DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Helicopter drone strike in Chile.

The whole situation it makes me think about a hypothetical scenario...
Lets say I am flying legally a drone up to 120m in a area which is "supposed" to be free of any aircraft.
But suddenly an aircraft appears from nowhere in a high speed and low attitude. Will I have time to react quickly and take the drone down to avoid any kind of accident even a deadly one?
Because if there is a slight chance something like that to happen and I end up in prison this is not very encouraging to fly drones anywhere in this planet.
Maned aircraft of any type always have the right of way, and drone pilots are obliged to avoid them, just as people on the ground do.
 
  • Like
Reactions: iamcostas
According to the one of the photos, the surgical mask which was visibly damaged and covered with blood must be weared by the co pilot or passenger of the military aircraft. Hopefully when the drone land on his or her face didn't cause a lot of damage or injury. I guess the military use masks to prevent the covid virus spread.
 
It will be interesting to find out at exactly what height this happened, I have a strong suspicion the helicopter was below 130m, they seem to think they can fly around ultra low level all the time which is totally unneccary for what they are doing. I was flying my MA2 along the beach the other day and got a warning of 'traffic' when a civilian chopper flew past so low it was below my drone height which was I think at about 40m!!! The chopper was not actually close to my drone though.

Yes, they do that all the time around here, very irritating - that being said, full scale aircraft always have the right of way... and when flying low they can sneak up on you quick! I had my first experience (I was not flying at the time) with one of those "whisper" helicopters the other day, it was so quiet nobody could believe it. It was only about 300 feet AGL over the "old" section of our local town... very amazingly quiet. Had I been somewhere where I was flying I doubt I would have heard or seen it until it was right on top of me. Be careful out there kids! :cool:
 
  • Like
Reactions: Scubadiver1944
The whole situation it makes me think about a hypothetical scenario...
Lets say I am flying legally a drone up to 120m in a area which is "supposed" to be free of any aircraft.
The problem with your hypothetical situation is the assumption that part of the airspace is "supposed" to be free of any aircraft isn't valid.
Here are the rules pertaining to low flying in your part of the world:

You'll note there are quite a few exceptions to the general 500 foot limit.
 
The problem with your hypothetical situation is the assumption that part of the airspace is "supposed" to be free of any aircraft isn't valid.
Here are the rules pertaining to low flying in your part of the world:

You'll note there are quite a few exceptions to the general 500 foot limit.
Thanks. It is more clear now.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BigAl07
The whole situation it makes me think about a hypothetical scenario...
Lets say I am flying legally a drone up to 120m in a area which is "supposed" to be free of any aircraft.
But suddenly an aircraft appears from nowhere in a high speed and low altitude. Will I have time to react quickly and take the drone down to avoid any kind of accident even a deadly one?
Because if there is a slight chance something like that to happen and I end up in prison this is not very encouraging to fly drones anywhere in this planet.
I can't remember any time a helicopter ever sneaked up on me. 99.9% of the time a helicopter makes a ton of noise as it approaches, and the faster they are approaching the louder the slap, slap of the rotor blades against the air they are travelling through. That is what that noise is that we all hear.

As for a stealth helicopter, I don't think most people will ever be seeing one of those around themselves. The only time you will not hear a helicopter approaching, making much noise, is if you are upwind of them and it is a strong wind, otherwise you will always hear them in plenty of time to just drop down to 50ft or lower and wait for it to fly past, be it near or far from you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: iamcostas
The helicopter seems to have come off worse than the drone, which appears largely intact apart from the arms.
Think if it had been a single pilot operation and hit the pilot right in the eyes and incapacitated him, the helicopter would have crashed probably and maybe killed people on the ground too. Let this picture be a wakeup call to all the idiots who quickly jump in, to try and tell us all that these worries about a little tiny plastic toy flying machine would not do any damage, if it hit an aircraft.

I can't remember all the times I've read such stuff from idiots who have no idea, that state that it is always someone trying to scare us all, when ever a discussion arises about what damage a drone could really do, should there be a collision in flight, between any aircraft and a drone.
 
anyway i hope that this kind of helis are not used in combat zones because if its on the ground it may get destroyed by few men with stones :)

That's not a combat helo :)
 
I can't remember any time a helicopter ever sneaked up on me. 99.9% of the time a helicopter makes a ton of noise as it approaches, and the faster they are approaching the louder the slap, slap of the rotor blades against the air they are travelling through. That is what that noise is that we all hear.

