Drone vs airplane

[Bambistew]

Has anyone considered why a drone is "unethical" to use for hunting, but an airplane which can haul you, your gear and has a range that far exceeds a drone, is ok to use for spotting game? I'm not talking about using a plane to access areas, I'm talking using it to spot game. To me the plane is a far superior method of spotting game, as in not even comparable in terms of effectiveness.

If you had to comply with the same regulations as flying with a drone, why shouldn't they also be an allowable method?

Just curious to hear what others thoughts on this are.

 

[Deleted member 18333]

No I don't think they should be legal but I also don't think its ok to use a plane for spotting game. I do know that the time I went guided in AK the outfitters used his plane to spot game. He would as much as he could fly over and either radio the guide or drop notes at our tents. Was lame but I didn't tell him to knock it off so bad on me. Didn't matter anyway as we never could turn up a legal ram. According to guide this was common place among the outfitters he had worked for. Always wondered how true that was.

 

[Irrelevant]

Has anyone considered why a drone is "unethical" to use for hunting, but an airplane which can haul you, your gear and has a range that far exceeds a drone, is ok to use for spotting game? I'm not talking about using a plane to access areas, I'm talking using it to spot game. To me the plane is a far superior method of spotting game, as in not even comparable in terms of effectiveness.

If you had to comply with the same regulations as flying with a drone, why shouldn't they also be an allowable method?

Just curious to hear what others thoughts on this are.

It should also be banned for planes as unethical.
But... even worse when you add thermal imaging to a drone, that any yahoo could buy and operate:

 

[TOGIE]

workin' joe schmo has access to drones

rich tits over there at elk mountain has access to planes

could that have anything at all to do with it?

 

[Nameless Range]

Literally just on a lunch break from flying a drone this morning. Airplanes are currently superior to drones for spotting game, but they won't be in 10 years. I think severely limiting drones in comparison to planes is a difficult argument to make from a logical perspective, as you have pointed out. I am in favor of it though, simply due to the fact that drones are:

A) More democratized so there are more of them. One can get into a nice drone for fractions of the cost of a plane and this will be increasingly so - even as their sensors increase in efficacy.
B) Drones are more intrusive. One cannot legally fly a drone over 400 ft without waivers. That's low enough to frighten critters.
C) The technology is getting insane. I did a test flight of this drone last week. It had forward looking infrared. The rep told us to try and crash it. You couldn't, and I got the impression you could fly that thing at 25 mph 10 feet above the ground into a chunk of woods and it would juke and jive its way along.

 

[EYJONAS!]

Where's the line drawn with technology and fair chase?

 

[elkduds]

Illegal in CO:

use unmanned drones to look for, scout or detect wildlife

use aircraft to hunt, to direct hunters on the ground, or to hunt the same day or the day after a flight was made to find wildlife

How does that get enforced, when obvious violations like hunters driving off designated roads/trails does not?

 

[BigHornRam]

Spotting with plane or drone for hunting is unethical IMO.

Did attend a presentation on the status of the Little Belt bighorn transplant last weekend. The biologist used a drone to get footage of the ewes who were lambing in the cliffs to see how many lamb's hit the ground. Pretty useful tool and less disturbing than helicopters and planes. Also much more economical.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

I think the fact that you can hover a drone 80 ft over a sheep's head and count annuli make them more of an issue than plane scouting.

 

[DouglasR]

Man they’re really cool and fun to fly, but I was organizing my car at a trailhead a few weeks ago and some dude who I’m guessing wanted to film himself bc skiing was flying one around and it was annoying af.

 

[DouglasR]

Are they allowed in wilderness areas?

 

[rogerthat]

airplanes used for transportation are okay. Used to scout game not okay. So what would drones be used for that would be okay? They should be banned from anything hunting related and used for f'ing around only and work.

 

[rtraverdavis]

The increasing financial accessibility of drones sure seems to indicate that more people would use them compared to the number of people who use planes to spot animals, which makes them worse from a fair chase/sustainablity standpoint. Drones or planes, I don't like either being used to spot game.

On another note though, drone guys are dorks.

 

[lastlight]

Are they allowed in wilderness areas?

No. But you can find a bucket of YouTube videos of people using them in wilderness areas from hunters to backpackers. When you do report to the USFS.

I have a hate for drones in me like no other. Fantasize about shooting them down on public lands all the time LOL.

 

[Mica Man]

Don't need them, not a fan for use with hunting. Same thing as lighted nocks and expandable broadheads. Just my opinion.

 

[Sytes]

Drones or aeroplanes...

Charles Cook once said "The drone is the great equalizer."

 

[MarvB]

Just the sound of them tends to annoy me, kind of like hearing my Ex’s attorney trying to talk over the judge. I did them for work and they were great but not relaxing on backcountry time!

 

[EYJONAS!]

At one time there was a guy that was in the market of aviation sales from planes to helicopters. He lives in Bozeman or maybe he's moved on. He had this idea of offering a service for hunters that was areal thermal imagining that provided a "live animal e scouting network". His thought was to offer subscriptions and people would basically request areas they wish to have flown and he would fly it and provide imaging. He would also do the same using drones if he could to minimize costs....

I saw his demo video and his proposed website ideas. His imaging capabilites were absolutely unreal. It was probably the most unfair approach to "hunting" I've ever seen. After he showed me it he asked what I thought. I didn't give him 5 stars on the idea to say the least.

In a nut shell the conversation ended with only incompetent people like yourself would use something like that, there's nothing ethical about your idea and I hope you end up with egg on your face. To my knowledge it died on the vine.i used more colorful words in my conversation though....

Drones are cool for a hobby but when you mix em into the adventure of sporting and hunting that's way over the line IMO.

 

[PaulRevere]

Can't even believe you'd post this.

 

[Johnny Bravo]

I believe you should be allowed to use drones to scout areas in the off season, but not during the season to actually hunt.