Small plane above my house....

[FoxhallGH]

If your local airfield is used for training, then there will be a student pilot there most days, doing circuits i.e. take-off, flaps-up, power for cruise, turn cross-wind, turn down-wind, turn cross-wind and prep for landing, then touch-&-go and do it again. That down-wind leg should always be at 1,000 ft AGL. Spending an hour watching that will give you an idea of what height the aircraft that come over your house are at - From the two photo's posted, I'm in agreement that they look like that would be at least 1,000 ft above you (especially when that's collaborated by @sar104 's slide rule!).
You could also call into the Aero Club there and ask one of the staff where their training areas are, and what their policies are for transit of the airspace between those areas and the airfield. I'm sure you'd get nothing but the warmest welcome and co-operation if you told them you were concerned and wanted to keep your drone out of their way ...

 

[GregD]

While that's a great ap and I think you should make sure it's in your "toolbox" we need to also note that it's possible that it's only showing roughly +/-33% of the actual planes in the air. I don't have the link to support that I just remember it from a few months ago. In time it will get a LOT better but if you use it understand it's limitations.

True, that is why I caveated my comment. Not all civil aviation aircraft around the world are using it. Again, it is just one of many tools.

 

[flyboy]

I have a similar problem here in Lilydale Australia. I live just off the approach to runway 18 at the local small airport (outside of the NFZ) . I am on a small hill and on several occasions and with witnesses present have looked down on the top of aircraft on approach over 5 miles from the airport. This places them under 200 feet. Very often they pass over my place under 300 feet. It makes drone flying a very nerve wracking experience. I usually fly my drone with a spotter present listening for the aircraft.

 

[sar104]

I have a similar problem here in Lilydale Australia. I live just off the approach to runway 18 at the local small airport (outside of the NFZ) . I am on a small hill and on several occasions and with witnesses present have looked down on the top of aircraft on approach over 5 miles from the airport. This places them under 200 feet. Very often they pass over my place under 300 feet. It makes drone flying a very nerve wracking experience. I usually fly my drone with a spotter present listening for the aircraft.

That sounds like a very poor choice of location to fly your drone.

 

[AnzacJack]

I have a similar problem here in Lilydale Australia. I live just off the approach to runway 18 at the local small airport (outside of the NFZ) . I am on a small hill and on several occasions and with witnesses present have looked down on the top of aircraft on approach over 5 miles from the airport. This places them under 200 feet. Very often they pass over my place under 300 feet. It makes drone flying a very nerve wracking experience. I usually fly my drone with a spotter present listening for the aircraft.

so if your outside of the 3nm NFZ on runway 18, and aircraft are at 300 ft, that would have them passing over township of Yarra Glen at a couple of hundred ft. If this is the senario, then this is an extremely hazardous operation that should be reported to CASA.

 

[flyboy]

so if your outside of the 3nm NFZ on runway 18, and aircraft are at 300 ft, that would have them passing over township of Yarra Glen at a couple of hundred ft. If this is the senario, then this is an extremely hazardous operation that should be reported to CASA.

I used to fly from Lilydale and you were required to turn almost as soon as you were airborne to miss the town of Yarra Glen. The same applies at the Lilydale end. I think the main problem is that controlled airspace blankets this area and they have a very narrow window between minimum height and incursions into CTA. I suspect they err on the side of caution and fly low. This is ok in the valley but as they pass over my place they don't allow for the rising ground and are soon under 500 feet.
I am not the only drone flying in the area quite often see a phantom zooming around.

 

[sdold]

It looks like 1000 feet or so in the picture. But certain practice maneuvers are done at around 600-800 feet, so if you see a lot of low circling or figure-eights, that might be what's happening. Flight schools usually favor certain areas that are out of the way of air traffic and away from populated areas. I'd visit the airport and find out.

 

[philbr118]

What height should the plane be at over populated areas?

min height over property vessel and people 500 ft.

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

I'm guessing that you're under-estimating the altitude of the planes, that they're actually well over 400'.

 

[DrRobin]

If it is a flying school aircraft then they will do power fail emergency landing tests. Basically you start at 3000 ft, circle, try to restart (they don't actually stop the engine) and look for a field to land in. The training stops at 500 ft, the aircraft then throttles up, flies straight and climbs out.

I used to fly a light aircraft and we practised power fail all of the time. When you pull out you can appear to be very low, but in reality you will always be above 500 ft and only below 1000 ft for a few seconds.

The only other reason for circling over the same place is if you are in a holding pattern waiting to come into land, but this is only likely to happen at a busy airport, not a small airfield. We used to get stuck circling for several minutes about 2 to 3 miles from the airport, but our height would have been 1000 ft. I have witnessed light aircraft in a holding pattern from the ground, they do look low and can be quite noisy, but will be well over your maximum of 400 ft.

