Two near misses; Kite Surfer and a Helicopter Below

[Ian in London]

I had two subscribers mention 2 separate near misses the other week; one with a fast low flying helicopter racing below his drone, which seemed pretty mad but unsure if the chopper was breaking any rules here as they seem to be allowed to fly below 500 ft.
Any thoughts?
Ian

 

[AnzacJack]

I went up the coast on the weekend. When I got there, kite surfers were where I wanted to fly. I did not bother. Way to many risks flying in the same vicinity as these guys who are certainly not looking for a drone. I was actually amazed they don’t collide with each other on a regular basis

 

[Kokopelli633]

You are being far too generous to the drone pilot here, if he couldnt see the Kite in the vicinity (they aint small and they don't approach that fast that you wouldnt see it on a wide open beach between scans, if you are staring at your screen for long enough between scans to not see him approach when you have a half mile unobstructed view then you need to modify what you consider safe flying

The helicopter incident?, looks like very irresponsible flying from the helicopter pilot
sometimes flying within the law can be reckless, just as sometimes flying outside it can be safe as houses, we need to use judgement not be sheeple
Just my opinion of course, but you asked.

 

[JSKCKNIT]

Last December, I heard a low flying helicopter buzz my townhouse, so I stepped outside to see what was going on. There's construction going on not too far away and someone fell, needed to be life flighted out. They landed in a small clearing I fly at during the Winter when the soccer fields are closed. Luckily I wasn't in the air when this occurred.

 

[Bigbird48]

My property in NH was partially powerline and they would inspect the lines by helicopter, quite often they would fly in at tree top level over my house to inspect the lines. You could not even here the copter till he was with in 2 or 300 feet of my house. If my drone was up a hundred feet there was a great possibility of collision .

 

[BigAl07]

This is why we MUST give right of way to any manned aircraft (even the small para gliders etc):

Drone Fails (starting at 11min 37sec)
That whole video is well worth watching for a lot of BONE HEAD moves!!

 

[BigAl07]

I had two subscribers mention 2 separate near misses the other week; one with a fast low flying helicopter racing below his drone, which seemed pretty mad but unsure if the chopper was breaking any rules here as they seem to be allowed to fly below 500 ft.
Any thoughts?
Ian

Regardless of all the other rules & regulations sUAS must give full right of way to ALL manned aircraft period. Helo do operate in urban areas below 500' and often times not in "usual" flight corridors. It is our Ultimate responsibility to maintain See & Avoid at all times. In no way was the sUAS operator operating within the rules or he would have heard that helo before it was too terribly close to him. This is unacceptable behavior for anyone in our industry and should be called out as such in order to protect our flying privilege going forward. All it will take is one solid sUAS to manned aircraft fatality and we will be painted into a Regulations corner we will not be able to get out of.

 

[Ian in London]

Regardless of all the other rules & regulations sUAS must give full right of way to ALL manned aircraft period. Helo do operate in urban areas below 500' and often times not in "usual" flight corridors. It is our Ultimate responsibility to maintain See & Avoid at all times. In no way was the sUAS operator operating within the rules or he would have heard that helo before it was too terribly close to him. This is unacceptable behavior for anyone in our industry and should be called out as such in order to protect our flying privilege going forward. All it will take is one solid sUAS to manned aircraft fatality and we will be painted into a Regulations corner we will not be able to get out of.

Fully agree. And that was the point of the video; to always be aware of your surroundings and not get sucked into the screen for too long....

Ian

 

[dronerdave]

Fully agree. And that was the point of the video; to always be aware of your surroundings and not get sucked into the screen for too long....

Ian

Even at that I always tend to fly as if I might lose control of the quad and weigh the risk of what kind of damage I might cause. I turned down doing a video of a large Easter Egg hunt the Lions Club puts on each year at the towns high school football field. They wanted me to fly over all the kids as they ran for eggs. As stable as my MP is I said no way. Then they asked if I could stay just outside the field (ovoiding flying over people) and do some pan and tilt video of the kids. Again I declined. Not worth it IMO.