VERTIGUY (Richard)

VTOL enthusiast in AU. My jet pack (for now) is a powered paraglider. I enjoy temporary Zero-G. Drone mapping since 2014. SpaceX & Tesla fan. Real name Richard.

[VERTIGUY (Richard) @vertiguy]

@Astro_Clay “Moscow, we have a problem”

[VERTIGUY (Richard) @vertiguy]

@TeslaPatriot @ryanjaycowan Yes. Certainly room for improvement. The Grok phone app would benefit from a voice command to tell it that it’s dismissed. And be smart enough that you can phrase it any way you like. Like “OK, thank you, goodbye“.

[VERTIGUY (Richard) @vertiguy]

@CJHandmer This is incredibly exciting! All the more reason to hurry up and properly establish if there’s extant/extinct Martian life, prior to introducing any new microbes.

[VERTIGUY (Richard) @vertiguy]

@FelixSchlang @mymatrixplug Still blows me away that so many people don’t know about this! It’s fun to send people links to your live stream, or even just send them screen recordings I make of the flip and hover-landing into the water. They just don’t see it otherwise!

[VERTIGUY (Richard) @vertiguy]

@Cmdr_Hadfield Nice… I guess the jet is the one doing the “photobombing” while the ISS was the intended star of the photo, given how much planning is needed to line it up with the sun!

[VERTIGUY (Richard) @vertiguy]

@DJSnM @Astro_Clay I wonder if he held out on Gemini?
Lovell and Borman’s non-excretion efforts on G7 were legendary…

[VERTIGUY (Richard) @vertiguy]

@Lyle_Andrews @daviskens @DJSnM Yes but still nowhere near the capability of those big helicopter-mounted cameras. I once had a look at a Cineflex up close, and saw its zooming capability. It’s on another level… almost like alien technology!

[VERTIGUY (Richard) @vertiguy]

@DJSnM @daviskens And this video of 4 helicopters hovering in/near the dead man’s zone of the H/V curve, over a city, just for this SAME news story, seems particularly insane.

https://t.co/l2XTFIJevW

[Ryan @AugmentedRyan]

One of these guys crashed while covering the bus accident

[VERTIGUY (Richard) @vertiguy]

@DJSnM @daviskens Agreed.
But of course we’re now talking about a very large UAV, probably with BVLOS to be practical for stations (fly from base across town to scene). Hopefully the inherent safety of eVTOLs could make this acceptable, eventually.

[VERTIGUY (Richard) @vertiguy]

@daviskens @DJSnM That’s an excellent point. The sheer size/weight of the superb optics and stabilization needed, due to keeping a respectable distance away. BTW you see this long distance when the camera operater on the crash heli zooms out.

[VERTIGUY (Richard) @vertiguy]

@DJSnM Good point the UAV licensing issue. But also, I think a HUGE advantage of full-size manned helicopters is the ability to fly rapidly to the scene by air (rather than driving and setting up a drone). Being first to get the scoop. And the ability to keep up with car chases etc.

[VERTIGUY (Richard) @vertiguy]

@DJSnM I’m wondering if it was on the wrong side of the “dead man’s curve“ at the time of engine failure. The video suggests it was at zero airspeed. Seems that for the Eurocopter AS 350 B2, you’d then need 400–600 ft AGL to auto-rotate successfully.

[VERTIGUY (Richard) @vertiguy]

@FutureJurvetson Wow. Considering a human brain only needs 20 Watts, there’s obviously MASSIVE room for efficiency improvements in AI hardware… One might even call it a “no brainer” 🙂

[VERTIGUY (Richard) @vertiguy]

@Astro_Clay Haha -
Flat earth advocate gets quote-posted by
Astronaut who has ORBITED Earth!
I’m here for it 🍿

[VERTIGUY (Richard) @vertiguy]

@AugmentedRyan They all appear to be hovering close to, or possibly in, the “DEAD MAN’S ZONE” of the height-velocity diagram. (With zero airspeed, there’s a min. height to autorotate the rotor when the engine fails.) The on-board video from the crashed heli certainly looks like zero airspeed…

[VERTIGUY (Richard) @vertiguy]

@FutureJurvetson @elonmusk @StarbaseTX What an epic location for a house… right at the gateway to Mars and beyond.

[VERTIGUY (Richard) @vertiguy]

@FelixSchlang That’s awesome.

[VERTIGUY (Richard) @vertiguy]

@HansCNelson @AndrewB78004886 @Gfilche @Tesla @Tesla_Optimus Your point about the labor cost for hand replacement suggests that it’s worth some R&D effort to make the hand / forearm RAPIDLY swappable. Admittedly, that still leaves the expense of the part itself…