VIDEO Helicopter flew too close for comfort!

[Lapeer20m]

It happened really fast.

I was flying along the beach vlos about 600 feet distance and about 130 feet agl and seemingly out of nowhere a helicopter zooms by at about the same altitude. I would estimate he was flying 100mph but I am Admittedly inexperienced at guessing speed of a chopper.

I have my part 107, but thats irrelevant. There are no heliports or airports within 5 miles of here.

It had already passed the mavic by the time I saw or heard it.

It was windy and the waves were crashing on the beach.

I would estimate that it was at least several hundred feet away from
The drone at the closest, but I would much Prefer to keep thousands of feet between mavic the nearest manned aircraft.

Thankfully It's an uneventful story. What bothers me most is that I don't know what I could do different to keep a similar incident from occurring in the future.

Definately too close for comfort.

 

[Former Member]

When I fly along the beach, I try to do it at the crack of dawn,and stay offshore but close to it and I know I still need to be vigilant about incoming aircraft especially if it's a beach in South Florida, or Southern California. There are helicopters, banner pullers, Cessnas, etc flying during the day and its hard to keep track of them all, not to mention seagulls.

I think most civilian helicopters like a Jet Ranger that would be flying along the beach might be cruising at 120 knots, and you would hear them at least a quarter mile away despite all the ambient noise around you. They fly off the beach, but can get very low. That would only give you 8 seconds to get out of his way if he was flying at your altitude and direction. Something like a Coast Guard Jhawk you might be able to hear further away but their cruise speed is around 140 knots which would give you only 13 seconds to get out of his way.

There's a banner puller that flies near the park I fly at, and Im sure he is at around 400-500 feet. He is slow, maybe 80 or 90 knots, but it's still unnerving if Im 700 - 1000 feet out and need to land when I hear him.