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Cessna almost hit my drone yesterday

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Blitzkrieg

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I was out flying over a local lake yesterday around 5-6pm just getting the sunset before it gets too cold to fly regularly and the leaves are still colorful. I was a little over treetop level, maybe 200ft AGL and about 15-20 miles form the nearest airport and not anywhere near an NFZ.

About halfway through my 2nd flight a Cessna 172 or 182 comes sreaming in 100 feet above the trees and close to the same height as my drone. He was in a steep baking turn. I had to shove the the stick all the way down and quickly so he wouldn't hit me. I ended up calling 911 and they said thanks, but we can't do anything without a registration number, but we'll forward your complaint to the FAA. I tried to get their "N-number" but he was a bit too far and between the sun and myself so I couldn't make it out.

If he had is transponder on could I look up the time and place to get a track somewhere?
 
If he was broadcasting and If he was "SCUD Running" he wasn't even on Radar to be tracked.

You avoided the incident (Which is our most basic responsibility) and you reported it. I'm confident the FAA has more resources available to do the research than you do. You've done your part and there was no incident.

Enjoy your flights but keep in mind that this could happen in that same place again or just about ANY place.

As a side note... any time you're flying over/near open water a manned aircraft could be low at any point in time and do so legally. They can legally go Down Low over such areas and often times do exactly that. Doesn't mean it's a good idea but legally they can around open water so that's always good to keep in the back of your mind.
 
I was out flying over a local lake yesterday around 5-6pm just getting the sunset before it gets too cold to fly regularly and the leaves are still colorful. I was a little over treetop level, maybe 200ft AGL and about 15-20 miles form the nearest airport and not anywhere near an NFZ.

About halfway through my 2nd flight a Cessna 172 or 182 comes sreaming in 100 feet above the trees and close to the same height as my drone. He was in a steep baking turn. I had to shove the the stick all the way down and quickly so he wouldn't hit me. I ended up calling 911 and they said thanks, but we can't do anything without a registration number, but we'll forward your complaint to the FAA. I tried to get their "N-number" but he was a bit too far and between the sun and myself so I couldn't make it out.

If he had is transponder on could I look up the time and place to get a track somewhere?
Should that be YOU nearly hit a Cessna ?
 
You did a good job, maintained good situational awareness and dropped the drone when a manned craft came through.
Could be many reasons the Cessna was down low, but you did your job. Certainly not worthy of an emergency 911 call. Not sure what you expected there?
 
Just curious- I know you said sun was still up, so it sounds like you were legal, but did you have anti-collision beacons on? Also, was it a float plane by chance?

This is another reason why I am really careful about flying where my view of the skyline is cut off by trees or low hills, it is so easy for planes to just show up out of nowhere from behind them. We have a tanker base in our town and they often come home very fast over the low hills on their approach, so I stay off the ridge tops when I’m flying from below them.

Really glad it worked out for you, sounds like you did the right thing. As for who to call, there is an FAA line to report issues with planes, but it sounds like you really both were at the same place at the wrong time while doing the right thing, although flying an airplane that low above water at sunset is extremely risky as far as having a birdstrike. I wouldn’t do it.
 
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Just curious- I know you said sun was still up, so it sounds like you were legal, but did you have anti-collision beacons on? Also, was it a float plane by chance?

This is another reason why I am really careful about flying where my view of the skyline is cut off by trees or low hills, it is so easy for planes to just show up out of nowhere from behind them. We have a tanker base in our town and they often come home very fast over the low hills on their approach, so I stay off the ridge tops when I’m flying from below them.

Really glad it worked out for you, sounds like you did the right thing. As for who to call, there is an FAA line to report issues with planes, but it sounds like you really both were at the same place at the wrong time while doing the right thing, although flying an airplane that low above water at sunset is extremely risky as far as having a birdstrike. I wouldn’t do it.
C-130s fly near treelines sometimes where i live for extreme low-altitude training, nearly inches from the top of the tree.
 
I was out flying over a local lake yesterday around 5-6pm just getting the sunset before it gets too cold to fly regularly and the leaves are still colorful. I was a little over treetop level, maybe 200ft AGL and about 15-20 miles form the nearest airport and not anywhere near an NFZ.

About halfway through my 2nd flight a Cessna 172 or 182 comes sreaming in 100 feet above the trees and close to the same height as my drone.
As a side note... any time you're flying over/near open water a manned aircraft could be low at any point in time and do so legally. They can legally go Down Low over such areas and often times do exactly that. Doesn't mean it's a good idea but legally they can around open water so that's always good to keep in the back of your mind.

This has happened to me at a lake. A cub came off the water and up the inlet at an altitude that looked like about 50-60' AGL and although the pilot didn't fly directly over people he was about 150' away from me and a few fishermen. The plane was very close before I heard it. I was up about 35'AGL but there was no way I could determine which way to go and the plane almost flew over top of my quad. I just did my best to get out of the flight path. Kind of rattled me as I had always though I'd hear a plane coming. Since then I use strobes on my Mavic.

Another spot where I fly RC aircraft, we get a lot of low flyovers (well below 500") in Class G airspace and whether right or wrong on the part of the full sized aircraft pilots, we just do our best avoid them. The fact is unmanned aircraft must always give way to manned aircraft and why VLOS is important for RC pilots.

Here are a few pics I was lucky to capture of full sized aircraft flying between 100-300'AGL at our flying site.
B-17 at low altitude 2.jpgDSC00863p.jpglow fly over (1).jpglow fly over (2).jpg
 
If he had is transponder on could I look up the time and place to get a track somewhere?

No.
In order to do so, said aircraft would have to fly IFR, or receive VFR flight following. In that case, yes websites like flightaware can help find a path.

Because he was so low, it is likely he wasn’t talking to ATC.

Not sure about calling 911 in the future, because he had as much right, as you did, to be there....
 
No.
In order to do so, said aircraft would have to fly IFR, or receive VFR flight following. In that case, yes websites like flightaware can help find a path.

Because he was so low, it is likely he wasn’t talking to ATC.

Not sure about calling 911 in the future, because he had as much right, as you did, to be there....

If he had ADS-B then he might still show up on the tracking sites.
 
If he had ADS-B then he might still show up on the tracking sites.

It isn’t because you have ADS-B that you will show up automatically on flightaware.
 
It isn’t because you have ADS-B that you will show up automatically on flightaware.

Flightaware, and others, use ADS-B data from various sources, including a large network of private receivers. So it will show up if it is broadcasting and if it is in range of one of their sources.
 
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Flightaware, and others, use ADS-B data from various sources, including a large network of private receivers. So it will show up if it is broadcasting and if it is in range of one of their sources.

If that was true, then ALL of our Bonanza flights and C-182 flights we do in our flying club would show up.
Yet, they don’t, as not all of us do flight following or fly IFR.
 
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