above a certain altitude or in certain airspace. The UAVs are designed to be non-detectable by someone on the ground looking up since most of the people we would be using them against here aren't going to have radar of their own.


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## mycrofft (Dec 16, 2011)

*I'm just waiting to have a drone pull abreast my airliner window...*

with "Have A Nice Day" chalked on the side.


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## usafmedic45 (Dec 16, 2011)

mycrofft said:


> with "Have A Nice Day" chalked on the side.


I don't think any of these drones could catch an airliner.  However, I was on a Cessna one time that was used as a practice intercept target for F-16s.  The pilot of the lead F-16 hailed us on the radio and our pilot responded with "Hey GI!  Me love you long time!".  Much hilarity ensued....


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## mycrofft (Dec 16, 2011)

*HAhahahahah*

Ah, yeah.


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## quewiwi (Dec 16, 2011)

I was thinking about this the other day when I heard about the drone being captured in Iran...if you can;t see the damn things how do you keep from running into them?!?! And now, I have a better idea...thanks!

But what do you all think about the local and possibly national gov't using these devices to snoop on us?


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## Chimpie (Dec 16, 2011)

quewiwi said:


> But what do you all think about the local and possibly national gov't using these devices to snoop on us?



I guarantee they already are in use.  Maybe not to snoop on us, but I would be that training missions happen here frequently.

I remember reading or seeing on tv that they are being used in disaster zones.


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