Helicopter flying towards drone. Tips?

[plunk56b]

I take pride in being able to hear choppers way in advance than seeing them. That buys me time to assess next steps.

And yes give right away…but my initial steps are to stop and hover or start to drop alt. Remember the drone can tuck away better than a large craft.

Additionally, if I have time, I will face the drone cam in the direction of the oncoming traffic to have an extra set of eyes of the copter’s trajectory. I’ve never been close enough to see a helicopter in my cam, but it does give me a last resort decision maker if things were to get uncomfortably close. Also, should I need to drop in an emergency, I will switch my camera to face down and gauge just how low I need to or can be.

Use all the tools available to you. Your eyes, ears, instruments, etc.

 

[Cymruflyer]

Helicopter pilots and commercial pilots are instructed to fly above 500 feet at all times outside of landing or take-off. So no, if you "hear or see" a piloted aircraft you do not need to knee-jerk ditch it into the ground. Just be sure you are under 400 feet and continue business as usual. You also have the right to fly your unmanned aerial vehicle same as any other piloted craft otherwise the FAA would not bother requiring you to register and label the drone with your reg.

I am sure I will get flamed by some people but they are incorrect.

Not quite correct, you have a right to fly your UAV but you do NOT have the same right as ANY piloted aircraft that has a human sitting in it and flying it. As an unmanned aerial vehicle, you will ALWAYS be below the manned flying machine's rights and the FAA clearly spell that out to you. No matter how tall the totem pole grows, you are still on the bottom ring of that pole and don't ever forget that.

You have to always give way to any other manned flying machine in the air, there is no exception, regardless if they are in your little 400ft of buffer space or not. There is no discussion here, no right and wrong. The manned aircraft is always right and you will always be wrong if you get in their space.

 

[stavok]

What are the consequences of being involved in a helicopter collision? National news is best case- loss of life not improbable. Cost of my drone? pffft. Since I'm not flying over people -I say CSC or rapid descent to ground level asap.

 

[Malcx]

If your drone is flying 1-mile away, then you are definitely breaking the FAA rules as there is simply no way you can see your drone, its orientation and direction of flight. As such, you are flying BLVOS. Heck. You couldn't even see the helicopter.

?? If you can't see a helicopter at 1 mile, I hope you stick to only flying drones indoors.

 

[skippyscage]

Helicopter pilots and commercial pilots are instructed to fly above 500 feet at all times outside of landing or take-off. So no, if you "hear or see" a piloted aircraft you do not need to knee-jerk ditch it into the ground. Just be sure you are under 400 feet and continue business as usual. You also have the right to fly your unmanned aerial vehicle same as any other piloted craft otherwise the FAA would not bother requiring you to register and label the drone with your reg.

I am sure I will get flamed by some people but they are incorrect.

errr not even close - Ag Operations, Line Inspections the list goes on.

Plus the 500' rule is a distance not a height - as long as the powered aircraft is 500' away from any person, vehicle or structure they are within the law, meaning in sparely populated areas fixed wing aircraft and helicopters can legally fly below 500' height.

 

[06-Hammerhead]

You hear something, you immediately descend. That’s all there is to it.

Could not agree more. Hear it, Land it!

 

[jeffcutler]

If your drone is flying 1-mile away, then you are definitely breaking the FAA rules as there is simply no way you can see your drone, its orientation and direction of flight. As such, you are flying BLVOS. Heck. You couldn't even see the helicopter.

OMIGOD YES. I read this entire thread and nobody stopped at the ONE MILE AWAY. If you're one mile away from your drone and the only way you can see your drone's relation to that other aircraft is your tiny screen in your hands, go take a drone course and take the TRUST test.

You wouldn't have known if you'd taken the helicopter down if your screen flickered. And you're wondering what to do when aircraft is near? Treat every aircraft like a toddler running in front of you on the expressway. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Nearly 100% by descending promptly upon hearing them or getting an alert. Just wow.

