Pluralistic Ignorance
You can see both my anti-collision and starboard light built into one unit on the right. I also have dual landing lights in front and my port and anti-collision light is on the opposite side with a strobe underneath. This gyrocopter can fly very slow in all conditions.
Imagine you’re taking a night flight via helicopter around the city to see the lights. You ask the pilot(s) to hover for a second to get that great shot, and suddenly someone shoots you or the pilots dead. Down comes the helicopter, killing everyone aboard. This has suddenly become a high-risk scenario thanks to everyone advocating for shooting down what they think is a nefarious drone. They ignore the navigation lights, the anti-collision strobe lights flashing, or even the landing lights meant to make helicopters more visible to others flying at different altitudes. You’re doing everything safely, outside of controlled airspace, and suddenly that’s it—just because some idiot thinks you’re a drone worthy of being shot out of the sky.
I’ve been deliberately sharp in my posts on X, and I can’t fathom the ignorance or lack of concern about what people are targeting or the consequences for those on the ground. I can’t comprehend the logic, the stupidity, or the tribal ignorance—not to mention the groupthink, mass hysteria, or pluralistic ignorance. It’s just too stupid for words.
When our military sends a drone into enemy territory, we don’t fly it lit up like a Christmas tree, and our enemies wouldn’t do that either. In fact, with all lights off and without a source of light, you’d never know they were there. Some claim that drones “go dark” suddenly. Well, if you were getting shot at, what would you do?
I’m yelling and posting my opinion everywhere because I’m thinking about an EMS flight crew that now can’t fly a patient to a hospital out of fear of someone taking a shot at them. People have suddenly made flying at night dangerous, just so they can engagement farm on social media.
This so-called drone in the upper right is not a drone at all. It’s an EC120 helicopter that holds five people. The photo on the lower right, is approaching aircraft on final into a commercial airport all evenly spaced. The photo on the left is a ham sandwich.