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FAA Questions Airport Drone Sightings

Bryce steiner

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Liars figure because figures lie.
 
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I thought this was interesting:
"Several commenters noted that the AMA analyzed those reported ‘incidents’ and found that out of the 764 reported records, only 27 (or 3.5%) were identified as a near mid-air collision, with nearly all of those involving government-authorized military drones."
 
Not much insight or useful information in the report. In their quick summary of the highlights they include this shocker:

States with larger populations have more drone sightings
Ya think?

I've thought a lot about drone safety and all the restrictions on drones that are driven by safety concerns. The safety issue can pretty easily be addressed by requiring transponders on any drone over a certain size (3 kg. ?). This would plug it into the radar tracking system and provide a way to warn pilots about targets in their flight path.

I assume this is already being done, or is in the process of being done. If not, it should be.

Really small drones pose virtually no threat to aircraft. I'm thinking of my little Hubsan drone that fits into the palm of my hand.

As you go up in size, the threat begins to get larger, but it would take a huge number of things to go wrong simultaneously for a drone and aircraft to not only collide, but for the resulting intersection to cause actual damage.

By the time you get to drones which are several feet across and weigh more than 5 kg, my engineering sense is that these would present a true hazard.
 
Really small drones pose virtually no threat to aircraft. I'm thinking of my little Hubsan drone that fits into the palm of my hand.

As you go up in size, the threat begins to get larger, but it would take a huge number of things to go wrong simultaneously for a drone and aircraft to not only collide, but for the resulting intersection to cause actual damage.

This "worst-case scenario" kind of logic keeps on being posted as an argument against what are perceived to be overly stringent FAA regulations. People need to understand that the FAA and all other airspace regulators base most, if not all, of their regulatory framework on exactly that - Worst Case Scenario.
 
This "worst-case scenario" kind of logic keeps on being posted as an argument against what are perceived to be overly stringent FAA regulations. People need to understand that the FAA and all other airspace regulators base most, if not all, of their regulatory framework on exactly that - Worst Case Scenario.
Yes, I understand that. My problem with it is that there is no end to it.

Is there any hazard whatsoever that will be allowed, or are we going to keep adding more limits, based solely on a person's ability to dream up a scary scenario, not matter how remote? With most other hazards regulated by the government, such as lead in drinking water, the government attempts to find a threshold, below which the hazard is "acceptable."

There seems to be no attempt to find such thresholds, limits, or boundaries with drones, other than the excellent rules about altitude and distance from airport.

The issue isn't just the FAA and the potential of taking down a plane full of people (i.e., the worst-case scenario), but so many other facets of our life which are increasingly regulated.

Also, the drone seems to have been singled out even though similar, and equally hazardous, objects have been sharing the same space with aircraft for decades. I'm thinking specifically of model rockets, some of which are MUCH larger than the drones most of us are flying, and all of which achieve altitudes far beyond the puny 400 foot limit for drones.

levels2.jpg


When I was a kid, I grew up in a house about two miles directly the the southeast of O'Hare's runway 32L, the main runway. When the airport was converted from military to commercial in the late 1950s, we suddenly had a huge increase in traffic overhead, and because ILS systems were primitive, the planes sometimes flew so low over our house that we could see the people's faces in the windows.

My friends used to launch rockets from the fields adjacent to our house. None of them were as large as what is shown in the picture, but some of them were as big as my M2P.

I'm not aware that the FAA has issued any rules for rockets that are similar to, or as stringest as, drone rules.
 
.Also, the drone seems to have been singled out even though similar, and equally hazardous, objects have been sharing the same space with aircraft for decades. I'm thinking specifically of model rockets, some of which are MUCH larger than the drones most of us are flying, and all of which achieve altitudes far beyond the puny 400 foot limit for drones.

levels2.jpg

You think rockets like those are sharing airspace with airplanes?
 
I'm not aware that the FAA has issued any rules for rockets that are similar to, or as stringest as, drone rules.

Google it - you'll find that the FAA has covered all of the bases when it comes to rockets of all types. But in any case, it's not valid to be comparing rockets with drones - they are totally different beasts.
 
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I'm not aware that the FAA has issued any rules for rockets that are similar to, or as stringest as, drone rules.

You've just not been exposed to those rules because you never had a need to be. They are restricted depending on the size/class. Here's just a short exert for Class 2 High Power Rockets:

When operating Class 2-High Power Rockets or Class 3-Advanced High Power Rockets, you must comply with the General Operating Limitations of §101.23. In addition, you must not operate Class 2-High Power Rockets or Class 3-Advanced High Power Rockets—
(a) At any altitude where clouds or obscuring phenomena of more than five tenths coverage prevails;
(b) At any altitude where the horizontal visibility is less than five miles;
(c) Into any cloud;
(d) Between sunset and sunrise without prior authorization from the FAA;
(e) Within 9.26 kilometers (5 nautical miles) of any airport boundary without prior authorization from the FAA;
(f) In controlled airspace without prior authorization from the FAA;
(g) Unless you observe the greater of the following separation distances from any person or property that is not associated with the operations applies:
(1) Not less than one quarter the maximum expected altitude;
(2) 457 meters (1,500 ft.);
(h) Unless a person at least eighteen years old is present, is charged with ensuring the safety of the operation, and has final approval authority for initiating high-power rocket flight; and
(i) Unless reasonable precautions are provided to report and control a fire caused by rocket activities.
 
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