PORT ANGELES — The buzz of rotors, high-tech video goggles and an unexpected wreck took center stage Monday in a conference room at the Red Lion Hotel.
From a hummingbird-size quadcopter that can land in the palm of a person’s hand to a 5-pound camera-toting drone that can navigate itself home using GPS, Anthony Richards of Pacific Rim Hobby demonstrated the latest in drone technology available to amateur operators to about 60 members of the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce.
“It’s not all meant to be that scary. Let’s not be afraid of drones. It’s just something new,” Richards said as a tiny quadcopter — a drone with four helicopter-like blades — hovered beside him with bright blue and red lights almost as big as the device itself.
While much of the world’s attention is on military drones and how drones may be misused by police or government agencies, there are a lot of good things going on with drones, he said.
Richards, who sells both traditional remote control planes — which are classified as drones by the Federal Aviation Administration — and the more modern quadcopter style remote control craft, said there are many emerging uses for the devices for the arts, business, research and for search-and-rescue applications.
A homeowner or security company can survey a property from the air, a search-and-rescue team can use a heat-detecting camera to locate a missing hiker, a filmmaker can create aerial shots without the expense of hiring a helicopter or plane, and photographers can create art shots previously impossible for the average person, he said.
The National Aeronautic and Space Administration is using drone technology to fly into the heart of hurricanes — reducing the risk to aircraft crews — and wildland fire crews can use drones to locate hot spots, monitor the spread of a fire or locate where firefighters may be trapped, he said.
Richards said a drone can also be used as a communication link, allowing crews in the field to have a wider range for their radios to have a good connection with their dispatchers.
For the amateur user, rapid improvements in technology and a decline in prices means that drones are fast becoming available to everyone.
Prices range from about $40 for the smallest to $1,000 for a turkey-platter sized quadcopter, Richards said.
Pacific Rim Hobby, located at the corner of Railroad & Oak streets in Port Angeles, also carries models and supplies as well as other hobby merchandise.
Some of the smaller quadcopters have built-in cameras that take an SD chip to record the flight, while larger ones are set up to carry a GoPro or similar video camera, Richards said.
Many of them can transmit the video in real-time so that a person with a monitor or video goggles can see what the drone can see, he said.
Nearly all of them have safety features that stop the rotors to prevent injury if they crash, he said, and some of the larger drones, which navigate using GPS, can find their way back to their starting point if their operator loses sight of it and signals a return to base.
FAA regulations require that they cannot fly above 400 feet, within 5 miles of an airport, within the confines of a national park, in a sports stadium or anywhere beyond the sightline of the operator.
The regulations are still evolving as the FAA continues to refine rules for the new technology, Richards said.
“It all could change in less than 24 hours,” he said.
Unmanned vehicles for amateur operators are limited to weighing less than 55 pounds — which he said would be a huge drone.
The largest quadcopter Pacific Rim Hobby carries weighs about five or six pounds and can hold its own in a steep breeze, he said.
Even the smallest of them have gyros that allow them to keep themselves upright, though they are often restricted to indoor use where a breeze is unlikely to hijack the tiny craft.
For additional safety, there are parachutes available for those times when quadcopters falls out of the sky, either because they run out of battery life or malfunction.
During the demonstration of a fist-sized quadcopter, its battery failed and the little craft tumbled from where it hovered over the heads of chamber members and onto a table.
No one was injured, and the quad copter did not suffer any apparent damage.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
