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abramthrust t1_je2cccw wrote

Reply to comment by CygnusX-1-2112b in How racing drones are used as improvised missiles in Ukraine - They are light, fast and cheap by speckz

FPV pilot (recreational) here.

The reason you don't see more FPV drones used in attacks is that they are quite difficult to fly, and as such skilled enough pilots are relatively hard to come by.

I am fairly certain that the FPV drone attacks we are watching are from people who were pilots before the war and are using the skills they already have.

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CygnusX-1-2112b t1_je2elch wrote

So while this is possible, I'm not quite convinced. Having owned a few cheaper FPV drones, and having a friend who is pretty deep in the hobby, I can say that it's not easy, but it's not a skill any more difficult to learn then good marksmanship, and it's a very innocuous one to learn with purchases that won't raise any red flags. A years time (the time since these drones started being used in combat) is plenty of time to learn how to reliably ram an FPV drone in roughly the area you want.

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Lint_baby_uvulla t1_je2vzr3 wrote

future

got it, AI autonomous murder bots will target FPV pilots in the first waves.

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slowslownotbad t1_je52bvl wrote

Now I really want to try an FPV drone. Former military pilot, I still think I’m hot shit, haven’t thought about aircraft in ages.

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abramthrust t1_je5ar04 wrote

They fly less like an aircraft and more like the most manuverable helicopter you've ever imagined.

Doubly so for the ones capable of 3D flight model (props can spin backward)

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[deleted] t1_je83h25 wrote

They’re fun as hell bro buy a controller and velocidrone on the computer and practice a bit then buy one!!

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IronicBread t1_je46rwh wrote

Nah that's not it, doesn't take long to learn and you can train using simulators. Learning to fly them isn't a big barrier to entry.

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mike772772 t1_je38lz0 wrote

Ahahaha you ain’t lying I got mine 2 months ago and can barely go half throttle lol scary fast and so much fun

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870223 t1_je53rsm wrote

So you're saying 9/11 was done by folks who were willing to go to flight school but FPV is too hard?

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abramthrust t1_je5acx2 wrote

TBH, yes.

They both take about the same pilot training (hrs wise) but FPV is far less destructive (and headline grabbing) than hijacking a plane full of people.

As a bonus*, the plane is already a bomb with all the fuel onboard. FPV terrorist has to make his own warhead.

*"bonus" is a highly subjective word here.

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870223 t1_je5eh4w wrote

Fair.

But can kerosine melt steel beams?

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abramthrust t1_je5fmab wrote

>But can kerosine melt steel beams?

Assuming you're not just memeing:

Not a mettalurgist, but IIRC it's can't fully melt structural steel, but it can weaken it until it no longer has the excess load bearing capacity to remain stable.

If Memeing: no one has conclusively proven that LiPo battery fires didn't cause the world trade center collapse...

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[deleted] t1_je83e28 wrote

Dude it took me like a week of playing with the simulator to be able to fly well enough to do something like that, it doesn’t really take any skill to fly a drone straight to a target

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