Another incident of stupidity

[Prop Wash]

NorCal has fires going on - A couple of yutzes put up their drones at one.

Drones near a Wild-Fire

People need to get it right.

 

[Barbara]

Happened up here in Manitoba too just yesterday.

Drone interfered with fire fighting operation in the Whiteshell, province says​

Appears we have our own Yutzes...

 

[Phantomrain.org]

I am not a fan of the everyone shutting down rescue operations do to a drone in the sky, they need to come up with something better.

I can tell you right now that if i am in that fire in the forest < my drone is going straight up to find a way out.
Meanwhile all rescue operations will be shut down, UGH .

I realize that this is not the case , but I would love to know how many drones are responsible for finding Fires in the first place.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain.

 

[db4476]

That is a good example why Real ID is coming to an airspace near you.

Cheers!

 

[Prop Wash]

I am not a fan of the everyone shutting down rescue operations do to a drone in the sky, they need to come up with something better.

I can tell you right now that if i am in that fire in the forest < my drone is going straight up to find a way out.
Meanwhile all rescue operations will be shut down, UGH .

I realize that this is not the case , but I would love to know how many drones are responsible for finding Fires in the first place.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain.

I think the same way - SOMETHING need to be done.
1 could be throwing up a TFR for non-firefighting aircraft (I know, I know - if they're dumb enough to fly in an emergency situation, they'd ignore a TFR)
2 could be some type of jammer. (There is an article on here about UK doing Jammer testing - Jamming Trial UK) The tech is available. I don't know the range.

The thing is if their house was in danger, they likely wouldn't want air tankers grounded when they could save their house because of an unathorized drone.

 

[A.O.]

Not really drone related but years ago we had a helicopter dipping water out of one of my ponds to fight a fire, was kinds cool to watch up close.

 

[Barbara]

My personal opinion, most of the drone pilots involved in these type of incidents are flying out of curiosity and for personal gratification with little regard or understanding of the possible consequences. By all means, find them out and come down on them hard.

The situation posited by phantomrain would be rare and could possibly be excused. But, I'm not sure how useful a drone would be under the circumstances. A fire advancing towards you would mean you are likely downwind, much smoke, limited visibility. Too many variables here to really form any generalized consensus.

 

[fuzzball]

Maybe fly the drone before the fire to see some of the issues that are causing the fires.



Pacific Gas & Electric has reported to California utility regulators that its equipment may have been involved in the start of the Dixie Fire that has prompted evacuations and is threatening hundreds of structures in Northern California.

The utility said in a filing Sunday that a repair person responding to a circuit outage July 13 spotted blown fuses in a conductor atop a pole, a tree leaning into the conductor and fire at the base of the tree.

PG&E equipment has repeatedly been linked to major wildfires, including a 2018 fire that ravaged the town of Paradise and killed 85 people.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Not really drone related but years ago we had a helicopter dipping water out of one of my ponds to fight a fire, was kinds cool to watch up close.

I remember the story of when they found a scuba diver about a mile out inland and they wondered how he got there, turns out he accidentally got picked up by a helo scooping water for a fire ,

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain.

 

[Barbara]

I remember the story of when they found a scuba diver about a mile out inland and they wondered how he got there, turns out he accidentally got picked up by a helo scooping water for a fire ,

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain.

LOL, I remember the story too. Was back in the late 80's when it first appeared. Fortunately it turned out to be a myth.

Snopes

 

[GFields]

Sad

 

[hiflyer201]

1 could be throwing up a TFR for non-firefighting aircraft

If there is a TFR up a DJI drone will land. DJI puts up a area larger than the actual TFR that you have to get a release to fly in. The problem is a fire where a TFR hasn't yet been issued. Most pilots report smoke plumes to ATC and a lot of times they have already been reported but occasionally there is a fire that bombers are working and even Flight Service has no knowledge off.
I fly out of a tanker base and needless to say anytime there is a smoke plume I know there is probably going to be heavy tanker traffic in between the fire and the airport and one has to be super alert for traffic as for all traffic but as hectic as it sometimes gets there has never been a need to stop general aviation or commercial air traffic out side of the TFR.
As I said earlier if a TFR is in place it's been my experience that a DJI drone won't take off. I have an APP, Foreflight, that shows the actual TFR and many time's DJI's blue area covers my house even though I am several miles from the actual TFR I can easily get a release to fly but I always get warnings that my drone will land if I enter the TFR.
I say all this because I don't think anyone could fly a straight up reconnaissance flight within the TFR with a DJI drone even though I can see the need for a homeowner to want to do so. Within the smoke area it could be useless anyway. you probably wouldn't be able to outclimb the smoke.

 

[hiflyer201]

There was a case near me recently where the route between the pond..(accurate description) where the Super Scoopers were tanking up was wide open.

it was bizarre really!

