In this video Silly Fokker Ivor and and I are out testing props for video. As we pass through the wooded area we are going to be using for FPV we are met by some of the resident animals. It was cool seeing these while out flying our multi rotors but nothing could prepare us for what we were about to see when flying the meadow.
We are not sure what the bugs were do you know?
Have you ever had this happen or heard of it before?
Could flying near wasp nests or bee colonies be dangerous?
The quad used in the video is a HK450 with integrated PCB
Motors are 4 x Aerodrive 2830/11 1000kx
ESC's are 4 x Simon K 30Amp from RC Timer
Flight controller is the Naza M running V2 firmware
Props for this video were HK gemfan 8045 (now running 9x5 Graupner E-prop)
Batteries are 2 x 2650 Zippy flightmax
Thank you for looking at this content.
Kind Regards
Malc and the team
Silly Fokker RC
My take on your Q's is:
1: They are regular bee's
2: Yes several times during bee season (Springtime). I have also been attacked by bumblebee's several times (which sadly none of have survived). I have found out that they do only intend to attack my multi's because of the humming sound that it makes.. I think that they think it is some kind of lager bee, wasp or whatever and they tend stand there ground.
3:It's only dangerous for them and not for your multi... when i notice that they are attacking me i try to fly away as fast as possible to leave them alone and not to harm them.
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ATB Malc
Silly Fokker RC
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ATB Malc
Silly Fokker RC
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ATB Malc
Silly Fokker RC
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ATB Malc
Silly Fokker RC
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ATB Malc
Silly Fokker RC
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The cool thing is, we just wrote a paper about swarming:
http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/10/85/20130305.abstract
and we are thinking about somehow getting quadcopters involved... and you "made that happen" lol
Cheers Arend
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I showed the vidoe to my collaborator Fred Dyer, who is a world famous bee researcher, and he and his postdoc first of all agreed that these are bees, but in particular these are drones - male honey bees. The shape of the abdomen on particular the one in your cover frame above the W is most definitely a drone. These guys have no other function than hang out and at some point mate with the queen. They sit around in fields and meadows and wait for queens flying overhead. However, besides the visual impression, the sound waves and vibrations in the air are a major turn on for them if a queen flies by. What most likely happened is that the drones sitting in the field mistook your quad for a queen and wanted to mate. The air vibrations of your quad were probably in the right frequency to turn them on. Congrats your quad is female, a very hot chick I might say, at least in the eyes of honey bee drones.
Cheers Arend
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Now you're not gonna believe this but Ivor flew tonight and he was surrounded by swifts.... I guess his Quad turns them on too =) Thank you for your input.
ATB Malc
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As a stunt, when I would show people my hives I would snatch a drone from the air with my hand. A female, of course, would have stung me.
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This may have been a bunch of bees in a small volume of space, but it is not what is typically called a swarm. A swarm is made up of female worker bees and a new fertile queen. They are moving from their crowded old hive to start a new hive. This is the most mellow time for bees. A swarm won't attack anything. Swarms also don't fly very high in the air. There's no place to build a new hive up there.
These are male bees hoping to mate with a young queen. They don't have stingers. They couldn't attack anything even if they wanted to.
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I have just added my video to yours as a response please do the same and I will approve it. So it looks like this is a little more than an isolated incident. Thanks for sharing.
ATB Malc
Silly Fokker RC
Are you a Silly Fokker?
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But my wife came up the idea of hovering my drone around the carpenter bees. Genius!
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