When tiny planes attack! Presidential paranoia in the nation’s capital
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Airservices Australia has taken the extraordinary step of banning model airplanes from entering Canberra airspace during next week’s planned visit of President Obama, Crikey has learned. A radio-controlled model aircraft flyer received a document from his club released by the air traffic control body, which states that activities involving, but not excluded to, the use of gliders, hot-air balloons and model aircraft have all been prohibited from use during the President’s visit:
As a result the club has had to close its model flying field for the two days of the visit. The restriction has been placed on 45 nautical miles (83.34 kilometres) of airspace that surround Canberra airport, an area that includes the fields of six out of the seven clubs of the ACT Aeromodellers Association (ACTAA). Typically, model aeroplanes are put together with balsa wood and duct tape and have a wingspan of approximately two metres. The President’s Boeing VC-25, on the other hand, has a wingspan of 59.6 metres and weighs about 238,800 kilograms. As Crikey’s resident plane expert Ben Sandilands put it “you’d do more damage with a well-fed duck”. Even if a model aeroplane were strong enough to damage Air Force One, it would still have a difficult time catching up with it. The VC-25 lands at speeds of about 300 kph, more than a match for the two-stroke aircraft used by the aeromodellers community. Perhaps these guidelines are actually aimed at the serious potential for model enthusiast terrorists to send a remote-controlled plane packed with explosives to Obama’s address at Parliament. However, if one had the serious intention of sending a balsa wood bomb to the house on the hill, it would take an awfully sophisticated — and exceptionally lightweight — explosive device to be able to make it the full journey. And therein lies the issue. Some critics say that this ban is clearly not a serious safety concern, it is simply another box to tick on the list of measures that modern day security staff rely on and that these are the kinds of over-the-top procedures that brought Sydney to a standstill during APEC. Crikey understands there are no sanctioned ACTAA events being held during President Obama’s visit, and there would be little chance of modellers out there flying on a Thursday or Friday. |
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24 Comments
I think this is a fair enough precaution. A model plane could carry lighter malicious payloads other than explosives..i.e chemical/biological weapons.
Modern “DIY UAV’s” are exceedingly straightforward to construct. Multi-engined “Model” UAVs are capable of carrying video transmission equipment, sound recording, and… “other” Payloads.
The restriction is no doubt as suggested a ‘standard security practice’ - but it does have genuinely serious reasons.
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/a-newbies-guide-to-uavs has some info on how easy it is to assemble a GPS/Autopilot controlled UAV capable of carrying a couple of Kg’s payload that can have its flight plan plotted using Google Maps.
They’re gonna have to start rounding up the ducks straight away if they have any hope of getting them all in time. And what about pigeons? I’ve been led to believe that the African Racing Pigeon can carry a coconut from Africa to England…
Hungry Beast did a rundown of Obama’s entourage. Holy dooley!!
This decision is correct;-there’s no bloody room left in the sky above Australia!
(Rushes out to trim tops of trees).
Benjamin Franklin, founding father of the United States who was an author and signatory to the “Declaration of Independence” and the “United States Constitution”, said this:
“Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security” .
This more true today than its ever been especially when we see the brainlessness of bureaucracy in action as with this issue and going by the comments above some people , perhaps many, are quite happy to see their fellow citizens liberties taken away and get nothing in return.
Adrian’s comments above suggest that its “exceedingly straight forward” to make a an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can carry a payload (dangerous or otherwise) to a target. This is rubbish, on paper it seems simple but in reality it is very difficult. There is a competition in Qld every year with a prize of $50,000 to “rescue” a dummy called Outback Joe. The object is to locate the dummy in relatively small area and drop a bottle of water close by. No team has even got remotely close getting the prize as yet.
As for calling it “standard security practice” is that the same as saying Air Services can do what ever they like without being questioned. If it is “standard security practice” why did the Indonesian president’s visit not need these standard practises.
Scott’s comments are also misleading as stopping law abiding citizens from flying of model aircraft isn’t going stop someone from attempting to break the law. Why not make it a law that when the US President visits no one is allow to commit a terrorist act. If the President’s security is threatened it wont be because of a lack laws or rules.
These new rules for the Presidential visit will not improve security in the slightest. Air Services Australia (and their Masters) and just pretending to do sometime by removing our citizens liberties because they can.
Beware of the public servant that serves someone other than the public!
A friend of a friend was having dinner at a restaurant outside Brisbane. Ex-president Bill Clinton-on a lecture tour-was having dinner with three friends.
News of 9/11 hit the restaurant. Out of nowhere the two tables on either side of Clinton proved to be peopled with CIA heavies.
Within minutes several helicopters appeared out of nowhere, and one of the secret service heavies said one word to Clinton. “Come”. They formed a screen around him and he was helicoptered out of the place.
