eagles will destroy your drone

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bold-eagles-angry-birds-are-ripping-80-000-drones-out-of-the-sky-1506701429

"In his first 2½ years flying drones at the mine, Mr. Steven said he lost 12 drones to eagle attacks, which cost his employer, South Africa-based Gold Fields Ltd. , some $210,000. During the past year, when he focused his flying in the morning, he has lost two—with two more close calls.
​​Any successes at deterring wedge-tailed eagle attacks in Australia could provide clues in how to minimize avian obstacles in other regions."

I haven't had any bird interested in my quadcopter yet.  Hopefully it won't happen.

First crash caused by a drone?

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/02/16/helicopter_crash_drone/

The crash was first reported this week by telly station Live 5 News, in South Carolina, USA< which saw a copy of a police report stating that a Robinson R22 helicopter struck a tree and landed on its side.
The Robinson, which is a typical basic training light helicopter, was being flown by an instructor and a student. The instructor reportedly told police that his student was practising hover taxi manoeuvring over rough ground on Daniel Island, a peninsula near the southeast US coast port city of Charleston.
During a turn, the instructor reportedly claimed he saw a white "DJI Phantom quadcopter" headed towards them. He took control of the helicopter, allegedly to evade the drone, but the aircraft's tail rotor struck a small tree. Though he got the helo down onto the rear of its landing skids, it then turned over.

WELL.... if the pilot is telling the truth anyway.  i would think DJI would know from its database if any phantoms were flying around there.

Marine Corps goes all in on quadcopters

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a16762519/the-marine-corps-latest-weapon-is-a-quadcopter/

"In late January 2018, the Marine Corps started issuing quadcopter drones to its infantry squads. According to National Defense Magazine, the Corps purchased 800 of the drones in 2017, which DefenseOne says are being sent out to units at rate of about 200 a week.

The Marine Corps infantry squad is a thirteen man unit and the building block of the Marine Corps. Each squad is divided up into three separate fire teams, each commanded by a corporal, with the thirteenth man as the sergeant squad leader. This gives the squad the ability to scout the battlefield without exposing friendly troops to enemy fire."

Makes perfect sense to me. Do they have solar recharging systems too?

great use of drones at winter olympics

quadcopters smuggle cigarettes across a short border

https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-slovakia-smuggling/29009982.html

"Smugglers are using drones to breach the border between Ukraine and Slovakia, supplying EU black markets with contraband cigarettes. (Current Time TV)"