From my experiences while working on my Masters, getting permission to fly anything over the city of Ottawa, especially something experimental is tricky. However, that being said, there are a lot of students at both Carleton and U of O who would certainly be interested in that sort of thing. There was/is an undergrad UAV club at Carleton not to mention a couple of big projects that are part of the Mech & Aero department there, for instance.
The height they'd be flying at might be an issue. I mean with a hand waved bike you wouldn't want to go too high, enough to avoid the power lines and houses maybe. Which might not be as big a deal as flying an actual airplane over parts of the city. I could definitely see some students at U of O using 'waved bikes and the like to hop over the canal and head to Elgin street, even though the pedestrian foot bridge is right there.
Another thought is the airport. It's very easy to get to from either Carleton[0] or U of O[1], a lot of buses have folding two bike racks on the front during the summer and I've seen 8 bikes squeezed onto the O-Train at a time. There are flying clubs at the airport, including at least one student sponsored one if my memory is not playing tricks on me. Maybe permits could be obtained through them, depending on what the students want to do.
[0] The O-Train runs right through the middle of campus. Two stops to the south is the end of the line at Greenboro, which is on the transitway[2] and it is easy to get a 97X going to the airport, or hop on something that heads west down Hunt Club, which is where IIRC some of the flying clubs are based.
[1] The transitway runs along the western edge of campus, with stops at Laurier and Campus stations. There are three buses that come by regularly and will get you to Greenboro and South Keys (one stop further and the southern end of the transitway).
[2] The transitway is a series of roads reserved for buses. and has three major branches. West from Hurdman station, heading through downtown and out to Kanata. East from Hurdman station heading to Orleans. And south from Hurdman station heading towards the airport, South Keys and Hunt Club road. If you want to get somewhere in Ottawa via public transit, the transitway will get you fairly close.
--
Canada's 4 seasons, of course, being Almost Winter, Winter, Still
Winter, and Construction.
-- Rob Chanter, in the Monastery
The height they'd be flying at might be an issue. I mean with a hand waved bike you wouldn't want to go too high, enough to avoid the power lines and houses maybe. Which might not be as big a deal as flying an actual airplane over parts of the city. I could definitely see some students at U of O using 'waved bikes and the like to hop over the canal and head to Elgin street, even though the pedestrian foot bridge is right there.
Another thought is the airport. It's very easy to get to from either Carleton[0] or U of O[1], a lot of buses have folding two bike racks on the front during the summer and I've seen 8 bikes squeezed onto the O-Train at a time. There are flying clubs at the airport, including at least one student sponsored one if my memory is not playing tricks on me. Maybe permits could be obtained through them, depending on what the students want to do.
[0] The O-Train runs right through the middle of campus. Two stops to the south is the end of the line at Greenboro, which is on the transitway[2] and it is easy to get a 97X going to the airport, or hop on something that heads west down Hunt Club, which is where IIRC some of the flying clubs are based.
[1] The transitway runs along the western edge of campus, with stops at Laurier and Campus stations. There are three buses that come by regularly and will get you to Greenboro and South Keys (one stop further and the southern end of the transitway).
[2] The transitway is a series of roads reserved for buses. and has three major branches. West from Hurdman station, heading through downtown and out to Kanata. East from Hurdman station heading to Orleans. And south from Hurdman station heading towards the airport, South Keys and Hunt Club road. If you want to get somewhere in Ottawa via public transit, the transitway will get you fairly close.
--
Canada's 4 seasons, of course, being Almost Winter, Winter, Still
Winter, and Construction.
-- Rob Chanter, in the Monastery