Can helicopters/planes detect the Mavic in flight?

[ascension]

I love topics where people have no idea what they are talking about yet beat thier chest as if they know everything.

Do you even know what the term phased array means without using some wiki site? Internet has made everyone a know it all these days it seems.

The point is ...yes aircraft if dialed in correctly will see your stupid drones on thier radar. The mavic is big enough and has enough metal to provide a reflection and the common civilian helo doesn't even have a radar as they are prohibitively expensive in many cases.

I'm not sure what kind of "aircraft" you're referring to. A fighter, probably at close range.
A civil with it's radar, which is weather radar, I don't think it's possible at all.
I flew them for 32 years, and you can get a skin paint return off another airliner at relatively close range, and favorable azimuth, but never saw anything not considerably larger than a light twin, unless is was a TCAS display.

 

[Grey Wolf]

The only drones pilots or ATC can see are the one with a transponder. (IE miltary drones)

Most airplanes are flying at or above 500', so your Mavic should not be too much of an issue for them, assuming that you are not flying within 2 mils of the runway centerline.

I did see a drone once, flying at 3,500 AGL in a rented C-172.
Actually my wife saw it as it passed by our right side by a mere 50 feet.
Needless to say, I have no patience for that kind of behavior, but I am still hopefull we can all share the airspace thru understanding and education.

Helicopters are the biggest threat. By the time they see the drone, it is too late. So they will either miss it, or it will go thru the windshield. The day that happens, you will not want to be THAT GUY!

The downwash from the rotor blades will push the tiny drone away unless it is a big octo or similar.
Same with hitting a plane, the air vacuum created by the plane as it moves will deflect any drone away. The only exception being a direct hit from the front where it could be ingested by the engines
or the windshield as the plane's forward momentum will supercede the air vacuum.

 

[tangoseal]

God people nuke the piss out of these things just fly it take pictures and impress your Grammy. Gosh.

 

[Marko9219]

I love topics where people have no idea what they are talking about yet beat thier chest as if they know everything.

Do you even know what the term phased array means without using some wiki site? Internet has made everyone a know it all these days it seems.

The point is ...yes aircraft if dialed in correctly will see your stupid drones on thier radar. The mavic is big enough and has enough metal to provide a reflection and the common civilian helo doesn't even have a radar as they are prohibitively expensive in many cases.

You seem smart. My DOD history obviously pales in comparison.

 

[ascension]

The downwash from the rotor blades will push the tiny drone away unless it is a big octo or similar.
Same with hitting a plane, the air vacuum created by the plane as it moves will deflect any drone away. The only exception being a direct hit from the front where it could be ingested by the engines
or the windshield as the plane's forward momentum will supercede the air vacuum.

Not this "air vacuum" stuff again.
This "vacuum" you speak of has no apparent effect on birds?

 

[jeplane]

The downwash of a helicopter is, by definition, down and aft of said aircraft. Not AHEAD as you like to think.

What you are describing is called a boundary layer and one of the key component of lift. However, it is only a few millimeters deep.

Otherwise as already posted above, airplanes would never have bird strike!!!

Thanks for playing.

 

[TTFullTimer]

As an offshore fisherman we use our radar to look for bird flocks feeding on fish near the surface. Single bird not so much flocks can show up. Remember Radar Range?? Your nice little microwave oven. I do know that you don't get in the front radiation pattern on a large Navy ship radar. Then there is the problem of the curvature of the earth at 200 miles. One or both of the "ships" will have to be elevated a long way. If it is the ships radar seeing 200 miles to just over the horizon which is where a Mavic would be the ships radar would have to be 25000 feet above the surface of the sea. If for some reason you were at max 500 meters the ships radar would have to be at 15000 feet just to clear the horizon to see the Mavic at 200 miles. Of course that would require a very high power radar. Stuff close in would get cooked pretty well.

 

[roherron]

I am a Commercial Heavy Helicopter (Chinook/CH47) pilot for my career, and most operators, excluding Airlines or corporate jets, do not utilize radar technology in their/our aircraft. I cannot quantify how many GA/Commercial helicopters/airplanes do have traffic radar installed, but it isn't many from my experience.

TCAS has been around for awhile and as stated in a previous post, this technology use your transponder to pickup a return. Very cool stuff...

The new technology that ATC and other aircraft will be using is ADS-B which again will not be able to pickup a drone, if my understanding is correct. Again, very cool stuff...

Drones, especially when fighting fires, make us very nervous. Smokey conditions and looking for targets to drop on, & other aircraft to dodge, we won't see a small drone until it's too late and these could really mess up someone's day.

As far as me flying along at 120kts...I would definitely hit something in my windshield well before it hits my rotor wash. And that is from a lot of rotor wash.

I'm new to quadcopters and absolutely love my Mavic Pro. Absolutely awesome to fly...

From my experiences, I hope this helps...