Drone News: Drone Ban, Green Day Concert, FLIR & AirData, 3 Suspects Caught by a Drone, & SkyeBrowse

Welcome to your weekly UAS news update we have 5 stories for you: Drone ban updates, Green Day concert paused for drone flight, FLIR and AirData partner, 3 men in a stolen vehicle were found using a drone, and SkyeBrowse updates everyone to Lite Processing!

First up, The house has voted to pass the Countering CCP Drones Act. This is a setback that was expected but it changes little. Representative Stefanik stated during her speech “Over the last seven years, the US government has publicly confirmed time and time again that DJI drones are being used to collect information on US critical infrastructure and pose significant risks to US national security,” Not sure where the evidence is, but we’d love to see it. The Countering CCP drones act was also passed with the House NDAA, so the bill has already passed before. Both bills still must still go through the Senate prior to landing on the President’s desk. It doesn’t matter what vertical you’re in, now is a great time to weigh in on this issue, and educate your senators and representatives. If you’re having trouble with where to start, head over to the DAA website, which is linked below. Next up, Green Day rushed off stage this week after security spotted a drone in the stadium. Detroit Police confirmed the interruption to the show was due to a drone and that the operator was located and detained. Currently, it’s unclear what drone was flying or how close it was to the band. An important note was that this did not qualify for a stadium TFR, and no TFR was in place. This brings up an interesting situation where a Part 107 pilot could legally operate over the stadium with a category 1 or 2 drone. We’ll keep you updated when we see more. Third, FLIR and AirData UAV have partnered to provide SIRAS flight tracking. If you’re unfamiliar with the FLIR SIRAS, it’s a quadcopter with a 640x512 FLIR Hadron series sensor designed for industry and public safety. The integration with AirData uses SIRAS’s offline log-export and isn’t connected to the internet. For users of the SIRAS, AirData is a great tool and one that we use for tracking our aircraft’s flights, battery cycles, and determining what when wrong if things do. Fourth, a shout out to some students from Gaston County Police. Gaston County police used a drone this week to assist in recovering a stolen vehicle and arresting 3 men who fled the stolen vehicle after a car chase. The drone was utilized after officers lost sight of the vehicle when it drove into a soybean field. A Gaston County Police Officer was part of the drone unit, and launched to determine where the vehicle went. Once the police officer found the vehicle, they began to track the suspects, locating them in the field attempting to evade police. All 3 suspects were taken into custody without incident. Great use of the drone! Next, SkyeBrowse has updated everyone on the Freemium plan to Lite processing! This will increase the quality of all models from folks with free accounts. If you're unfamiliar with SkyeBrowse, the program uses video from nearly anything to make 3D models. You can sign up for free and start making models immediately. Models can be accessed on any device and can be easily marked up for measurement and shared as needed. And to wrap up, check out this clip for something coming next week… https://dronexl.co/2024/09/10/us-house-votes-to-ban-new-dji-drones/ https://dronexl.co/2024/09/05/green-day-interrupted-mid-song-by-drone-threat-at-detroit-concert/ https://www.flir.com/suas/ https://airdata.com/about https://www.instagram.com/p/C_jIAlFTnbf/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&img_index=1