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Flying near hospital with helipad - question

Matriculated01

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So I am picking up my MM Dec. 19th, am a total and complete newbie who has never flown a drone before, and I’ve been making an effort to educate myself about safe/legal drone flying before the drone even gets here. I have a question about flying near my house. There is a hospital nearby That has a helipad. Now, I am in a “free to fly” zone according to the FAA map that I checked out and also the B4UFLY app which I downloaded. But the hospital is 0.56 miles away from me. The app says “Good to go, no advisories but stay alert.” Am I ok flying here?
 
So I am picking up my MM Dec. 19th, am a total and complete newbie who has never flown a drone before, and I’ve been making an effort to educate myself about safe/legal drone flying before the drone even gets here. I have a question about flying near my house. There is a hospital nearby That has a helipad. Now, I am in a “free to fly” zone according to the FAA map that I checked out and also the B4UFLY app which I downloaded. But the hospital is 0.56 miles away from me. The app says “Good to go, no advisories but stay alert.” Am I ok flying here?
You might find that the dji geo zones will stop you from flying at your location
 
There are (2) different answers for you.

A) Legal Standpoint - As of today, 12/12/2019 you can LEGALLY fly where you're at with no notification or approval of any kind so long as you're in Class G airspace. If you're not in Class G that's a whole other scenario. There is no "5 mile from the airport notification" requirement any longer.

B) Being legal isn't the same thing as flying smart and flying safe. Here is how I would handle it (and have handled it for 6 years now). I live about 2.2 miles from the helipad but my home is in a direct flight path between the hospital and a major interstate. Guess where a LOT of their "clients" originate? Yes the interstate. So I researched and FINALLY located the company that actually schedules and dispatches our MediVac Helicopters here. They are "dispatched" out of a neighboring county which really muddies the water. I contacted them and worked out an agreement that if I was flying within X# of feet from the hospital I would make a notification phone call to dispatch (Called Mountain Flight Watch IIRC). I tell them my exact location, time I plan to fly and give them my contact #. On several occasions they have called me to notify me that MAMA (name of helis) is coming through my area and ask me to clear that air.

The above is NOT required but it goes a long way to helping mitigate risk and IMHO it's the right thin to attempt to do. It's possible your situation might be different but erring on the side of CAUTION is always a plus.
 
Something else to consider, many hospitals have helipads that are either no longer in use or so rarely used as to be fairly low risk.

More often than not those requiring medivacs are in such dire straights as to be airlifted to the nearest major trauma hospital, for us that is Harborview in Downtown Seattle.

The hospital nearest me technically has a helipad but the last time it was used was over 4o years ago. They maintain it just enough to use in a worst case scenario but to put it in perspective a friend of mine who is in charge of the hospitals maintenance and logistics told me that they decided to run a drill and no one there knew how to turn the lights for it on or where the switches were. They had to cancel the drill and contact a retired maintenance guy and figure it out.

So I wouldn't be particularly concerned with that specific helipad even though it shows up on the DJI app, but not on B4UFLY. But you really need to have some personal information about its use patterns.

As others have said though one that is used even a little, I'd be at least extra vigilant about watching for traffic or let the responsible medivac company know when you are up around it.

Similarly I was on the east side of the state a few weeks back and wanted to grab some drone footage of the town my father-in-law grew up in. He's got pretty advanced dementia and we'd hoped it might trigger some memories for him.

The DJI app alerted me and made me jump through the checkboxes because there was an airport nearby. The problem is that airport was closed 20 years ago and the runway torn out 10 years ago. It could not even be mistaken for an abandoned airport any longer.

And again like some long forgotten helipads, B4UFLY didn't show it nor did Kittyhawk, but Airmap and the DJI app did.
 
I am notified of 8 heliports nearby, when I fly at home. 1 on the property behind me, about 50 yard away. Other than that, I have no restrictions on flight. No “NO FLY” zones. Or DJI GEO zones or colored circles. Have fun wit your little bird. Take in all the hints from elders here. ? not me.
 
Thank you guys for the info. I figured it would be ok on the legal front since there are no restrictions on the map, but of course safety and caution would be of paramount importance. I’m not planning on going up high, maybe 70-80 feet tops, it’s just a nearby area for me to test the drone and get used to controls. In the years I’ve been living here I’ve never seen a helicopter actually using that helipad, so don’t know know if it’s even operational. I’ve seen a heli fly over maybe once or twice in several years, but they were wayyy up in the air and don’t think they were using the helipad, just flying over on their way to wherever they were going. There’s also a freeway very nearby and that also contributes to my intent of not going any higher than 80-ish feet.

I do have another question, Big Al since you bring up classes of airspace - on the B4UFLY app, is class G any airspace that does not have any restrictions/colored circles around it? My house and where I plan on flying have no boundaries of any kind around it, but there is a blue rectangle and an orange circle close by, maybe a mile or so away. Do I have class G correct and what class would those other ones be? B4UFLY has a legend explaining different delineations in terms of restrictions but does not explicitly state what “class,” as in the letter, the airspace circled/delineated is.
 
