Friend hits a helicopter tread at mid day. No reported event for all she knows.

[cgmaxed]

My friend tells me a helicopter hit her drone at 150ft. She wasn't recording. She had just launched the drone near her house and suddenly she heard the noise of a heli just over the trees from the opposite direction and down her drone went. The heli continued on like nothing happened. The drone was an Mav2Air w ADSB. No signal to avoid aircraft occurred. The drone fell into trees near home and then hit gound. She found it. It's partially damaged. Sorry, but due to the fact, that drone pilots get blamed for everything, she wasn't willing to give any specifics except what I described. Crazy (Mod Removed Language)) if you ask me.

 

[dirkclod]

?

 

[cgmaxed]

???

We should all avoid this thread. I can't be sure if the story is real. Maybe the prop wash knocked were drone down. Yeah, It's strange. True? I have no clue.

 

[Droniac]

We should all avoid this thread. I can't be sure if the story is real. Maybe the prop wash knocked were drone down. Yeah, It's strange. True? I have no clue.

It’s a coin flip. Lots of questions of course. “If I’ve learned anything in life it’s that’s nothing’s impossible”. -Michael Corleone. Godspeed

 

[neggy]

you mean your friend violated all sorts of FAA regulations, starting with not yielding the right of way to the helicopter, not maintaining horizontal and vertical separation, failure to operate in a safe manner, etc etc etc.

If you are looking to blame anyone but your friend for this you are looking in the wrong place...

how the **** didn't she HEAR a helicopter?

How did she not see it?

Now you know why we are going to have to have ADS-B output soon your friend doing stupid things will show up on Foreflight

 

[cgmaxed]

you mean your friend violated all sorts of FAA regulations, starting with not yielding the right of way to the helicopter, not maintaining horizontal and vertical separation, failure to operate in a safe manner, etc etc etc.

If you are looking to blame anyone but your friend for this you are looking in the wrong place...

how the eff didn't she HEAR a helicopter?

How did she not see it?

Now you know why we are going to have to have ADS-B output soon your friend doing stupid things will show up on Foreflight

The ADS-B obviously didn't receive any signal. That's suggests a Heli approved not to send a signal. You may not have the experience, but when a helicopter flies over a tree line at 100mph, you can't hear the engines until, they are right over you. Imagine a wall of trees behind you and an open space in front. I've been there. Ask some other people in this forum. You can't see or hear helis that fly like that, until the last second. What solution is there? Never take off near the edge of a woodline/treeline? That's the only solution in my opinion.

 

[Starz]

you mean your friend violated all sorts of FAA regulations

Doubtful. Isn’t it possible that she didn’t have time to react?
If the 150 foot altitude is correct, would that not be a bit of violation on the part of the heli pilot????

 

[Starz]

you are looking in the wrong place...

Not quite a correct statement. We are all here to learn from mistakes.
The real question becomes who made the mistake.

 

[Ty Pilot]

This is how the FAA defines right of way for commercial UAV's - recreational use also has to yield to all manned aircraft. If there is contact between any manned aviation and a drone it is almost always going to be the UAV operator's fault.

§107.37 Operation near aircraft; right-of-way rules.​

(a) Each small unmanned aircraft must yield the right of way to all aircraft, airborne vehicles, and launch and reentry vehicles. Yielding the right of way means that the small unmanned aircraft must give way to the aircraft or vehicle and may not pass over, under, or ahead of it unless well clear.

(b) No person may operate a small unmanned aircraft so close to another aircraft as to create a collision hazard.

 

[dirkclod]

Again ?

 

[dirkclod]

We should all avoid this thread. I can't be sure if the story is real. Maybe the prop wash knocked were drone down. Yeah, It's strange. True? I have no clue.

Right. Just another one of those threads.

 

[sar104]

The ADS-B obviously didn't receive any signal. That's suggests a Heli approved not to send a signal. You may not have the experience, but when a helicopter flies over a tree line at 100mph, you can't hear the engines until, they are right over you. Imagine a wall of trees behind you and an open space in front. I've been there. Ask some other people in this forum. You can't see or hear helis that fly like that, until the last second. What solution is there? Never take off near the edge of a woodline/treeline? That's the only solution in my opinion.

And that is the correct solution - if you don't have situational awareness of the airspace that you are operating in then you should not be flying there. But also - if the helicopter was flying fast then:

1. It's unlikely that it would have been at 150 ft AGL;
2. Prop wash would not have crashed the drone - that would have required a collision, which would have largely destroyed a Mavic Air.

 

[Droniac]

Again ?

Dirkclod you’re killin’ me. ?

 

[Rich QR]

Doubtful. Isn’t it possible that she didn’t have time to react?
If the 150 foot altitude is correct, would that not be a bit of violation on the part of the heli pilot????

Not necessarily. 91.119 has the rules about minimum safe altitudes. In sparsely populated areas, it only requires manned aircraft to be flown at least 500 feet from any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure, with no minimum altitude prescribed. But helicopters get an exemption even from that. 91.119(d) says that if the operation is conduced without hazard to persons or property on the surface, a helicopter may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed in paragraph (b) or (c) of 91.119, provided it is operated in compliance with ay routes or altitudes specifically prescribed for helicopters by the FAA.

Finally, even if the helicopter was flying illegally, that does not relieve a drone operator from the duty to give way to a manned aircraft.

 

[BigAl07]

I'm not buying this one bit. If your friend told you this story she's making it all up. Sorry I'm hitting the BS button in a BIG way on this one.

 

[DoomMeister]

We should all avoid this thread. I can't be sure if the story is real. Maybe the prop wash knocked were drone down. Yeah, It's strange. True? I have no clue.

Was this in Class G airspace? If so the chopper is not required to have ADS-B active.

 

[neggy]

And yes I have had a Helicopter come into my operational area at lower than 500' AGL.... when they do power line inspections they are right above the height of the towers..... but I heard the rotors and dropped below the tree canopy ...... I tilted the camera up to catch the R-22 not that far away I was at 77' AGL

Helicopter or Airplane vs Drone, the Drone operator is going to be at fault every time.

 

[Starz]

And I’ve had a low wing zip past my ten pound plus flying camera two hundred feet under his 500 foot limit that came on so fast there was no way I could have moved out of his(her?)way.
BS is probably the better terminology.

 

[Chip]

We should all avoid this thread. I can't be sure if the story is real. Maybe the prop wash knocked were drone down. Yeah, It's strange. True? I have no clue.

If this is friend of yours then is she reliable witness or flake who exaggerates? If you ask me, cgmaxea, you might be better off picking some different areas to fly drones with fewer helicopters. You and choppers don’t seem to get on that well. ?

 

[Cami]

My friend tells me a helicopter hit her drone at 150ft. She wasn't recording. She had just launched the drone near her house and suddenly she heard the noise of a heli just over the trees from the opposite direction and down her drone went. The heli continued on like nothing happened. The drone was an Mav2Air w ADSB. No signal to avoid aircraft occurred. The drone fell into trees near home and then hit gound. She found it. It's partially damaged. Sorry, but due to the fact, that drone pilots get blamed for everything, she wasn't willing to give any specifics except what I described. Crazy (Mod Removed Language)) if you ask me.

Did she check the Notams before taking off?