The Hidden Glasgow Forums

A tenth person has died. Joe Cusker, aged 59, according to BBC.

Guacho wrote:

RDR wrote:Finally I have to say, at a time when the Con-Dem politicians spend their time running down and degenerating public service workers we are reminded about how important they are and what we owe them at times like this. Support the fire fighters in their dispute over pensions. Could you have seen a 60 year old fire fighter dealing with this?

No one seems to bother about the 70 year old nurses, porters and others who will be looking after the victims

I would agree the same applies to nurses and other NHS staff. As it stands my wife will now have to work till she is 68 and all for an NHS pension of around about 9,000, which she could previously have taken at 60. So she works 8 years longer but the pension remains the same.

The Glasgow helicopter tragedy shows once again how exemplary our emergency services are at a time of great need. I have no idea why the aircraft came down but I'm sure we will be fully informed in due course. I do however worry somewhat at the increasing ( and necessary ) use of helicopters in and around all our big city areas nowadays. We have police and ambulance and other services using such aircraft and landing in all sorts of confined areas ie hospitals, schools, playing fields etc and even on roads where there has been a bad traffic accident. We see helicopters chasing villains at night using night vision equipment and indeed hovering quite low above properties when called to do so.
Are the rules and regulations for flying in and around city areas fit for purpose both in terms of crew and public safety or do they require reviewing. I'm sure crew training is of the highest order but are we asking too much perhaps or are accidents so rare we can rest assured nothing more needs to be done

It is still far more dangerous to drive a standard diesel Focus with a blue light on it through the city centre at high speed though. Far more serious injuries and deaths occur in these type of accidents despite their lack of publicity. As for the Air Ambulance, it is an absolute god send and saves countless lives on a regular basis, daily.

I do agree with your comment. Living as I do in rural north Scotland I see the air ambulances almost on a daily basis serving outlying areas, and yes I take your point about "blue light" vehicles in our city centres. As long as regulators feel our helicopter operations are as safe as they can be then thats as much as we can hope for.

Regarding air ambulances I don't really see a way around the use of helicopters. They save many a life.

I reckon that in the future the law enforcement helicopters will be replaced with drones, probably quad copters like a large version of the things you can buy from Maplins. These can be equipped with all sorts of gizmos for tracking and surveillance and will probably receive clearance to fly lower than a conventional helicopter.

Cost will be next to nothing in both terms of purchase/lease and maintenance. A helicopter does have advantages but I really cannot see the cost/benefit analysis coming down in favor of them.

Although drones also carry a proportional risk its going to be a dammed site smaller than a full blown Eurocopter. On the downside these things will be a lot more stealthy, there will be a lot more of them and you'll never know when they are surveying you..........welcome to 1984. You'd better hope the cooncil doesn't get control of them or the already ridiculous spying on motorists will just see a paradigm shift

The last I heard the reason they were not in use already was air traffic control have not yet gave them the necessary clearances for whatever reason

John

I can just see one of these drone things getting too close to a rookery...

Dont think we've got helicopter drones yet have we, I've certainly seen a few nifty model ones though but maybe John is right and they will one day be patrolling the skies above our cities keeping beady eyes on unsuspecting law abiding folks going about their daily business. Wow, "Big Brother" would really be with us then good and proper. I suppose it gives us something to look forward to :)

Hi Doug

We haven't got them here yet, but a few authorities did trial them, possibly Manchester and the Met spring to mind.

They had to stop flying them when ATC got wind of it and grounded them all, this was last year. I could be wrong (its happened before) but expensive though they are, they are throw away cost compared with the maintenance cost of keeping a copter in the sky and a crew of 3 or 4 plus the fuel they drink, plus Bond's profit. Must be in the many many multiple thousands per hour.

Army have been using these quadcopter drones and others for a while, so I reckon its only a matter of time. Try a search on Youtube to see what's already commercially available (if your interested). They are pretty impressive in their capabilities and with on board electronics and gyros a dawdle to pilot.

John

[quote="old jock"]Hi Doug

We haven't got them here yet, but a few authorities did trial them, possibly Manchester and the Met spring to mind.

They had to stop flying them when ATC got wind of it and grounded them all, this was last year. I could be wrong (its happened before) but expensive though they are, they are throw away cost compared with the maintenance cost of keeping a copter in the sky and a crew of 3 or 4 plus the fuel they drink, plus Bond's profit. Must be in the many many multiple thousands per hour.

Army have been using these quadcopter drones and others for a while, so I reckon its only a matter of time. Try a search on Youtube to see what's already commercially available (if your interested). They are pretty impressive in their capabilities and with on board electronics and gyros a dawdle to pilot.

John[/quote

Hi John

Funnily enough I think it was in the on line Daily Mail yesterday that they had an article with silhouettes of how people in countries where drones are used could identify good drones from bad drones and in the silhouettes there was what appeared to be a helicopter, however there was no further info in the article. I agree with what you say Helicopters are very expensive to operate in comparison to fixed wing aircraft so any development on workable drones would be bound to be of interest to cash strapped public services so it will probably just be a matter of time before we see them being used for routine surveillance work in and around our cities

five years ago today good people.remember them always.rip.