Police crashing drones seems to be becoming a regular occurrence - maybe they should be limited to sub-250g ones when flying over built up areas like everyone else is 
I was watching a video on YouTube where a Police drone officer was berating someone for flying their drone when the wind speed was too high for the drone.
AAIB report
“The CAA were of the view that if you needed to rely on the controller screen to determine the UA’s orientation then that would not satisfy VLOS rules.”
… that’s going to cramp sub 250 grams drone flights 
The CAA really need to get up to speed with modern drone technology and how it is used in the real world
Good AAIB report, well worth reading for instructional purposes.
One battery was improperly inserted resulting in reduced speed - setting off downwind in a strong wind prevented it flying back to base.
If anyone is interested, the drone specs are at: Matrice 200 Series - DJI
The police claiming it crashed because of higher than predicted winds - well, the old bill would say that.
Surely they would have been told when learning about wind, wind resistance, gusts, gusts at 10m AGL etc, wind around buildings? And why are our police forces flying drones? Chinese ones at that. Or perhaps they ahould just be investigating burglaries and policing neighbourhoods instead.
Wan’t my fault guv
Police and drones do not mix well they keep crashing them.
I’m far from a fan of the police but maybe this and their other mishaps could be turned to our favour, as It shows and proves sometimes things just go wrong , no matter who you are or how well qualified you are sometimes things go wrong , it used to be called a accident but nowadays someone must be punished for a incident, if this proves that occasionally things go wrong could that be used to get a better understanding between the police and recreational drone pilots ? I might be wrong and it’s just my personal thoughts .
I am far from the most experienced UAV Operator/Pilot here but isn’t the fact the operator only had 14 hours flying experience that only 5 were on type and only had flown 2 hours in the last 3 months significant?
For a number of reasons, but I suspect if they had flown it more it would have been less likely to insert the batteries incorrectly and that they would be aware of the apps and controllers etc.
Also re the battery isn’t that what checklists are for? Wouldn’t they have also done a phyisical check of the wind at the same time? I know I would have done.
Depending on the deployment reason they might not have time to do any checks.
More on this story here:
I wonder where they got the weather forecast from. This should have been investigated and new rules implemented to stop it happening again as per normal caa procedures
Daily Express carries the story this morning and of course the usual reader comments about protecting the public from drones…I left my thoughts…
Totally get that but NPAS wouldn’t take off without checks. No deployment is worth removing all the checks.
I say this as someone who knows a fair few ES drone op’s.
The hours thing is my biggest concern definitely needs more flight time both in general and on type if they are going to be rapidly deploying UAV’s.
Can we throw a lack of ATTI training in to the mix too?
I’m guessing it’d be minimal at best
Could have been very serious… Beats being hit by a 2 tonne BMW cop car chasing boy racers. Sorry racer persons with limited skill set and brains to match. 