Quick question about Airplane flying over your drone

[maelstrom]

Perhaps there's more clarification in the details of that ruling.

Unmanned aircraft (drones) must ALWAYS give way to manned aircraft.

 

[Dbez1]

So, is there a 500’ rule for manned planes or not? I’m confused now.

 

[Lets Fly]

With regard to aircraft operating below 500 feet, the rule is, "An altitude of 500 feet above the surface, except over open water or sparsely populated areas. In those cases, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure." So if you are flying your drone out in the boonies, it's possible, legal, though maybe unlikely, that an airplane may happen by flying very low - - we sometimes do that for fun.

This is my Husky on the top of Mt. Siegel, Douglas County, Nevada. Didn't see any drones up there. :c)

With so many drones taking flight now the rule for manned aircraft should be 500 feet AGL everywhere. Flying for fun under 400 feet is what drones are doing, and now the rule should be to keep us separated. That should apply to airplanes and news helicopters, there no need to be below 500 feet except for emergency and crop dusting. I ride a motorcycle also and although I may be in a legal situation, my legs are the bumpers and I would always lose. Better to fly and ride on the side of caution, if the plane crashes with the drone (which we would always try to avoid) the manned pilot crashing loses.

 

[bumper]

Hello Bumper:

Nice plane in a beautiful spot!

Thanks for posting - I wasn't aware of that rule. I'm curious about the "...closer than 500 to any.......vehicle..." In that context, would a drone be a vehicle? If so, does that rule put some responsibility on low flying pilots to avoid drones? I don't mean to suggest that drone pilots shouldn't always give way to manned aircraft - simply because it is much easier for us to see and thus avoid manned aircraft than it would be for manned aircraft to see and thus avoid drones! I'm just curious.

As someone who flies drones and pilots manned aircraft below 500 feet - how far away do you feel you could see a Mavic Air or Mavic Pro?

Thanks again,

Howard

For more than a century, pilots have used "see and avoid" for primary collision avoidance. Doubtless this worked well enough in the early years, but with more traffic there are many instances to prove it, and the "big sky" theory, don't always work so well. When a controller gives me traffic, or I'm otherwise intently scanning, I can usually spot another small aircraft at 3 miles (my distance vision is 20-15). And though my corrected vision is still good, there's almost no chance I could pick up a small drone soon enough to take evasive action.

Once, over Los Angeles in the VFR corridor, I spotted a bunch of two or three silver mylar birthday balloons, but not until they flashed by my Mooney 201's wingtip at 180 mph - gave me a start. A good bit more visible than a drone would be yet I didn't spot them until they were a few yards away. A single pilot for sure cannot scan for traffic constantly.

 

[bumper]

So, is there a 500’ rule for manned planes or not? I’m confused now.

There is no blanket minimum altitude restriction for manned aircraft. They can fly down to ground level in most areas with no structures, vehicles or people. With structures, vehicles or people present, the basic rule is to fly no closer than 500'. I've topped a ridge with my glider and been much closer to people than that, you cannot always see people in time to stay 500' away. BTW, they usually wave. :c)

 

[LA 2020]

The Air Sense built into the Air 2 is incredibly accurate, zoom out on your map to see where the manned aircraft is. If the warning outline on the map is just Orange it is still fairly far off, if it turns red and the audible voice warning sounds that means it is extremely close. As long as you are not near a private airfield aircraft usually travel at 500' AGL and above but it wouldn't hurt to lower your altitude to be safe, especially if you are not in VLOS (visual line of sight) of your drone.

slight correction, I believe it's 400 ft AGL

 

[Firejay27]

I would be really careful about trying to guess where another aircraft will be and what altitude you should be at. Yes it's legal for you to fly if you're down low enough but what is low enough? Reason I say this is because in my area sometimes a paraglider will fly into the area and will have a beacon. Those guys can fly pretty low sometimes and be under the 400ft drone fly limit for recreational drone pilots. I also had a very very rare instance where I was flying at my house and heard a helicopter and couldn't see it. This was before the warning days. I was only flying just above my house by a small bit but I was startled to see that one of the sheriff helicopters flying in to land in the field right behind my house... which happens to be part of a school. They landed and stayed for about an hour the flew off. Probably doing a demonstration for someone.

After those two experiences I would say from my standpoint, if you get the warning bring the drone back in until you know for sure that the other aircraft is well above you and out of your flight area. If you can get a VLOS on the aircraft coming in that's even better. If they're flying low, like in my instance, you may not see them until they are right on top of you.

 

[DanMan32]

slight correction, I believe it's 400 ft AGL

If you're referring to manned aircraft limit, it's 500ft AGL. Thats why we have 400 ft, to give a 100ft buffer.