As for a stealth helicopter, I don't think most people will ever be seeing one of those around themselves. The only time you will not hear a helicopter approaching, making much noise, is if you are upwind of them and it is a strong wind, otherwise you will always hear them in plenty of time to just drop down to 50ft or lower and wait for it to fly past, be it near or far from you.
I can assure you that I am near a outgoing runway for medical choppers and I may be downwind, depending on rotor configuration there is no Slap, Slap anymore, like Military Heli's have and I have had to darn near CSC, with a modified aircraft with double down speed of stock to clear distance. Given that they "should" be at at least 300 ft when they over fly me, they aren't. They sometimes over fly me at full speed at about 50 foot over the tree tops so sub 200, and I fly sub 150 until I clear that "zone". Things aren't always what one would think they are. I am prior military and I can pick out any military aircraft from far distance. These new copters are extremely quiet and flying so low over trees absorbs their incoming flight many times...with proper conditions, not at all as you outline...just say'n. ;)

But anyway, Bruce/XJet brought up a point on his channel...do we have a truly verifiable report yet that this incident even happened as stated in the one and only mention on the internet as originally released....not saying it was a fake...just wondering?
 
I can assure you that I am near a outgoing runway for medical choppers and I may be downwind, depending on rotor configuration there is no Slap, Slap anymore, like Military Heli's have
The distinctive "slap slap" of an approaching Bell UH-1 "Huey" comes from its two-bladed rotor. Most helicopters these days have more blades in their rotors, and don't have anything like the same slapping sound.
But anyway, Bruce/XJet brought up a point on his channel...do we have a truly verifiable report yet that this incident even happened as stated in the one and only mention on the internet as originally released....not saying it was a fake...just wondering?
I'm seeing it reported all over the (Spanish language) Chilean media. Here are a few articles.



The following has a stock photo of a Huey, obviously not the accident aircraft



There are many more, representing many other Chilean media outlets.

If you don't read Spanish, you can feed those through a translator. I can read Spanish, and can report that they're basically all telling the same story, with different levels of detail, using different words, and some different photos. One of the articles is illustrated with a stock photo of a Huey, but the 24horas.cl article has a photo of the actual accident helicopter from an angle that wasn't shown in the biobiochile.cl website we have all seen.

Of course, this isn't proof of anything except the fact that the story is being carried by a lot of the Chilean media. Maybe they all picked up on one fake story, and nobody went to the trouble of validating it. But I suspect it's real.
 
  • Like
Reactions: anotherlab
and what a great advertisement is this story for DJI
"We build drones that are tougher than cheap/old army helicopters" :)
 
But anyway, Bruce/XJet brought up a point on his channel...do we have a truly verifiable report yet that this incident even happened as stated in the one and only mention on the internet as originally released....not saying it was a fake...just wondering?
I don't know who that is, but there have been plenty of reports from multiple news sources in Chile. Some of which has already been posted in this thread.
 
I can assure you that I am near a outgoing runway for medical choppers and I may be downwind, depending on rotor configuration there is no Slap, Slap anymore, like Military Heli's have and I have had to darn near CSC, with a modified aircraft with double down speed of stock to clear distance. Given that they "should" be at at least 300 ft when they over fly me, they aren't. They sometimes over fly me at full speed at about 50 foot over the tree tops so sub 200, and I fly sub 150 until I clear that "zone". Things aren't always what one would think they are. I am prior military and I can pick out any military aircraft from far distance. These new copters are extremely quiet and flying so low over trees absorbs their incoming flight many times...with proper conditions, not at all as you outline...just say'n. ;)

But anyway, Bruce/XJet brought up a point on his channel...do we have a truly verifiable report yet that this incident even happened as stated in the one and only mention on the internet as originally released....not saying it was a fake...just wondering?
Around here the medivac copters seem to be the Eurocopter and the Sikorsky S-76 or similar, and I can assure you, these make enough noise to hear them a few miles off when they do a run over or close to our house, or when we are out flying at a local park. There is no surprise when they approach.

I have not seen any copters around here that are silent or even extremely quiet. The ones flying around here, and there are many hospitals in the Cleveland area, make that low droning thud as they speed their way through the sky, daily. Nothing silent about any of them. We sometimes get some Blackhawks or Chinooks transiting through but they make even more noise and are very distinctive sounds. What are the make(s) of these "extremely quiet" helicopter models you say you see so low down passing over you?
 
xxxx

If you don't read Spanish, you can feed those through a translator. I can read Spanish, and can report that they're basically all telling the same story, with different levels of detail, using different words, and some different photos. xxxx
This is a classic example of what they call "wolfpack journalism."

"No need to exert extra effort to get other details, gotta meet the deadline, its my quota of stories for the day"

?
 
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,599
Messages
1,554,245
Members
159,603
Latest member
refrigasketscanada