 

[Dangerly]

So I'm flying towards the bluffs at an altitude well under 400 ft. max (around 100 ft.). I'm approaching the bluffs which is a 200-300 ft. drop into the ocean. I'm about a mile away (me not my drone) and I see a Helicopter moving fast along the coastline. I can't really tell the height or at what point it will cross with my drone.

My first instinct is to stop but it looks like the Heli is gaining altitude so I drop about another 50 ft. and just continue to fly forward in the sea. Then I see the Heli in my drone footage.....it was above me but MUCH closer than I thought we were. It was over water at this point so technically I went from legal altitude to probably well over.

Anyways, what tips do you have for a situation like this where you see a Heli or even plane flying towards your drone? Remember it was near impossible to judge where I was relative to the Heli so you would have to guess. Also, just as a side note Heli's often dip into 400 ft. airspace where drone's are allowed to fly.

I can relate - I'll tell my own helicopter story after I respond to yours first. It was from my experience that I learned what a CSC (Combination Stick Command) emergency shutdown is, and why I'd want to use one. If I'd known about it at the time of my encounter, I would have used it. I think that's the key question here: Does the situation warrant a CSC shutdown?

You have to make a judgement call that only you can make. If you see a helicopter that could possibly be flying straight towards your drone, and they're close enough that you couldn't get to a safe spot in time, then yes - time for the CSC shutdown.

My story: I was flying over this small harbor that is unrestricted airspace and I checked my apps and it looked all clear. I was flying at around 150-200 feet up, maybe 500 feet away, lazily filming the birds and the boats. All of a sudden I see a low flying Coast Guard helicopter come over a nearby hill, flying fast and coming straight towards my drone and me - we were all in one line. What I didn't realize is that the helicopter was coming in for a landing in a small public park right behind me, about 150 feet away from where I was standing.

What would you do? I was lucky - I was able to get back for a safe landing maybe 30 seconds before the helicopter reached me. I had never thought about what to do or how to handle the situation. If that happened again, I know how to do a CSC shutdown.

Here's a video I shot the day before. In the opening scene, if you look across the water, you can see the small park where I was standing filled with families and birds, and where the Coast Guard chopper came in for a landing. Imagine how surprised you'd be if you were standing there when this happened.

 

[Moozer]

Time for my story. I was flying at my local community college, filming an event, when our local air ambulance appeared suddenly over the tree canopy. I didn't know if it was going to land nearby, so I ditched my Mavic immediately - 40 feet up a tree. It was a pain to get down, but I had to do what I had to do to get out of its way.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Here's a video I shot the day before. In the opening scene, if you look across the water, you can see the small park where I was standing filled with families and birds, and where the Coast Guard chopper came in for a landing.

You might want to dial back your yaw expo settings for smoother camera turns in the video. The default settings are way too high, and result in ratchety turns. Otherwise, nicely done.

 

[k9kids]

91.119 Minimum safe altitudes; general
Except when necessary for takeoff or landing, no person may operate an aircraft below the following altitudes:
(a) Anywhere – An altitude allowing, if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface.
(b) Over congested areas – Over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement, or over any open-air assembly of persons, an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft.

(c) Over other than congested areas – An altitude of 500 feet above the surface except over open water or sparsely populated areas. In that case, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure.
(d) Helicopters – Helicopters may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed In paragraph (b) or (c) of this section if the operation is conducted without hazard to persons or property on the surface. In addition, each person operating a helicopter shall comply with routes or altitudes specifically prescribed for helicopters by the Administrator.
Helicopter operations may be conducted below the minimum altitudes set for fixed-wing aircraft. The reason: they have unique operating characteristics, the most important of which is their ability to execute pinpoint emergency landings during power-out emergencies. Furthermore, the helicopter's increased use by law enforcement and emergency medical service agencies requires added flexibility.

 

[Interficiam Stercore]

If your drone is flying 1-mile away, then you are definitely breaking the FAA rules as there is simply no way you can see your drone, its orientation and direction of flight. As such, you are flying BLVOS. Heck. You couldn't even see the helicopter.