My friend told me this story with awe. Whereas I regarded it as even more proof that Oz is just another state of America. After all those choppers couldn’t have flown in from America’s west coast, not within five minutes they couldn’t
The notorious Yankee fear virus endeavours to spread itself to Oz. Resist, citizens, resist.
Stevo the Working Twistie is correct. We cannot rule out the possibility of suicide ducks!!
DENISE Aux arms citoyens; formé vous bataillons. Marchons, marchons la jour de gloire est arrivé. Olé
non, non. Voler les avions de petite la jour de gloire est arrivé. Olé
Yes, if you trained a (googles collective for ducks) raft of ducks to fly into the jet air intake, that would do the job. I don’t know that they should be well-fed, I think hungry ducks would be more agile.
yeah, that would be your african swallow Stevo and of course they dont carry them to England because the african swallow doesn’t migrate (well not to Mercia at any rate)
Wilson Tuckey would be a more of a threat than flying ducks or model crafts!
JETHO: Bien dit. Trés bien dit. Olé.
Can I sing that to the Fitzroy song Venise?
SBH:
Christ! Have you asked the wrong person? I know nothing about football, let alone the songs which are sung by the various clubs. Also, I am tone deaf.
Sorry about that.
Cheers
Venise
I’m told it follows the tune of the French Natioanl anthem
Remember that plane that crashed into the Hudson River after a bird strike…so how did Al Qaeda train those pigeons or where they remote controlled pigeons….anyone?
It would be interesting to see what would happen to one of those Bird-men who take off, off a ramp and try to find out how far they can go. This event happens at Moomba, in Melbourne.
Knowing the Americans they would probably just murder him. Just look at the ferfaffle which happens when an American sees a shark. They do everything short of rounding up the cavalry and having the “Shoot out at the OK Corral” as a side-dish. they are pathetic.
@Venise
“They do everything short of rounding up the cavalry and having the “Shoot out at the OK Corral” as a side-dish. they are pathetic.”
Your hysteria seemingly blinds you to the Australian way of handling similar situations.
I notice Leigh Sales has put up a Twot on Obama’s ‘big snub’ of Australia?
SO: when Rudd is up to his eyeballs in something fairly importanté, he can take off to the USA?
We won’t care will we?
But if he cancels?? The USA with talk about his big snub??
….and WE don’t overreact??
SBH - VENISE - I’ve just had a laugh imagining you, Venise, singing a football song - of any team to any tune - tone deaf or not? I’m the same! Spare me, I say when they start!
Anyone - I know nothing about remote controlled model planes, but could they interfere with the listening/wave lengths?? etc of the security people? Don’t laugh, just a question?
I’m more concerned to know, are the US Security people going to be carrying weapons inside the Parliament like they did when Bush was here? The first time in history, when this happened(Margo Kingston - ‘Not Happy John’)! ‘Foreigners’ with weapons in our parliament is not something that appeals to me! It says a lot about the so-called ‘worlds’ biggest democracy’ when they have 20 vehicles in a cavalcade to protect their leader? Strange!
Good point Liz45 here’s the drum..
The transmitters won’t interfere as they use 2.4 Ghz which is the same as Blue-tooth devices and wireless LAN’s as used in many homes these days for the internet so this frequency is everywhere already. Modellers also use 36mhz which is especially set aside for remote control and nothing else use in Aust so no problem there either.
Another Furphy is that airspace can be more easily monitored with radar. This is rubbish too.
Model aircraft aren’t allowed to fly in built-up areas, over people or above 400ft high, its against the law and full size aircraft must fly above 500 feet plus all the model aero club locations in Canberra are all registered with Air Services so pilots and Air Traffic control already know exactly were they are. So this no flying models ruling will only punish those model fliers which wish to comply with law. Terrorists or others wishing to cause mischief are not going to say “bugger our plans to fly a model aircraft over Obama have been thwarted again by this Air Services ruling”. Besides all this assassins and terrorists use guns and bombs as they aren’t as shallow minded as bureaucrats. A bomb is easy to hide and a rifle with sights can be accurate up to one kilometre away so why use some other method that will almost guarantee failure.
In my view all this makes those making such lame decisions a bunch of arrogant officious wankers. As I said above “beware of the public servant that serves someone other than the public!”
Your point about foreigners carry weapons is good one, it only takes one of these guys to go Burco because he thought he saw someone with a gun or a (threatening piece of balsa) to cause a lot of ill will at the very least.
GEOF05 Hysteria? I thought I was being funny. So thank you for your little temper tantrum. Incidently, I was talking about the Americans, not the Australians. But now you mention the Australians, they have a much more stable outlook about such matters.
Of course the Oz press, just like the media throughout the ‘civilised’ (?) world hyper-ventilates and blows things out of all proportion. The similarity between the media and reality approximates the width of the Amazon river at it’s mouth.