I'm on vacation this week in Nova Scotia, and yesterday we did a visit to Peggy's Cove, a popular tourist spot where there is a famous and often photographed lighthouse amongst the rocks.
As I was prepping my Air 2S for a flight to catch some imagery of the lighthouse and area, I heard the distinctive "whizzzz" of another drone already launching.
A guy about 30' away on a pedestrian platform decided to launch his Mavic 3 Pro from there and do the same thing.
Everybody is different, but if it were me, and I saw someone else setting up to fly, I might ask some deconfliction questions first. I didn't notice him because he was behind me, but he clearly would have seen me setting up ... I had the landing pad out, etc.
I decided there was plenty of visibility, and a feature I could do some video of first before I figured he'd be done at the lighthouse then I could move over there without a risk of collision. So I launched and followed a carefully planned flight route out to some rocks with no people being oveflown.
Almost guaranteed the other pilot was not licenced, or if he was he was completely ignoring the rules, as he overflow numerous people on his way to the lighthouse.
At one point I considered talking to him to see what his plans were as I was anxious to avoid a collision. Instead I just did "see & avoid" and made sure to keep an eye on his drone's movements while positioning mine 100m or more away from his and selecting a different altitude.
I wish drones had some anticollision technology, but I get that the added radio noise and added weight of that equipment would be less desirable.
As some precipitation started we were both anxious to land our drones and pack them away, which again led to another high risk moment, but I routed my drone well away from him and the numerous people that he was near anyway, so it was no issue (for me... he broke several laws however).
What are your thoughts? Have you ever had another pilot flying near you and did you take any time to discuss your intentions to avoid flying in eachother's planned routes etc? I guess I'm just happy he wasn't trying to chase my drone down or do anything dangerous while I had mine up, but I'm wondering if I should have done more to talk to them to encourage safer flying. The fact that he was ok with flying right over people sort of suggests that he wasn't going to take any advice from me anyway.
As I was prepping my Air 2S for a flight to catch some imagery of the lighthouse and area, I heard the distinctive "whizzzz" of another drone already launching.
A guy about 30' away on a pedestrian platform decided to launch his Mavic 3 Pro from there and do the same thing.
Everybody is different, but if it were me, and I saw someone else setting up to fly, I might ask some deconfliction questions first. I didn't notice him because he was behind me, but he clearly would have seen me setting up ... I had the landing pad out, etc.
I decided there was plenty of visibility, and a feature I could do some video of first before I figured he'd be done at the lighthouse then I could move over there without a risk of collision. So I launched and followed a carefully planned flight route out to some rocks with no people being oveflown.
Almost guaranteed the other pilot was not licenced, or if he was he was completely ignoring the rules, as he overflow numerous people on his way to the lighthouse.
At one point I considered talking to him to see what his plans were as I was anxious to avoid a collision. Instead I just did "see & avoid" and made sure to keep an eye on his drone's movements while positioning mine 100m or more away from his and selecting a different altitude.
I wish drones had some anticollision technology, but I get that the added radio noise and added weight of that equipment would be less desirable.
As some precipitation started we were both anxious to land our drones and pack them away, which again led to another high risk moment, but I routed my drone well away from him and the numerous people that he was near anyway, so it was no issue (for me... he broke several laws however).
What are your thoughts? Have you ever had another pilot flying near you and did you take any time to discuss your intentions to avoid flying in eachother's planned routes etc? I guess I'm just happy he wasn't trying to chase my drone down or do anything dangerous while I had mine up, but I'm wondering if I should have done more to talk to them to encourage safer flying. The fact that he was ok with flying right over people sort of suggests that he wasn't going to take any advice from me anyway.