i think it's a great idea. you couldn't get good still shots i don't think. but for spotting they'd be great, and in place of the helicopter shots, yeah.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Just get the Goodyear Blimp!

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

- legal flight restrictions
- battery life
- signal transmission range

I am not a drone expert either, but we're a long way off.

Fantastic idea. This could be done with docking/ recharging stations along the route. I think the flight restrictions would be fairly easy to overcome being the drones would be low flying on (or near) closed roads. No one said it needed to be one drone. They could deploy a zone coverage type of strategy, and even have a number of motorcycles to supplement.

I have a pilot friend who is into drones, he has a expensive one with a camera, I will ask his take on battery life and other restrictions.

I have seen amazing footage from drones, I would venture to say the camera quality might even be better than that from the motorcycle cameras.

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Grow with data: Dynamic Sports Data | eBay store

no, battery life, payload capacity and pilot needing to be nearby in a folow car would need to be vastly improved from where we are

we just need a follow truck ahead around 100ft with a telephoto lens and a stabilizer

We've forgotten already?

https://www.bbc.com/.../technology-26921504

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I remember seeing this last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9T6-KPFRq8


The idea is interesting, but as has already been pointed out, there are some hurdles to clear. I imagine that if racers knew they were being watched, they may not draft.

I know nothing about drones, but assumed that's what they were using at the 70.3 WC this weekend. Was that not the case?

Maybe technically feasible eventually, but WTC can't even create decent coverage using traditional means most of the time.

Step one, care about creating good coverage. Step two, care about not creating/allowing unfair advantages.

Two big obstacles in the USA

-1- Drones are not allowed to flown over people (except pilot and one observer)
-2- Drones are not allowed to be piloted out of visual range not out of moving vehicles\

These rules may be broken more than they are followed, but the bigger the organization involved, the less likely it will break the rules. One off sole proprietorships and amateurs usually don't know the rules or think its like driving 1 MPH over the limit.

I'm sure videographers use them but I believe the live stuff is filmed by a cameraman riding on the back of a motorcycle.

There were many live shots from the air during the bike course, those were the shots that led to a lot of the drafting comments. I just brought that up in reference to the comments on batter life, payload, etc. It seems drones were working just fine at the WC.

But yes, I get that national regulations would be a different story.

While both would be a problem in the town sections of races, there are many areas out in the open that this would be fine. Good drones have a transmission range of several miles, so you could have a few pilots spaced out and cover a good bit of road out where it is flat and isolated (I'm thinking out in the lava fields at Kona).

This would be dirt cheap relative to a helo flying around.

I don't think you could have good line of sight of a drone very far away. Certainly not more than a mile and probably not nearly that far. That is the FAA requirement -- not the distance that the drone can transmit.

Drone must stay within line of site of the pilot in command. I was doing some large areas with my Phantom 4 Obsidian and I could see it out to about 3800' tops. Larger drones might be a little more visible but I wouldn't count on going over a mile. Of course I couldn't have navigated by line of site, but it met the letter of the law. The law also stipulates that you cannot use to visual aid devices for keeping tabs on it. That means no binoculars allowed to keep line of site control.

Another issue is state laws. Not sure about Hawaii, but in Texas, it's very unlikely you could get past privacy laws. Basically, you aren't allowed to take images of other peoples property from a drone without their permission. It would be easy to get an athletes permission, but getting permission of everyone in the frame would be tricky.

If you could get a waiver on being allowed to control from a moving vehicle, it wouldn't be possible for someone on the back of a motorbike to be able to cover a very large range.