2y ago

Redditor believes everyone has a moral duty to make their own DIY ultralight helicopter to spite FAA regulations on personal aircraft and make the flying car a reality

old.reddit.com

How much would it cost to build a human quad copter?

Most stuff that gets posted here is just horrible and bleak shit, so here's some catastrophically absurd libertarian brainworms instead.

And this is why I say we have a duty to make the cheap ones and fly them anyway. The laws which make this the case are equivalent to those which made people walk in front of early cars waving flags. Between our current fear of any risk, and the vested interests of the powers that be in existing transportation, the flying car will never happen until someone builds one anyway, and allows everyone else to follow in there footsteps.

39 comments

considering the vast majority of drivers can barely handle two axes without being a danger to others, adding in more is a very bad idea
- It's pretty hard to hold two axes while driving.
  
  Yaw and roll would be too much.
- I'm certain that I understand the Bayesian False Confidence theorem correctly, and it says that the more you increase your degree of freedom (axes), the lower the risk of collision, so jot that down.
We have flying cars... They are called helicopters... The new ones are just oversized drones (helicopters with more propellers).
Besides, Joe Average Potato-brain can't drive for shit and now you want 2 tonnes of shit falling out of the sky when some idiot fucks up?
Car crashes are one of the leading causes of death for several demographics. You could easily argue we should still be carrying flags.
Oh my god I love tiny helicopter quacks.
ar15 forum post featuring libertarians trying to find the philosophical limit to "a man should be able to do anything they want on their property"
the result
The forum changed its theme and everything is fucked but its one of my favorite internet interactions of all time.
- That's right up there with the bodybuilding.com thread where the guy couldn't understand that 7/2=3.5
  I hate HOA busybodies as much as the next guy, but those libertarians are crazy. They actually expected OP to do nothing about his next door neighbor trying to teach himself to fly a helicopter. They were saying he should wait until the rotors are flying onto his property, otherwise he hates freedom.
  My favorite detail is that he spent $40k of his $100k scratch off lotto winnings on it.
  
  The whole story is just unbelievable at every step, yet OP continues to provide proof to counter it.
Stockton Rush energy
- Move fast and lithobreak the helicopter I made out of scrap in my garage.
They also have moral obligations to make their own deep sea submersibles out of bargain basement carbon fiber.
One commenter “you could power them with a generator”
Ok yeah let me get my Mr Fusion hooked right up, jeez why didn’t I think of that
You want flying cars. I want flying trains. We are not the same.
- flying trains
  maglev coming for ya
Moral duty to build a flying machine to defy an oppressive regime you say?
This is why flying cars are one of my least favorite sci-fi tropes. Clearest example of just replicating the present world but in a futuristic way.
On that note, apparently flying cars are one of Trump's 2024 campaign promises.
- the flying car already exists! it's called the hot air balloon, and it is piloted only by those of upstanding moral character.
- My biggest related pet peeve is liberal sci-fi. When I'm reading a book about some way far-future people in deep space and they casually bring up money, or a recent war, it just completely takes me out of it. Like, motherfuckers, how did your species survive this long? Shouldn't you have outgrown that shit by now?
planes were as dangerous as cars they wouldn't be allowed to exist.
Hmmm, that doesn’t say anything about cars, does it? 🚙⃠
- Commercial airlines are like trains - that's why they're safe.
  Small personal aircraft are like cars - they crash ALL THE FUCKING TIME.
they're the most irritating dorks on the planet but I honestly love libertarians. their fantasy world is so whimsical.
Lol, had me in the first half of the title. Thought they were calling for an airborne people's war.
rule: Never get in a helicopter
Perhaps the generator could be on the ground?
lmao. this must be a bit
- This was basically the hovercars in a driving game, Quarantine. It was super dystopian, would not recommend.
Anyone who believes flying cars are even remotely possible has obviously spent zero time at all looking into basically anything, from the technology to the FAA regulations that make it illegal (love seeing these techbro morons think they can skirt around regulations only to immediately be hit with an illegal charter fine and shut down). Without fail, their triumphant “certification” is a restricted/experimental airworthiness certificate that you can’t see for an aircraft that nobody has seen either. What this means is they can’t do anything for hire and can’t have more than six passengers among a host of other shit. They also cannot operate internationally. Anyone and their mother can get an experimental airworthiness certificate.
Have they considered that you still need to be licensed to fly, how expensive and difficult that is? Seriously, “airmen practical tests” (as they call them) are fucking hard! It’s not like a drivers license where they hand them out like candy, you have to actually work for it. The standards document is over 100 pages and you need to ace every single task. A single mistake is an automatic failure and the test costs 800 bucks a pop! And did I mention that examiners are few and far between and you’ll likely be waiting two months between scheduling and taking the test?
And you can’t just get in a plane and fly like you get in a car and drive. There is so much paperwork and logging shit and fixing and checking that needs to be done, and if you want to leave the US you better have five hours to spare pouring over the exact obscure documents you need to fill out and spend hours on hold to speak to a customs agent.
So much convenience!
And let’s call this what it is, a blatant attempt to circumvent aviation safety regulations with their smarmy lawyering bullshit. I’ve known a few FAA inspectors in my life and they don’t fuck around. There’s been a thousand techbros before them that have tried going “well ackshually” only to be told to shut the fuck up and to take their VC money from whence they came.
- flying driverless cars are right around the corner.
  14 CFR Part 119.23, Part 121, Part 135 and FAA AC 91-37B, AC 120-12A, and FlyteNow Inc v. FAA would like to have a word
  Carrying paying passengers from point to point without an air carrier certificate is called ✨Illegal Air Charter✨
  Operating an aircraft (the operator need not pilot the aircraft) carrying passengers who cover or split, any costs, or provide any form of compensation (which includes pilot experience in and of itself or even having dinner paid for), without traveling for a common purpose, without an air carrier certificate is called ✨Illegal Air Charter✨
  Obtaining a certificate entails dropping six figures minimum, years of red tape, establishing rigorous inspection, maintenance, and training programs and, get this, having a pilot. In practice this amounts to dropping seven to eight figures on a yearly basis. What this also means is that your shitty startup is now just as expensive as, but more inconvenient and less safe than just chartering an airplane.
  Do these people know how many rules a commercial operator needs to follow? It’s an incredibly complex process that I highly doubt any Silicon Valley dipshit could wrap their smoothbrains around.
No, hear me out. If there were personal dirigible the world would be a better place.
The laws which make this the case are equivalent to those which made people walk in front of early cars waving flags.
A good idea?
Dudes rock.
Are they related to that rock-brained goofball who decided to make his own one-man rocket that was nowt but a Wile. E. Coyote-style firework-with-a-chair?

39 comments