2 spotters. My longest flight so far!

[Vic Moss]

Lo and behold, this just popped up in my FB feed. Again, don't be stupid in the future.

 

[BigAl07]

I'll be the first to admit the current "patchwork" of regulations (regarding VO's for P107) is confusing and poorly written. One thing that I have voiced my opinion on several times (and pretty been much ignored) is they need to differentiate between a co-located VO and a remote located VO. The remotely located VO can not assume LOS role currently but they mistakenly (IMHO) put wording in there for it when it IS allowed in the future which leads to confusion and errors.

As of right now (7/10/2020) the primary VO is considered Co-Located and is allowed to "temporarily" assume LOS duty only to allow the RPIC to momentarily look down at the display/controls/equipment. While the RPIC is looking away from the aircraft the VO (co-located) assumes that role temporarily and must be close enough for verbal communications with the RPIC.

We CAN have multiple VO's to help increase situational awareness but only the primary VO, that is co-located to the RPIC, can legally and temporarily assume LOS responsibilities. We often use multiple VO's for night and high-stress flights but they are only there to increase our level of safety. The additional VO's communicate with the primary VO via 2-way and the VO relays any needed details to the RPIC verbally (although the RPIC hears the radio calls as well).

 

[BigAl07]

Lo and behold, this just popped up in my FB feed. Again, don't be stupid in the future.View attachment 107390

And for those who ARE going to say, "That AG pilot was making a dangerous move flying like that" ...

It doesn't MATTER! It's OUR job to See & Avoid at all cost. It's OUR responsibility to make sure we do NOTHING to affect the flight of a manned aircraft.. NOTHING!! We are the lowest point of the totem pole and we have to work diligently to do everything we can to fly within the rules and NOT affect manned aircraft in the least.

Thanks for your input @Vic Moss . Hope you're doing well over there in CO.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

Since You seem unable to comprehend the laws as written and want to take people’s word for it here’s another word.

It was 100% illegal. Your use of spotters did not change anything since that’s not how spotters work.

The worst part is bragging about it looks bad for all of us so we do need to address this.
I’m sure the FAA already considers most of us a pack of scofflaws but it doesn’t help to reconfirm it.

 

[BigAl07]

Watch out if you get a similar message from the FAA

Indeed

 

[Starz]

So I received an email from DJI earlier today

Interesting. The number of posts that I’ve read on this forum and a few others, I’ve never seen this. Sorry, I would need to see some form of verification to become a believer.
( nice to see you back, Big A)

 

[Deleted member 114292]

Interesting. The number of posts that I’ve read on this forum and a few others, I’ve never seen this. Sorry, I would need to see some form of verification to become a believer.
( nice to see you back, Big A)

Here is the current leader board:

Official Mavic 2 Range Leaderboard

In Memory of Steve William Carr. (beanbubba) THE FOLLOWING RANGE COMPETITION INFORMATION AND FORMAT IS BASED ON FEEDBACK FROM MANY FOLKS WITH A VESTED INTEREST IN THIS. I ENCOURAGE DEBATE AND OPINIONS BUT BE SURE TO CONFORM TO THE FORUM GUIDELINES. TROLLS WILL BE REPORTED. Community Rules...

mavicpilots.com

Find it hard to believe based on this,

 

[Kamau54]

well where i live if i forget to put my seat belt on, then i get a fine and points on my licence ,

Is that only if you get caught, or do you punish yourself. Lol!

 

[krodgerson]

Some people are determined to disobey regulations for the sake of boasting. Why??

 

[Starz]

Here is the current leader board:

Official Mavic 2 Range Leaderboard

In Memory of Steve William Carr. (beanbubba) THE FOLLOWING RANGE COMPETITION INFORMATION AND FORMAT IS BASED ON FEEDBACK FROM MANY FOLKS WITH A VESTED INTEREST IN THIS. I ENCOURAGE DEBATE AND OPINIONS BUT BE SURE TO CONFORM TO THE FORUM GUIDELINES. TROLLS WILL BE REPORTED. Community Rules...

mavicpilots.com

Find it hard to believe based on this,

I see the distance stuff every day. It’s the dji email that seems strange.

 

[BigAl07]

( nice to see you back, Big A)

Thank you. It's been a wild few months

 

[old man mavic]

there is one very simple way to settle the Email question and that is for the OP to post it on the forum to be verified,from a personal point of view (no mod hat on )i think that the,OPs flight was ill advised and broke so many safe flying rules

 

[THE CYBORG]

Good one for you but I agree with PhiliusFoggg “l think it would actually be pretty stupid of DJI to consider using an illegal flight for for advertisement and product endorsements “

 

[Trackerputnam]

Next time, “I ran along below it keeping good visual contact along the way”!

 

[Vic Moss]

How about a little FAA insight...