So I am picking up my MM Dec. 19th, am a total and complete newbie who has never flown a drone before, and I’ve been making an effort to educate myself about safe/legal drone flying before the drone even gets here. I have a question about flying near my house. There is a hospital nearby That has a helipad. Now, I am in a “free to fly” zone according to the FAA map that I checked out and also the B4UFLY app which I downloaded. But the hospital is 0.56 miles away from me. The app says “Good to go, no advisories but stay alert.” Am I ok flying here?

I use the flightrader24 app to see the medivac Helli's from the hospital by me and it is very accurate.
I always check it before every flight and have someone monitor it during the flight.
It doesent catch all aircraft but it does see the medivac's.
 
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I use the flightrader24 app to see the medivac Helli's from the hospital by me and it is very accurate.
I always check it before every flight and have someone monitor it during the flight.
It doesent catch all aircraft but it does see the medivac's.
Thank you for this app recommendation. I have an active heliport at our local hospital and appreciate knowing about this useful tool.
 
Thank you guys for the info. I figured it would be ok on the legal front since there are no restrictions on the map, but of course safety and caution would be of paramount importance. I’m not planning on going up high, maybe 70-80 feet tops, it’s just a nearby area for me to test the drone and get used to controls. In the years I’ve been living here I’ve never seen a helicopter actually using that helipad, so don’t know know if it’s even operational. I’ve seen a heli fly over maybe once or twice in several years, but they were wayyy up in the air and don’t think they were using the helipad, just flying over on their way to wherever they were going. There’s also a freeway very nearby and that also contributes to my intent of not going any higher than 80-ish feet.

I do have another question, Big Al since you bring up classes of airspace - on the B4UFLY app, is class G any airspace that does not have any restrictions/colored circles around it? My house and where I plan on flying have no boundaries of any kind around it, but there is a blue rectangle and an orange circle close by, maybe a mile or so away. Do I have class G correct and what class would those other ones be? B4UFLY has a legend explaining different delineations in terms of restrictions but does not explicitly state what “class,” as in the letter, the airspace circled/delineated is.

I don't use that APP so I can't say one way or another.

I use the flightrader24 app to see the medivac Helli's from the hospital by me and it is very accurate.
I always check it before every flight and have someone monitor it during the flight.
It doesent catch all aircraft but it does see the medivac's.

Flightradar24 only shows a slice of aircraft (currently) in the air. Keep in mind that not all aircraft are broadcasting. It will get better and I definitely like to use it too but use it knowing it is not showing 100% of the aircraft in the air.
 
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Hospital heliports are private property. Best call someone and get permission before flying from there. And don't hit any helicopters.

 
I don't use that APP so I can't say one way or another.



Flightradar24 only shows a slice of aircraft (currently) in the air. Keep in mind that not all aircraft are broadcasting. It will get better and I definitely like to use it too but use it knowing it is not showing 100% of the aircraft in the air.
Tell me about it. They won't show the airport responsible for the class D controlled airspace I'm in. Airport doesn't have one of the codes FR24 required.
FlightAware shows it though.

So if FR24 won't show a controlled airspace airport, how can I trust them for small private low flying planes and heli's?
 
As for B4UFly, it's a stripped down version of Kittyhawk since FAA contracted Kittyhawk to rebuild B4UFly.
 
When I was volunteering my time to vodeo the construction progress on our high school, the helipad was 600ft away from the high school frontage.
We had a meeting with the county airport director (3 miles away), local small town FD chief, hospital safety director, and Medivac Supervisor.

What came out of that meeting was I notify the airport, call the house supervisor of the hospital to check for any expected helo traffic. They also had my number just in case situation changed.

That is what I went through, your results may vary.

And yes, that was all setup before May 2019 but since it is a tower-less airport, it is a courtesy now.
 
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So I am picking up my MM Dec. 19th, am a total and complete newbie who has never flown a drone before, and I’ve been making an effort to educate myself about safe/legal drone flying before the drone even gets here. I have a question about flying near my house. There is a hospital nearby That has a helipad. Now, I am in a “free to fly” zone according to the FAA map that I checked out and also the B4UFLY app which I downloaded. But the hospital is 0.56 miles away from me. The app says “Good to go, no advisories but stay alert.” Am I ok flying here?

I live just short of 3 miles from a large hospital with a helicopter pad as well. I have an app called "fly safe" which shows me in a blue colored area. It actually shows a 3 mile radius (6 mile diameter) around the entire hospital in blue color. I have a Mavic 2 zoom and use the "DJI Go Fly" app, and have no problem flying anywhere in my area. They seem to worry much more about airports. We also have an airport in the area, which is all shown as a red zone, but it doesn't overlap my place luckily. I do see the rescue helicopter fly over my place quite often, but they look to be at about 2000 ft or so when they go over. It sounds like you are a quite a bit closer to the hospital than I am, but if it is shown as a blue zone, you might be ok. Try downloading the Fly Safe app, and see what they show for your place. My son lives within a 1/4 mile of the same hospital, but I have never tried flying from his place. Now you have me curious...
 
I don't use that APP so I can't say one way or another.



Flightradar24 only shows a slice of aircraft (currently) in the air. Keep in mind that not all aircraft are broadcasting. It will get better and I definitely like to use it too but use it knowing it is not showing 100% of the aircraft in the air.
All medical transport helicopters have ADS-B and will always be up on FlightRadar24.
 
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