The mosquito spraying near me takes place lower than 500' AGL. When I mentioned that I would be normally no higher than 200' AGL, they did indicate the potential for a conflict, and that's over my house/neighborhood, 3 miles or so from their pad. It doesn't happen all the time, but can and does.
Airport you can't notify... What do you do?
- Thread starter joet
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The mosquito spraying near me takes place lower than 500' AGL. When I mentioned that I would be normally no higher than 200' AGL, they did indicate the potential for a conflict, and that's over my house/neighborhood, 3 miles or so from their pad. It doesn't happen all the time, but can and does.
Exactly. If it's not a populated area then the minimums are relaxed for all aircraft, or if a helicopter needs to fly lower and can do so safely (an undefined term), then that is allowed.
I am a seaplane pilot and live on a public lake in Florida with a private seaplane base registered to my home address on the lake. I saw this thread and thought I would share some tips that may be helpful for drone operators as well as mention some other concerns you might not be aware of. Note these are just my personal recommendations for operating drones near seaplane bases, and private or unattended airports. I am not by any means quoting or telling you to operate outside of FAA rules, and of course if you live outside the United States you may have a different perspective.
Reporting to private airports or seaplane bases:
Reporting to private airports or seaplane bases:
- Report your drone flight at least 4 hours before you fly. If you report less than 4 hours ahead of time the pilot flying into their private airport or seaplane base may never get your report until after they have landed. Most small plane flights are less than 4 hours so that would be my minimum recommendation, but it would be even better if you reported even further ahead of your planned drone flight.
- For a private airport or seaplane base, understand there is not a 24x7 traffic controller or manager. When you call you are likely to get voicemail. Leave a detailed message with your name, phone number, date and time of planned flight, planned flight altitude, and specific address or landmark location of your flight. You would be surprised how many messages I get from drone operators where they leave no information other than to say they are flying a drone in the area of my seaplane base. Some private airports may allow you to text the drone flight info instead of calling, but call them first and ask if it is okay for text notifications going forward.
- You may find that some private airports or seaplane bases to not respond when you try to contact them. I agree with previous comments that you should feel like you have met your requirement to report your planned drone flight if you left them a detailed voicemail with all the required info. However, I would also recommend you be extra careful in those situations because there may be a legitimate reason the airport is not responding. If you report your drone flight 4 hours before and get no response you are probably safe to fly. If you report 5 minutes before your planned drone flight then it is a much more risky operation to fly without a response.
- If you are flying a drone near a seaplane base, be particularly careful with altitude over the water and around the shore. The smaller the body of water, the lower altitude a seaplane will cross the shoreline. It is not uncommon in a seaplane to cross a shoreline at 50-100 feet. If you are operating a drone from 0-400 feet near the shoreline then the risk of conflict is obviously high.
- When seaplanes are coming in for landing on water they usually cut throttle to idle at some point on final. When an airplane engine is idling you will likely not hear it coming until the plane immediately flies overhead. Fisherman sitting in boats on a quiet lake often do not hear a seaplane coming in for landing until it flies directly over their boat. Don’t assume as a drone operator you will see or hear a seaplane coming in for landing if you are operating on the shoreline or over water.
- As a seaplane pilot, it is extremely difficult to spot a drone. At a normal airport there is consistency of the runway and landscape around the runway that makes spotting a drone easier. When landing a seaplane on water, there is a complete lack of consistency in the environment. Unless the drone is really close to the airplane it will likely not be spotted and when spotted often too late to maneuver around it.
- Seaplanes take-off and land into the wind (against the wind direction) when practicable. Even though the seaplane runway on the nav charts may be laid out in a standard north-south pattern (36-18), that is not likely the path a seaplane will use. Taking off into the wind will mean shorter take-off distance for the airplane, and landing into the wind will mean shorter landing distance on the water. If a body of water is wide enough, seaplanes will take off and land into the wind regardless of the runway direction listed on a chart.
- As the owner/operator of a private seaplane base, I appreciate the notification of a drone flight in the area of my seaplane base. However, please note that is for my own personal information as a private seaplane base operator. I am not obligated to inform or usually even aware of other seaplanes coming and going from the lake because it is a public lake. Seaplanes can fly in without any radio contact or notification. As a drone operator, you have to assume airplane pilots are unaware of your operation near a private seaplane base or airport even though you followed the rules to report.
- At any airport where there is not a control tower, it is unlikely that arriving and departing aircraft are aware of your drone flight. At an airport where there are control towers, the tower can alert aircraft as needed of nearby drone flights. But without a control tower at the airport, there is nobody forwarding your drone flight info to the pilots coming and going from the airport. If you are flying your drone near any airport public or private without a control tower, you should assume the airplane pilots are unaware of your drone flight even if you followed the rules and reported it correctly. This seems to be a pretty big gap in the drone flight reporting process for the FAA.
- Never cross the runway or runway path with a drone regardless of whether you think the airport is active or not. Pick a side of the runway to operate on and stay on that side. If you need to operate on both sides of a runway, manually move your operation and carry the drone to the other side. Even if the airport seems inactive, airplane pilots often practice engine out and other emergency maneuvers such as go-arounds at non-active airports.
- Monitor the radio frequency of the airport for incoming and departing flights. Every airport will have a radio frequency listed, or if not listed they are using the MULTICOM frequency (122.9 MHz in the United States). Even if you are nervous to broadcast on the radio, just listening may help you detect an otherwise unknown airplane flying in your area. A handheld radio to monitor airport frequencies can be purchased for a couple of hundred dollars.
Flight Watch is the "Contract" company that dispatches and coordinates the MediVac helo's in our area. I think technically it's called "Mission Flight Watch" because they are stationed at Memorial Mission Hospital.
Got it. Thanks.
I have a hospital less than a mile from my house. Every time I call to let them know I’m gonna be flying I get passed around to 10 different people and end up with a security officer that couldn’t care less. I’m going to just call Boston Med Flight direct now.
Keep in mind that our arrangement came aboutover a few face to face meetings and we came up with an agreement that was fairly simple for us, simple for Flight Watch, and ultimately goes a long way to ensure Aviation Safety for all involved.
Gotcha. I was doing the “to make a long story short thing”. The director of air operations for Med Flight at the local airport is a good friend of mine. Basically I’m gonna ask him what would work best and go from there. Thanks Al.
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