6500 feet....

Cal Dawson · Mar 20, 2016

Pretty high for a drone, if so pretty irresponsible.... someone is going to get these banned yet....

Calgary police investigating report of drone flying near WestJet plane

J R · Mar 20, 2016

Cal Dawson said:
Pretty high for a drone, if so pretty irresponsible.... someone is going to get these banned yet....

Calgary police investigating report of drone flying near WestJet plane

Cal,

Honesty, @EyeWingsuit seems to be the only one trying, almost desperately, to educate people and pilots on this issue. I hope many more will follow suit.

Jerry

EyeWingsuit · Mar 20, 2016

I was in

Cal Dawson said:
Pretty high for a drone, if so pretty irresponsible.... someone is going to get these banned yet....

Calgary police investigating report of drone flying near WestJet plane

I was interviewed by CBS yesterday on an incident where a Lufthansa pilot claimed he saw a drone at 5000' on approach to LAX. I don't know whether he was truthful or not. Mylar balloons are frequently mistaken as drones, and at 300mph, it's very hard to capture much visual detail. However, we are indeed seeing more and more of these. I'm one of 30 in a group (one of the many groups) the FAA talks to for input. Were it that the community could try harder to self-regulate instead of posting the stupid sh** we keep seeing being posted...For chuckles, go over to the Phantom forums and read people talking about how high they can fly. It's like a contest. One guy complaining that his new P4 can't fly more than 1000 meters in altitude (he's here in the USA).

Peter Spero · Mar 28, 2016

EyeWingsuit said:
I was in

I was interviewed by CBS yesterday on an incident where a Lufthansa pilot claimed he saw a drone at 5000' on approach to LAX. I don't know whether he was truthful or not. Mylar balloons are frequently mistaken as drones, and at 300mph, it's very hard to capture much visual detail. However, we are indeed seeing more and more of these. I'm one of 30 in a group (one of the many groups) the FAA talks to for input. Were it that the community could try harder to self-regulate instead of posting the stupid sh** we keep seeing being posted...For chuckles, go over to the Phantom forums and read people talking about how high they can fly. It's like a contest. One guy complaining that his new P4 can't fly more than 1000 meters in altitude (he's here in the USA).

My company AeroVista Innovations, LLC just received our 333 exemption and would very much like to be part of discussions with the FAA on UAV laws and issues. If you could let me know how we can get in touch with one of these groups I would appreciate it. My email is [email protected] and our website is Home - AeroVista Innovations. Thank you.

PdxSteve · Mar 28, 2016

Congrats! You might look into joining the AMA: Academy of Model Aeronautics

Peter Spero · Mar 28, 2016

Thanks, our company members have each joined the AMA, good advice for sure.

EyeWingsuit · Mar 29, 2016

J R said:
Cal,

Honesty, @EyeWingsuit seems to be the only one trying, almost desperately, to educate people and pilots on this issue. I hope many more will follow suit.

Jerry

It's interesting that in this forum and others related to the Solo, people appreciate the perspective of safety. In the DJI fora, whether it's Inspires or Phantoms, people are derisive, and seemingly always trying to find a way to get around the safety recommendations or rules. FWIW, I'm doing some contract work for a drone retailer and was in their repair shop. Out of nearly 50 drones in for repair, there was only one Solo (granted, 3DR does most of their own work) that had been crashed due to pilot error, in for repair. There were more Inspires than anything. The tech shared with me that many Phantom and Inspire owners tend to fly both camera and drone at the same time, rather than focusing on one thing at a time, and so they crash them with regularity. Just a single carbon arm on an Inspire is $300.00 to replace.

Safe practices alone, help prevent crashes. One might consider the economics of being unsafe if the safety aspect of others doesn't figure into the conversation.