Drone in Tampa Florida Area - sighting

I was wondering when I would see it in this area....

I have seen all types of aircraft in this area. We have Macdill/CENTCOM/USSOCOM so we see all sorts of things.

My wife just called me to tell me she something weird flying very slow while she was driving. She tried to pull over to get a picture. As she was stopping she was tracking it and she said it slowly picked up speed and was gone. Not ultra fast but just accelerated at a quick pace and she lost it. I asked her about a picture and she said she was trying to figure out what it was and simply forgot....

What she described was a basic drone...no cockpit...looked like a mini upside down airliner. She said it was the size of a normal plane with so it as not a remote toy/etc.

Anyone seen or heard anything odd in this area today?

reply to post by esdad71


From what I read MacDill is looking at using drones for mid-air refueling instead of the big tankers. Pic of the drone that she probably saw (due to the upside down description).

Macdill drone refueling

Back in about 1982 I landed at a little FBO in Brockport NY. When I went to pay for the gas there was a sign at the counter warning that there was a RC plane meet near by and one of the planes that they were flying was a B52 powered with four chain saw engines. The sign said it had a wingspan of 28 ft -- my airplane had a wingspan of 32 feet. Sooooooooo.... In 1982 the technology existed for some guy to build a 4 engine 28 foot wide remote controlled airplane in his basement. Last fall I was watching some local flyers flying RC planes that were about 10 ft from spinner to tail.

Drones are not that hard to build -- actually you can just take a model plane and change the name to drone.

Or there is something like this.

Originally posted by spyder550
Drones are not that hard to build -- actually you can just take a model plane and change the name to drone.

I don't think the overall technology for drone aerial operation was the bottleneck in making their concept a working reality. I think it has been much more driven by the technology they attach to the drone to make it useful. Now with ultra high res cameras, computer facial recognition software, advances in FLIR, advances in audio collection and isolation software, etc all available to the operators, the drones are actually worth getting into the skies to the government and military.

I'm not quite that paranoid.

Then you run into what difference is it between a police officer in a car or a helicopter or one operating a drone. This is why I support the ACLU

It was not an RC. It was flying in the SE of downtown STPetersburg which made me think of Macdill. Like I said, we see ALL kinds of things coming and going day and night and for training and my wife can tell the difference between the two. It was larger than size wise a "Cessna" by comparing the size and altitude of the ones that fly to the beaches with the tails for advertising.

I also know that there is a DHS facility that is being completed and used in Pinellas County so maybe some type of test for urban testing. Those articles just dropped about NYC and would think Tampa would be a no brainer since we run a few different wars and many ops there. Not sure. Just wondering if anyone has seen one in the area.

reply to post by esdad71


Yes as a matter of fact I’ve seen a couple and you better get used to it because there are going to be a lot more. It is the new cctv. Universities use them, security contractors use them, government, police, and even citizens if you got the dough for a license. The ones used for surveillance are the size of a house fly or yellow jacket and sometimes even resemble them. While others are as big as a bi plane and can maintain flight for weeks at 10,000 ft. while taking photos at such a high resolution it can read the newspaper your holding. As long as you have money anyone could get a certification. Here is a link of the non classified and civilian drones from FAA Federal Aviation Administration you may find useful.
www.eff.org...