You know what's really annoying, but the drone pilot's own fault, is when they are 3-4 miles out and the only way they are holding a signal is by keeping an altitude above 400ft. Already they have made 2 violations. They can't lower the drone without losing signal or just hitting descend in the hopes the drone will crash or land. But once someone flying that far away educes altitude, they will lose signal and the RTH feature will kick in. So whatever altitude their at when the RTH kicks in, it will be their returning altitude. Then it's just a "cross your fingers, and hope" scenario.

 

[umanbean]

common sense has to come into play.

That would solve almost every problem posted on this forum...

 

[umanbean]

If we, as a community, can't safely integrate into the existing NAS we can be easily regulated OUT of the NAS.

My vote for 'best quote of the year'!!
(sorry I'm late to the party, just saw this thread)

 

[BigAl07]

My vote for 'best quote of the year'!!
(sorry I'm late to the party, just saw this thread)

Never late Just in time

 

[Dangerly]

So I'm flying towards the bluffs at an altitude well under 400 ft. max (around 100 ft.). I'm approaching the bluffs which is a 200-300 ft. drop into the ocean. I'm about a mile away (me not my drone) and I see a Helicopter moving fast along the coastline. I can't really tell the height or at what point it will cross with my drone.

My first instinct is to stop but it looks like the Heli is gaining altitude so I drop about another 50 ft. and just continue to fly forward in the sea. Then I see the Heli in my drone footage.....it was above me but MUCH closer than I thought we were. It was over water at this point so technically I went from legal altitude to probably well over.

Anyways, what tips do you have for a situation like this where you see a Heli or even plane flying towards your drone? Remember it was near impossible to judge where I was relative to the Heli so you would have to guess. Also, just as a side note Heli's often dip into 400 ft. airspace where drone's are allowed to fly.

If you think there's even a remote chance your drone could hit the helicopter, you do a CSC and lose your drone. Could you live with yourself if the bird crashed and people died, even if you thought it was their fault? And especially if you're flying out of VLOS without a spotter?

In my area I routinely encounter Coast Guard helicopters flying below 400' in clear airspace, low and fast and without ADS-B. It seems incredibly reckless to me for the Coast Guard to do this, but I understand they want to be stealthy if they're on a mission to protect us against bad guys and the FAA allows this. It's because of this that I even know how to do a CSC. So far I've been able to fly out of harm's way in time but if I couldn't, I know what to do.

Here's a picture of what a DJI Phantom 4 did to a US Army Black Hawk helicopter's rotor blade. Photo courtesy of NTSB.

 

[thispilothere]

That's actually less damage than I expected.

I haven't used anything other than the FLY app. Are the apps offering waypoints and grid patterns just as easy to interrupt if there's a problem?

 

[dronerdave]

When I fly RC, I simply see and avoid to the best of my ability. I know there are aircraft taking off and landing where I often fly from and use common sense to make sure there is no collision. Manned aircraft are the pedestrians of the sky and always have the right away at any altitude. If you hit a manned aircraft with your UAV, excuses don't generally cut it.

 

[PacificSkyDreamn]

In the San Francisco Bay Area there are a good number of helicopters flying at any given time. I always use the app FlightRadar24 to check what's in the air and to see where it might be heading. Coast Guard helicopters usually show up in the app, while military won't. Tourist helicopters generally fly a predictable route. It's law enforcement helicopters that are the most erratic, especially if they move out of a patrol route into an active response to something on the ground. This is especially true for the East Bay Regional Park Police helicopters that are all over the place on a nice weekend. The last category are the medical air ambulances - but they typically are going to a hospital or back to their airport bases, and tend to fly using major ground landmarks like highways as the quickest way to get to where they're going.

 

[Interficiam Stercore]

Many of us don't know what CSC means and many don't know the forum has a list. So, for those of you that don't know what CSC means = Combination Stick Control. I assume you're talking about the CSC that turns the motors off in an emergency and allows your drone to freefall and crash. Correct?