Drones over Pittsburgh Airport Delay Air Traffic

Cafguy · Jun 25, 2023

This in a nutshell Explains why We are being fed regulation after regulation. The fact that someone would do this is Insane. It will come to pass That recreational Drone pilots will be relegated to " Approved flying fields , That in turn will require you to pay a membership fee to some "Organization" That standardizes the way these fields are ran ( A.M.A. Anyone?) I saw it happen in my rc airplane days We could pretty much fly in any place with enough room ( except parks of course, back in the day electric motors didn't exist.) But now you must be a card carrying member of the A.M.A. to fly at these sanctioned fields, and if not you face legal actions and fines. I think all recreational flyers should take advantage of the freedoms we have at the moment because Too soon you will be out at the flying field ( That you drove 45 min to get to! ) Reminising with your buddies about how you used to be able to fly your Mavic 3 Pro at the Park.
OH and thanks in advance from the A.M.A. For your yearly 100 dollar fee.

mavic3usa · Jun 25, 2023

Cafguy said:
This in a nutshell Explains why We are being fed regulation after regulation. The fact that someone would do this is Insane. It will come to pass That recreational Drone pilots will be relegated to " Approved flying fields , That in turn will require you to pay a membership fee to some "Organization" That standardizes the way these fields are ran ( A.M.A. Anyone?) I saw it happen in my rc airplane days We could pretty much fly in any place with enough room ( except parks of course, back in the day electric motors didn't exist.) But now you must be a card carrying member of the A.M.A. to fly at these sanctioned fields, and if not you face legal actions and fines. I think all recreational flyers should take advantage of the freedoms we have at the moment because Too soon you will be out at the flying field ( That you drove 45 min to get to! ) Reminising with your buddies about how you used to be able to fly your Mavic 3 Pro at the Park.
OH and thanks in advance from the A.M.A. For your yearly 100 dollar fee.

You actually believe this? There was likely no "drone." LOL

Yorkshire_Pud · Jun 25, 2023

Whilst there may well be false alarms, real incidents are not unknown

https://www.derbyshire.police.uk/news/derbyshire/news/news/north/2023/january/drone-pilot-pleads-guilty-to-endangering-historic-aircraft/

mavic3usa · Jun 25, 2023

Yorkshire_Pud said:
Whilst there may well be false alarms, real incidents are not unknown

https://www.derbyshire.police.uk/news/derbyshire/news/news/north/2023/january/drone-pilot-pleads-guilty-to-endangering-historic-aircraft/

We realize there are quite a few people who inadvertently fly their drone where they shouldn't. Their drones are not hard to spot or track and the pilot is pretty easy to locate; all the law has to do is just walk up to them and tap on the shoulder. They also usually plead guilty (likely to lesser charges) because it's cut and dry and they promise it won't happen again. However, only phantom drones interrupt commercial airline traffic and are briefly spotted all over the restricted area but never seen with eyes on, the pilot is tucked away somewhere where nobody can find him and then mysteriously disappears. It's what we are saying all along, the honest innocent pilot pays the heavy price for events where nothing actually happens but the violation and the "terrorist" who does all the damage and causes chaos and makes everyone hate drones, they're never brought to justice....probably because they don't exist. I'm not the conspiracy theorist but sometimes I wonder about these "false flag" incidents. I wish they would investigate planes almost landing on top of each other and planes crossing hot runways as thorough as they do rogue drones that vanish as quickly as they pop up.

waynorth · Jun 25, 2023

Maybe it's time to post this classic:

Aircraft Identification for Airline Pilots - drones_2.jpg

lookout · Jun 25, 2023

waynorth said:
Maybe it's time to post this classic:

View attachment 165513

Is that Mary Poppins?

SethB · Jun 25, 2023

mavic3usa said:
…However, only phantom drones interrupt commercial airline traffic and are briefly spotted all over the restricted area but never seen with eyes on, the pilot is tucked away somewhere where nobody can find him and then mysteriously disappears. It's what we are saying all along, the honest innocent pilot pays the heavy price for events where nothing actually happens but the violation and the "terrorist" who does all the damage and causes chaos and makes everyone hate drones, they're never brought to justice....probably because they don't exist. I'm not the conspiracy theorist but sometimes I wonder about these "false flag" incidents…

Did you listen to the recording the OP posted? There was at least one person on the recording with eyes on the drone on the radio to airport ground control.

ATC is relaying guidance to pilots based on that recording and additional (telephone? other radio channels?) reports we don’t hear in the recording.

I don’t doubt that there *are* some phantom sightings, but this doesn’t seem like one of them. Just another day in airport operations, dealing with the public who sometimes do really stupid and unsafe things.

mavic3usa · Jun 25, 2023

^Yes I heard the whole thing. "Oh okay, I guess that wasn't really a drone I thought I saw, it was a hawk riding the wind over ground squirrels seeking cover and along came a few more hawks. I thought birds fly, not hover? Look like a drone to me." is probably the way this ended.

So no, I wasn't there. But when someone does what you explained, they don't vanish and just walk away leaving everybody confused. When the word gets out the airport was shutdown, the honest person comes forward and explains. Perhaps the airport knows the harmless outcome but they're not saying; they would prefer we believe otherwise is what I am saying.

Anything from "Oh yeah, he got permission; didn't you get the notice?" to "Yeah I took the drone up one time outside the hanger to test it because my flight and my boss told me to take it down right away, sorry" to "Gosh, that drone isn't actually over the airport hanger, that's at the store across the street. They shouldn't be flying without authorization." But, the airport wasn't under attack from multiple drones....trust me. Beside, when we get RID, this solves the problem, right? You find the pilot, get their details, make the arrest!