I know Jow Forums has an obsession with door kickers and shooters, but let's talk about the people doing the initial reconnaissance to make the plan for the shooters to follow.
Let's say you're a vigilante or some low budget anti-poaching (mercenary) unit operating in Africa that does not have access to the same ultra-fancy tech that a big first world government would have.
>What is the minimum altitude above the ground you would need for a small aircraft (cessna, piper cub, ultralight, or simiar) or drone to not be heard by whoever you're observing? I know the altitude is still probably within visual range, so assume they will be flying at night. Assume it's a remote area with little background noise at night. >Is there a commercially available camera capable to zooming far enough to see people on the ground, and able to fit on the aircraft of your choice, from that altitude? If not, what level of detail would be possible?
Why do you give a fuck about stealth, youre a drone in africa
Cameron Barnes
If you want a greater challenge, then you're trying to monitor organized crime and drug cartel activity in the US. What do you do now?
Sebastian Sullivan
Maybe you're trying to catch them red handed, or it isn't strategically sound to nab them immediately so you need to make sure they don't change their behavior.
Kayden Cook
>operating in Africa A drone should be g2g at any altitude provided the locals aren't taking a break from huffing shit, chewing khat, etc.
Matthew Martin
my friend has a DJI drone. Anywhere above a few hundred feet and you can't hear it. you can fly it at like 1000ft and zoom in like a motherfucker with that 4K camera too.
Michael Parker
I’ll dump some photos I took with my parrot bebop. $400 drone, okay camera, max altitude of about 400 feet. Max range is about a mile, but it has to be LOS. I bought a $20 flight plan program that let’s me plan a flight path, altitudes, direction of the camera etc. with the flight plan LOS is not required, I’ve sent it out about 3 miles, and it returned to within feet of where it took off from. If it loses signal it will return to home, but it returns at the current alltitude which can have your drone wrapped up in a tree real fast. Other drones let you set an altitude for the drone to ride up to before returning home after a lost signal. That is a great feature.
Thanks, how high up was it when that pic was taken?
Any special modifications or parts needed to make it fly silently?
Jaxson Moore
That was about 300 feet up. I’m not sure about any noise reducing modifications. You can barely hear it when it’s up to 400. And that’s when it’s directly overhead, offset it a little and ok can’t hear it at all
Lucas Allen
Thanks for the info. Given how overhyped drones are nowadays I appreciate hearing honest assessments and seeing real footage.
Did you make any modifications to the dorne at all?
Oliver Peterson
Parrot bebop 2 is the name of the drone. It weighs about 4 pounds. Battery life gives it about 25 minutes of fly time. Batteries take about 45 minutes to fully charge. I recommend buying a spare battery, and you can almost keep the thing up indefinitely, minus the time it takes you to land it and change out the battery. Parrot also offers a neat fixed wing drone for longer ranges called the Disco
This is the disco. I watched a YouTube video where someone loaded a flight plan, and it traveled like 80 km from island to island. You launch it, and it flies in a holding pattern above you, until you are ready to manually control it. If you load a flight plan it will automatically follow it. This one can be had for around $800
I wonder if methanol fuel cells would be a good technology for small surveillance drones. Way more energy density than electric batteries and way smaller and more quiet than internal combustion engines.
A landing that requires taxiing looks more complicated than a simple vertical "drop" that the software mostly takes care of, not to mention there's little stopping droneniggers from trying to land in clearly inappropriate places (like areas with too short of a runway; being able to judge runway length is already far above most of their mental capabilities).
>The Lockheed YO-3 "Quiet Star" was an American single-engined, propeller-driven aircraft that was developed for battlefield observation during the Vietnam War. It was designed to be as quiet as possible, and was intended to observe troop movements in near-silence during the hours of darkness.
Just use one of these with thermal optics at night.
That or use an An-2 and cut the engines before you reach the target and just glide past them, the way the night witches did during WW2.
Please tell me you don't believe some software can "calculate" the appropriate grass patch to land on. It's fixed wing so it will require some kind of taxiing distance.
Brody Harris
>being able to judge runway length
What in the name of fuck are you talking about
Parker Reed
Literally look it up on youtube. You will see exactly how easy it is to takeoff and land.
Luis Ross
>No gear whatsoever >Hand launched >Auto-landed
Why the fuck do you keep saying "taxiing"? Do you even know what that means?
Chase Brown
STFU dronenigger
Jason Edwards
>How to land the Parrot Disco
>When the drone is between 20 to 30 ft off the ground, press Land on the Skycontroller 2 to begin auto-landing.
>Parrot Disco reverses thrust to reduce speed, noses up right before touch down and lands.
Jason Robinson
>Belarus has a AT drone Is the weapon hooked up to a computer or is hitting with this simple luck?
I don’t know. I’m sure they have a simple crosshair on the pilots screen. Probably even a range estimator
Andrew Myers
Now make a RPO version so the bumblebee can really fly.
Josiah Jackson
Saw the youtube video. It look impressive for what it is.
How do drones transmit data (images) back in realtime? I hear “wifi” being thrown around a lot but I don’t see how that would work over long distances considering how spotty wifi coverage is in most homes.
Cooper Hall
Idk why they can't develop radio transmitters for drones so they can be connected to cell towers
