Colorado Drone Mystery Sightings Finally Might Be Solved

a reply to: BoscoMoney

There's actually quite a bit of industry along 80 in that area, along with airfields. If they're using a control vehicle, as speculated, they'd stay along 80 as long as possible.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I'm from here(lol). There's also Union Pacific.

a reply to: BoscoMoney

I could easily see a railroad hiring someone to use UAVs to inspect the tracks. A single UAV of this size would have hours of endurance, as well as decent cameras. And would save on man power.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I spose that's a possibility. I'm kind of enjoying this as its not politics, and though I may be chastised for saying it, its kind of a fun thing to research and look into, not exactly OMG LIFE THREATENING(!!!) One of the Wife's siblings called her earlier and asked her if we had heard about "the drones" because folks were starting to see a few around here. I told them about the threads here on ATS.

a reply to: BoscoMoney

We've been having fun tracking the air bridge to the Middle East the last few days. There's been a ton of movement going that way, and it's always interesting to track.

Remember the very first thread around Christmas where law enforcement ask the Air Force if they were involved

LOL you would have to get the command that was flying the drones,
ask another command even on the same base and they know nothing.

Same with the navy.

a reply to: shawmanfromny

Some drones use satellite comms for guidance and control.

Almost all of the drones in this class are military. It's simple and well understood tech. It's having access to the satellites with these capabilities that is umm...difficult...for civilians.

a reply to: shawmanfromny

I knew it!!!!

Posted it here on Dec 26!

www.abovetopsecret.com...

ETA - The very first time I heard about this, and where it was taking place, I said to myself...I'll bet it has to do with all the nukes in the area.

a reply to: Zaphod58

What application / website are you using to do this?

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

The ADS-B Exchange website with the military filter.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I've looked at that website, and it's always way out of date.

The same RC-135 RIVET JOINT has been airborne for about 3 weeks now. Refresh doesn't seem to fix it either.

originally posted by: Macenroe82
a reply to: burdman30ott6

Commercially available tech: 4.5-7 km

One of my fixed wings has a 90km transmitter range.
It’s 5 years old now, using hobby grade tech.

One of the drone companies I’ve contracted for, has a flight range in the 200 km+...on a single battery.


ETA- The amount of space needed to house all the drones internals is about the size of the palm of your hand.
Including an RTK GPS module.
Emlid makes an excellent, accurate down to the cm gps smaller than a credit card.

So is it safe to say that they’re using crossfire? 🤣

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Try clearing everything. It works great for me most of the time, but I periodically have to clear everything because it stops working.

originally posted by: burdman30ott6
a reply to: shawmanfromny

What's the effective remoter control distance on small drones such as these?

My DJI will easily go a couple miles.

Nobody admitting it's them??? Shoot one down and see who shouts the loudest. What is it with you lot. Surely the fliers (whoever they are) should inform the FAA as unknown craft could cause multiple problems, especially for small aircraft. Like who is responsible if one of the drones brings down a light aircraft and some one is killed.
I don't care who they are Military or not, secret or not, they MUST inform the air authorities to warn other craft that they are about. Never mind talking about this capability or that capability, it is ultra dangerous to have unknown craft flying about any area.

a reply to: crayzeed

Not necessarily.

First, I suspect whoever was in command of these drones knew a heck of a lot more about what other objects, including other aircraft and/or obstacles, were in the area than the FAA would have. Don't forget, the alleged altitudes reported would all be VFR flight anyway (i.e. Visual Flight Rules), so therefore not controlled airspace.

Second, as long as a UAV is below 400' AGL there is no requirement to inform anyone. And, to the best of my knowledge, there were no reports stating they were higher than this.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

DJI Phantom can go some 4 miles.

a reply to: Zaphod58

there are so many trainers up in the air right now.

With some software engineering experience, all one would need is an old smartphone strapped to the drone to get longer range (where ever cell phone coverage exists which is almost everywhere).

a reply to: Violater1
Err yes, nice drone you got there ..... that meerschaum Calabash looks really cool. But Borkum Riff?
lol