Drone delivers water bombs at school athletics event in California

Gary Mortimer

The LA Times is reporting that an athletics event being held at Trabuco Hills High School in Mission Viejo on Saturday 13th of May was disrupted by a drone dropping water balloons.

According to meet Director Jack Recla several water balloons were dropped and that one hit a spectator in the warm up area. It was also not the first time they had seen the drone.

I can’t find any photos of the drone, the story is just breaking so no doubt they will arrive on the web in time. We can the point a finger of blame at manufacturer X Y or Z.

Just how to unpack, what was no doubt meant as a prank. One that could have just as easily been accomplished with a strong armed throw. Has the anti been upped in high school bullying?

There will be plenty of calls to tighten up drone regulations and outrage, but I suspect there are plenty of standing regulations that could be used to punish the perpetrators.

It gives me the perfect opportunity to punt Tuesday’s Drone Stuff This Week though, 21:00 GMT. I had already set it up to be all about CUAS, counter unmanned aircraft systems. The quiet 2017 drone trend. So well done those students for lighting it up as a topic for me!

This is a head in the sand subject for drone manufacturers, I think they would prefer that CUAS methods quietly go away. Last year at Farnborough I was introduced to many digital drone shoot down systems.

There are strong rumors circulating that at least one major manufacturer is preparing to sell a system to shoot down and or disrupt their own products. Poacher turned gamekeeper springs to mind.

Last week we discussed drone registration plates for the identification of errant operators, something that would track down these folks.

Kevin Finisterre will be chatting to myself and other guests from the CUAS and sense and avoid community next Tuesday. I expect regular pundit Bruce Simpson from RC Model reviews will have a long list of questions.