For those of you who don't know who I am, I wear (among many other hats) the title of FAASTeam Drone Pro. That means I work with my local FSDO, and am one of 3 "education" people in the Colorado and Wyoming district when a reported drone pilot needs to have a little assistance understanding the rules. FSDO reaches out to the reported pilot, and then reaches out to one of us if they feel the need for more info.

It is up to us to recommend to the FSDO if we feel there is need for further enforcement action against a reported drone operator. While our opinion is a recommendation only, the FAA will give quite a bit of weight to that recommendation.

In this case, I'd lean towards further enforcement if I was asked to meet with the OP. I'd go into that meeting with a preconceived notion that he doesn't care about the rules. He would have to convince me that he wouldn't do it again. And that would be hard to do.

He readily admits he was flying illegal, spotters or not. He says it's safe because it's farmland. He obviously has zero idea of what Ag Pilots do this time of year over fields. Maybe they're not active in his area, but I would be surprised if not.

If an Ag Pilot saw him doing this, I can promise beyond a shadow of a doubt they'd hit the roof. And they'd likely report it.

Don't be this guy!

 

[HoozierDroneDaddy]

What an irresponsible (and as you mentioned, illegal) act. Yes, you were over farm land. But you flew over roads, even if they weren't very busy.

There could have been ag pilots out, or even other private fixed wing aircraft. While it's unlikely there is a private pilot flying that low, it would be legal for them to do so. There are no minimums over unpopulated areas. And yes, dumb people own manned aircraft, just like dumb people own unmanned aircraft.

And if you have two dumb people flying in a situation like this, a catastrophe could result. Luckily, it seems there was only one dumb person in the air in this case.

Please don't pull a moronic stunt like this again!

And even though he had two evenly spaced VO's, I have the M2P and there is no way they are able to see it at over a 1.5 miles away or even a .5 mile. So if the FAA were to dig into this, I doubt they would accept his argument that they were maintaining VLOS.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

How about a little FAA insight...

For those of you who don't know who I am, I wear (among many other hats) the title of FAASTeam Drone Pro. That means I work with my local FSDO, and am one of 3 "education" people in the Colorado and Wyoming district when a reported drone pilot needs to have a little assistance understanding the rules. FSDO reaches out to the reported pilot, and then reaches out to one of us if they feel the need for more info.

It is up to us to recommend to the FSDO if we feel there is need for further enforcement action against a reported drone operator. While our opinion is a recommendation only, the FAA will give quite a bit of weight to that recommendation.

In this case, I'd lean towards further enforcement if I was asked to meet with the OP. I'd go into that meeting with a preconceived notion that he doesn't care about the rules. He would have to convince me that he wouldn't do it again. And that would be hard to do.

He readily admits he was flying illegal, spotters or not. He says it's safe because it's farmland. He obviously has zero idea of what Ag Pilots do this time of year over fields. Maybe they're not active in his area, but I would be surprised if not.

If an Ag Pilot saw him doing this, I can promise beyond a shadow of a doubt they'd hit the roof. And they'd likely report it.

Don't be this guy!

Thank you Vic! It really means a lot to get official back up on matters like this.
Not living near active farms I had not considered this, good to know.

 

[BigAl07]

Very well stated @Vic Moss. For those who don't know him, Vic is a HUGE industry advocate for us both hobby and commercially. He's been on the cutting edge and a spearhead for us for several years now. Vic is definitely one of the Good Guys for our sUAS Industry as a whole.

Thanks for chiming in Vic and sharing your info with the forum.

 

[Aumoe]

I’ve seen on YouTube this distance being flown, so I had to give it a shot, and with 2 spotters (2 farms along the flight path are relatives) which normally I don’t worry about, but for this length of flight I played it safe, and I topped 50k feet!
Very excited about this, I know I wasn’t 100% legal, but I was no more out of line then when someone fails to buckle up in a car, basically I was not doing anything unsafe enough to warrant any negativity that’s why I posted details as to the planning, the route, spotters o did everything within reason to accomplish this flight!
I’d like to see the top distances of others and if they want to post their experience and details I’d like to hear that as well ??View attachment 107348

Here is a few

Official Mavic 2 Range Leaderboard

In Memory of Steve William Carr. (beanbubba) THE FOLLOWING RANGE COMPETITION INFORMATION AND FORMAT IS BASED ON FEEDBACK FROM MANY FOLKS WITH A VESTED INTEREST IN THIS. I ENCOURAGE DEBATE AND OPINIONS BUT BE SURE TO CONFORM TO THE FORUM GUIDELINES. TROLLS WILL BE REPORTED. Community Rules...

mavicpilots.com

 

[Archon<>Procyon]

Interesting. The number of posts that I’ve read on this forum and a few others, I’ve never seen this. Sorry, I would need to see some form of verification to become a believer.
( nice to see you back, Big A)

I’m not asking for you to believe I’m a bit shocked myself. All I can do is when it comes to me I can post a pic. I would probably be skeptical as well but definitely not enough so to openly call someone out on it; bit I get it it’s fine lol. They do promotional stuff all the time check out their website.