Proper etiquette for sharing airspace

[Wenchtram]

Hello,

The Mavic is my first hobby-grade drone, stepping beyond the toy-grade/micro stuff that I had flown before, and I now find myself spending more time at the local park spaces. Thus far, this has been a solo exercise, flying by myself.

On a recent excursion, however, I had a chance encounter with another UAV pilot who happened to be at the park for the same reason. I didn't actually notice him at first, but thankfully he noticed me and approached to let me know that he was there and also flying.

That experience has started me wondering about proper etiquette for sharing the airspace with other pilots (be they UAVs, model planes, or anything else in the air that is unmanned). Is there any etiquette rules for how far I should stay away (linear distance between pilots on the ground)? Is the airspace effectively first-come-first-serve? Are there better ways of sharing the airspace?

Looking forward to your thoughts.

 

[skypros]

The proper etiquette for sharing the airspace with other pilots..... is just be cool, you are both there doing the same thing.
I don't think this is 1st come my air space. As more people are flying their drones in a "local" area the more this is going to happen.

I think if you can find the other pilot..... Go over and talk to them...... there is nothing funner than talking "shop" with someone else that you share the same interests.

 

[Kilrah]

Try to find the guys and coordinate your flights by saying where you are/are going, if you took off from the same place it's good to do regular altitude callouts as that's a pretty simple way to ensure separation.

 

[F6Rider]

There were a few other pilots in the park where I fly yesterday, we coordinated flight areas and altitudes, all except for the racing quads, who basically just stayed out of the way. I parked my Mavic at +100' and flew at distance, while others stayed between 50-100' with the small quads below 50'. With a call out when landing or taking off, seemed to work out as at one point we had 5 or 6 in the air at once.