Ah, stereotypes. Once they’ve solidified it’s surprisingly hard to shake them. When non-Australians think of a generic Aussie then, the chances are that a Crocodile Dundee type of character will spring to mind — a ‘Strine-speaking outdoorsman with a beer in hand. This group of Aussies aren’t helping the case, with a video posted by Australian drone retailer UAVme and featured by ABC News where a large multirotor lifts a guy in a lawn chair, beer in hand, over a lake to do some fishing.
Antics aside, having enough capacity to lift a person is pretty impressive. The drone in question appears to be a large hexacopter frame with rotors both below and above the boom, achieving an unusual dodecacopter configuration.
Of course we’re entertained by the sight, who wouldn’t envy them a spin under a drone in the relative safety of an environment where an unscheduled landing merely means getting wet? It seems Austrailia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority isn’t quite so happy though, as ABC reports the usual chorus of condemnation. Entertainingly though it’s unclear whether or not our plucky adventurer — named as [Sam Foreman] — has in fact broken any laws given that he’s not flown in restricted airspace, over people or habitation, or above the legal altitude.
This isn’t the first such story we’ve brought you from Down Under, back in 2016 an Aussie landed in hot water for picking up a Bunnings sausage in a bun with his drone.
Thanks [Tricon] for the tip.
That fish being caught was faked. It had already been gutted.
That’s just how good we are at fishing
I know a Bloke who caught a flat head in wyangala dam a few years back.
A mate of mine swears he caught a Wobbegong there on a king tide…..
Here in France we catch the fish already steamed and seasoned.
Well … in ‘Merica our fish is already canned, metal cans that is.
that thing would scare the fish. not good if you want to catch them.
It’s not the fail that kills you, it’s the crocs in the river ripping you to pieces
More like:
It’s not the fall that kills you, it’s the 100lb drone with whirling razor blades that crashes onto you.
Loved this. Awesome. Next the passenger needs to fly himself around the pond.
Onya boyz. …Aussie Aussie Aussie oi oi oi… Casa should leave it lie and do something useful with their time…Blecky it was never about the gutted fish….also love the throw to “not behd good soize” meme doing the rounds presently…
So at the end, the “landing” was clearly just the takeoff played in reverse. I’d love to know how it actually landed. Like Bootstrap above, my first thought was “Wowwa, I’d be afraid of crocks if I had to come down in that water”. Maybe I’m just demonstrating my ignorance, but aren’t crocks pretty much found all over Australia? Or do Aussies simply have the world’s largest balls? ;)
No, crocs are mainly found in the top half of Aus.
Australia’s got the deadliest snakes, ,most of the top deadliest spiders, our waterways have crocs, sharks and box jellyfish.
We simply say “Eh, she’ll be right, mate” and get on with life.
Not to mention drop bears… they’re real scary.
The baby red belly black snake that slithered past my feet while I was working on the linux box in the back corridor was a surprise, to be sure, but I’d prefer that to a drop bear any day.
LOOK UP AND LIVE!!!
Amen brother! While the US Southeast doesn’t have nearly as many ways to kill one as Australia does; there are still a few creatures like spiders, snakes, and alligators that will and we realize it as part of life and move on.
Sometimes bubble wrap and pillows won’t prevent one from getting hurt or killed.
Northeast here, we don’t need to worry about alligators and not much about snakes or spiders. We do have bears, and likewise, I don’t give them much thought when out hiking or camping. Alligators/crocks are still pretty scary… one of those “if I had to die, that would be near the bottom of my list of ways to go” kinda things! ;)
It was a Water Reservoir, not a creek. Probably no crocks.
Truely impressive catching a salt water fish in a fresh water damn 200km from the coast.
Impressive. It is like minority report! The ripples are backward!
+1
regarding the project, this is so unbelievable cool!
I don’t really care about the landing. But the minority report reference is very well executed and noticed. Wonder how they really landed…
Non Aussies won’t understand. Being so far the equator means we use big fans to keep us attached to the earth.
In Aus we love a good bit of legal red tape around everything we do, particularly when it is any type of vehicle or building. I hate to say it but because these guys are flying a non-fixed wing manned machine they will probably get treated as an unregistered helicopter and an unregistered heli pilot. That’s really scarey legal territory.
What about paramotors? They have similar motors? And fly without licenses
Generally, you are much safer with a paramour!
My paramour and I have a safety word we use when things get rough.
embedded and linked videos require a registration on a social media site. Me no like.
Video was about a fish saving both drunk dude with chair and his drone from falling into the Australian sky abyss.
Hmm, didn’t for me, I’m definitely not logged into Facebook
just one motor failure away of getting a serious headache
A vehicle with that many rotors and that much lifting capacity should have enough redundancy to cope with a motor or rotor failure to ‘gently’ ditch the fellow in the chair and make its own controlled landing.
I mean … technically he was flying over at least one person ;-)
> Not to mention drop bears… they’re real scary.
Actually, drop bears are a US thing… California to be exact…
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-11/police-patrol-car-struck-by-falling-bear-in-california/11403190
Bugger… They’ve migrated…
Ah VB… memories.
People keep forgetting. No matter whose government, whatever is not regulated is forbidden. Couple that with the upward path for bureaucrats, and you have the prescription for jumping on anything fun.
Some countries take the exact opposite position. Whatever is not regulated is permitted by default.
The only damage done was to CASA’s sense of control of the skies.