Banner Planes

[traceurdoc]

Hey all,
So I have had my Mavic for a couple of months. Had a "nightmare" about flying recently.

So in this dream. I was flying on Independence day in Chicago, (trying to avoid crowds) near a Chicago Beach. I was hovering in a specific area and getting some awesome footage when I rotate my drone only to see a white-out in my screen. The dream took a horrifying twist when I physically look up to see that a low-flying advertising banner plane flying right by my drone. I was only flying at about 300ft!!! (In the dream of course).

Does anyone know how low these planes fly? I would not want to collide with one and cause harm to others.

I was always under the assumption that anything <400ft was safe with the exception of some helicopters. Never expected a plane to fly this low.

 

[colinfowler]

any height, in a dream

 

[scooot]

https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/media/faa-fs.pdf

 

[Former Member]

From a previous thread:

VIDEO Helicopter flew too close for comfort!

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.