 

[sar104]

If there is a TFR up a DJI drone will land. DJI puts up a area larger than the actual TFR that you have to get a release to fly in. The problem is a fire where a TFR hasn't yet been issued. Most pilots report smoke plumes to ATC and a lot of times they have already been reported but occasionally there is a fire that bombers are working and even Flight Service has no knowledge off.
I fly out of a tanker base and needless to say anytime there is a smoke plume I know there is probably going to be heavy tanker traffic in between the fire and the airport and one has to be super alert for traffic as for all traffic but as hectic as it sometimes gets there has never been a need to stop general aviation or commercial air traffic out side of the TFR.
As I said earlier if a TFR is in place it's been my experience that a DJI drone won't take off. I have an APP, Foreflight, that shows the actual TFR and many time's DJI's blue area covers my house even though I am several miles from the actual TFR I can easily get a release to fly but I always get warnings that my drone will land if I enter the TFR.
I say all this because I don't think anyone could fly a straight up reconnaissance flight within the TFR with a DJI drone even though I can see the need for a homeowner to want to do so. Within the smoke area it could be useless anyway. you probably wouldn't be able to outclimb the smoke.

Just to clarify - a TFR is a DJI Geo blue authorization zone, and so you can simply self-authorize to fly without any formal authorization from the TFR owner.

 

[blubyyou]

NorCal has fires going on - A couple of yutzes put up their drones at one.

Drones near a Wild-Fire

People need to get it right.

I find I can see about as far as I want 75 feet above ground. NO fixed wing/helicopter should be or ever would be flying at that altitude unless they are crashing. I think we and the FAA need to use a little common sense. I’m not endangering any other aircraft by flying 75 feet above the ground.

 

[hiflyer201]

Just to clarify - a TFR is a DJI Geo blue authorization zone, and so you can simply self-authorize to fly without any formal authorization from the TFR owner.

I'm not so sure about that Sar. The blue area is much larger than the actual TFR or has been in my experience. I have Foreflight that shows the actual TFR and naturally I haven't actually ever dared to get really close to it because of all the warnings I get even though I'm flying with authorization which allowed me to take off. I think in the case of a fire TFR DJI makes the blue area so large because the TFR is probably going to move or expand. It has been my belief that if I accidently entered the the actual TFR my drone would land. ....I'm not about to try and find out ?
We have many TFRs pop up around here.,, Presidential, Forest Fires, Celebrity Helicopter crashes and ignorance is not an option with the Friendly FAA.

 

[AZDave]

I remember the story of when they found a scuba diver about a mile out inland and they wondered how he got there, turns out he accidentally got picked up by a helo scooping water for a fire ,

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain.

That's clearly a fabricated myth.

 

[Prop Wash]

I find I can see about as far as I want 75 feet above ground. NO fixed wing/helicopter should be or ever would be flying at that altitude unless they are crashing. I think we and the FAA need to use a little common sense. I’m not endangering any other aircraft by flying 75 feet above the ground.

While I understand your point, we do know the FAA has to two rules that currently apply here:

• Give way to and do not interfere with manned aircraft.
• Do not operate your drone in a dangerous manner. For example:
  • Do not interfere with emergency response or law enforcement activities.
  • Do not fly under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Will these change in the future? Not likely.

 

[Barbara]

I find I can see about as far as I want 75 feet above ground. NO fixed wing/helicopter should be or ever would be flying at that altitude unless they are crashing. I think we and the FAA need to use a little common sense. I’m not endangering any other aircraft by flying 75 feet above the ground.

I understand your point and believe you are sincere about staying below 75 feet, but the pilots in the aircraft don't know that. It's their lives at stake, not yours. Also, tankers that scoop from lakes and dump their loads on fires are definitely going to be flying below 75 feet at certain times, and not in the process of crashing, hopefully.

 

[AZDave]

I find I can see about as far as I want 75 feet above ground. NO fixed wing/helicopter should be or ever would be flying at that altitude unless they are crashing. I think we and the FAA need to use a little common sense. I’m not endangering any other aircraft by flying 75 feet above the ground.

It could be a matter of enforcement. It's far easier to determine if a drone is flying over a particular area than it is to determine how high it is flying .... depending upon the speed, of course.

By the way, I live where two major wildfires have happened in the last 20 years. I've had slurry bombers drop retardant right overhead and I've watched countless helicopter runs with water bags. A couple of the slurry bomber runs ended up with the plane no more than 100 feet above a ridgeline they had to cross as they dropped retardant into a canyon (they fly across canyons because flying up or down one that's on fire is suicide because of fire-driven air currents). And I guarantee that some helicopter water drops occur with the bag less than 100 feet above the terrain.

tldr ... you're wrong.