The aircraft which are lower are private helicopters and micro lights coming in to land at privates sites, but these usually don't circle.

 

[Smithy12]

View attachment 70252

Constantly circling overhead. Makes me nervous to fly over my own house.

That’s much higher than 400’ .... as a PPL I would put that at about 1200-1500 ft. Remember the aircraft is much larger than the drone and perspective plays a massive part in this photo.

 

[Smithy12]

Hmmm ADS-B is a complex topic and not as useful as you might think in Europe. I’m not sure where some of these percentages come from but for aircraft that are likely to come into conflict with drones (i.e light GA aircraft) there is currently no European mandate to equip with ADS-B out equipment. The actual take up in those aircraft are probably down at <10% as the costs for an average ADS-B compliant transponder with fitting is about £4k minimum. For aircraft that HAVE to have it (CAT aircraft flying IFR) then 100% have equippage but this skews the figures. Unless you are breaking the rules you will never have a drone near a commercial aircraft.

Then there is the question of the integrity level of the GPS that supplies the positional information to the transponder. Some aircraft use handheld GPSs that are not considered a high enough integrity to be a certified positional source. These ADS-B out signals will normally be filtered out on the basis that possibly erroneous data is worse than no data at all.

For us in Europe the absolute minimum altitude an aircraft can fly is 500ft from any person, animal, property etc with higher minimums over urban areas , large gatherings etc, and hence 400’ is the chosen for drones.

In the USA ADS-B is mandated from June 2020 I think for all aircraft and they also have a ground based infrastructure that ‘transmits’ other traffic from all over the country (not just within an aircrafts reception range - as in Europe) called TIS-B, so actually the USA has far superior traffic coverage than we do in Europe.

 

[Photo Booth]

Our home is below Class B airspace (major airport approach path but we are over 10 miles from the airport). Our home is 500' above sea level. In our section of Class B, all the approach aircraft are supposed to be between 3,000' and 10,000' above sea level. That means the aircraft are supposed to be at least 2,500' above our house.

There have been MANY times I felt an aircraft (that was on approach to the airport) was below 3,000' MSL. They just seemed so much closer to our house than the previous few aircraft. That's when I pull out my iPhone and run the Flightradar24 app. It quickly finds my location and shows all of the aircraft in the area. I look at the information for the plane I'm concerned about and, oops, it's cruising at 3,700' MSL or higher.

It LOOKED closer but was WELL above the airspace within which I fly my drone.

Point being: Appearances can be deceiving. From that photo you shared, I think the plane is well more than 500' up.

Mark

 

[simsurf]

In Australia you have an obligation to land and give way to aircraft from uncontrolled airports.

 

[FoxhallGH]

If it is a flying school aircraft then they will do power fail emergency landing tests. Basically you start at 3000 ft, circle, try to restart (they don't actually stop the engine) and look for a field to land in. The training stops at 500 ft, the aircraft then throttles up, flies straight and climbs out.

I used to fly a light aircraft and we practised power fail all of the time. When you pull out you can appear to be very low, but in reality you will always be above 500 ft and only below 1000 ft for a few seconds.

The only other reason for circling over the same place is if you are in a holding pattern waiting to come into land, but this is only likely to happen at a busy airport, not a small airfield. We used to get stuck circling for several minutes about 2 to 3 miles from the airport, but our height would have been 1000 ft. I have witnessed light aircraft in a holding pattern from the ground, they do look low and can be quite noisy, but will be well over your maximum of 400 ft.

The aircraft which are lower are private helicopters and micro lights coming in to land at privates sites, but these usually don't circle.

I remember doing the same thing in my Private Pilot training - But - it was only done in a prescribed training area cleared for low flying. It would be useful to contact or visit the local flight school at the airfield and just ask where their low flying training areas are, and what height training aircraft transit the airspace beween these training areas and the airfield at.

 

[geckotrap]

View attachment 70260

He's still circling if it's the same plane. This is looking out at about a 30° angle from the ground.

Sorry. The 1st pic is a bottom wing T tail trainer. This one is a top wing, non T tail.
Do you have an airport, or airstrip near? Within 5 miles?

 

[Nosebump]

There's quite often a small single engine plane flying over my house, they seem lower than 400ft. If it collided with my drone, whose at fault? I'm getting no flight warnings on the app. There's a small airfield a few miles away.

If a small airfield is just a few miles away, then you would be at-fault. The plane could be landing, although 400' is still pretty low.

 

[Aero]

Could it be a large RC plane?

 

[Thomas B]

And now for something completely different...

 

[Aero]

I almost fainted