Another drone sighting at JFK. This makes three.

[GoodnNuff]

And of course at night, an LED covered drone is very visible to other aircraft

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/...-And-Helicopter-Rattles-Pilots-267400371.html

 

[BlackHawk388]

Great video Good. The only thing I would point out is the airspeed of the helicopter is going to be much lower than that of an airliner. Also, airplanes don't have the ability to zoom in a camera.

I'm not saying that an airplane pilot cannot see a drone. But I would think it would be very difficult to categorically state that it was a drone rather than something else at their airspeed.

 

[BlackHawk388]

And of course at night, an LED covered drone is very visible to other aircraft

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/...-And-Helicopter-Rattles-Pilots-267400371.html

Most certainly. Night time sightings would be much more acceptable in my opinion.

 

[jadebox]

"The FAA says it gets about two reports per day from pilots saying they spotted an unmanned aerial vehicle." That may seem like a lot. But, there are more than 50,000 flights a day under air traffic control in the US. Two reports a day is just 0.004% of all flights.

-- Roger

 

[GoodnNuff]

Great video Good. The only thing I would point out is the airspeed of the helicopter is going to be much lower than that of an airliner. Also, airplanes don't have the ability to zoom in a camera.

I'm not saying that an airplane pilot cannot see a drone. But I would think it would be very difficult to categorically state that it was a drone rather than something else at their airspeed.

Of course anyone viewing the video should realize the zoomed in camera was only to film the drone. It was actually spotted with a naked eye.
I've posted this video before, and it is met with the same sort of denial.
I'm afraid it is that general denial that will end up harming our hobby.

Edit: I should clarify, I am not one of those "The Sky is Falling" sorts who think that all of us will be grounded due to drones flying too near airports. But I think that once an accident happens, it has the very real potential of adding some very tight restrictions on where and when we can fly.

 

[jadebox]

Most certainly. Night time sightings would be much more acceptable in my opinion.

There are, however, lots of blinking lights visible from the sky at night. A big airplane far way might look like a small quadcopter up close, for example.

The lack of references in the sky makes it challenging to determine things like distance, speed, and size of things you see. One example of this is how a 747 can look like it is moving really slow when you watch one fly by. The reason is that they are bigger than most aircraft, so your brain assumes they are much closer than they really are causing them to appear to be moving slower than expected.

-- Roger

 

[BlackHawk388]

"The FAA says it gets about two reports per day from pilots saying they spotted an unmanned aerial vehicle." That may seem like a lot. But, there are more than 50,000 flights a day under air traffic control in the US. Two reports a day is just 0.004% of all flights.

-- Roger

Another good point. Realizing the amount of ignorant/determined to express their "rights" kind of people flying these things now, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the number of sightings is going up.

 

[BlackHawk388]

Of course anyone viewing the video should realize the zoomed in camera was only to film the drone. It was actually spotted with a naked eye.
I've posted this video before, and it is met with the same sort of denial.
I'm afraid it is that general denial that will end up harming our hobby.

I realize that completely. That the naked eye is what picked it up in the first place. I'm just not convinced that every airliner pilot who reports a drone sighting is correct in their assessment.

I would assume that visual training in spotting these drones is being emphasized now. Which will make the sighting reports in the future more credible.

Ultimately, it comes down to the very opinion I've been stating the whole time I've been a member of this forum. There are irresponsible owners who will make this hobby more difficult to enjoy due to their insistence on flying these things how ever they want.

 

[snerd]

If you actually watched that video, the drone pilot did the correct thing.............. he tried to yield to the manned aircraft. However, the pilot of the chopper actually started "following" the drone. A real cowboy, I reckon. Was gonna **** about with him and show him what for! And why was the pilot of the chopper flying over the crowd?! He stated if the drone hit his tail rotor, he would have gone down right into the crowd! Again, I agree with and mostly follow the "guidelines" for our hobby drones. But it seems that the actual "pilot" of the helicopter went out of his way to create a more dangerous situation by deciding to follow and harass the drone pilot.

 

[ianwood]

I'm sure pilots could spot a drone under certain circumstances. The problem is there's a lot of visually odd things going on out there. Because we're land based bipedal critters, the human brain has a hard time making sense of things in the air and at speed.

As result, pilots have been reporting all sorts of whacky unexplained stuff since the very beginning. The only difference is what was once a "UFO" is now immediately labelled a "drone". And in the court of public opinion, it doesn't matter if it was actually a drone or not.

Here's some strange stuff right here:

 

[GoodnNuff]

I realize that completely. That the naked eye is what picked it up in the first place. I'm just not convinced that every airliner pilot who reports a drone sighting is correct in their assessment.

I would assume that visual training in spotting these drones is being emphasized now. Which will make the sighting reports in the future more credible.

Ultimately, it comes down to the very opinion I've been stating the whole time I've been a member of this forum. There are irresponsible owners who will make this hobby more difficult to enjoy due to their insistence on flying these things how ever they want.

I agree, I think there are quite a few false reports. But I think it is entirely possible to spot a drone from the pilot's seat.

If you actually watched that video, the drone pilot did the correct thing.............. he tried to yield to the manned aircraft. However, the pilot of the chopper actually started "following" the drone. A real cowboy, I reckon. Was gonna **** about with him and show him what for! And why was the pilot of the chopper flying over the crowd?! He stated if the drone hit his tail rotor, he would have gone down right into the crowd! Again, I agree with and mostly follow the "guidelines" for our hobby drones. But it seems that the actual "pilot" of the helicopter went out of his way to create a more dangerous situation by deciding to follow and harass the drone pilot.

You, nor I have any idea how close the pilot came to the drone, the non existent "crowd" or the houses.
What we see is how close his telephoto lens can bring the drone, its pilot, and the neighborhood into our view - nothing more, and certainly nothing that allows us to judge the copter's distance with any credibility.

 

[snerd]

No, only the words of the pilot and flyer.

You don't comment on the chopper pilot's decision to follow the drone flyer. You agree or disagree with what he did?

My point is that, I have read more than a few stories now on how chopper pilots are getting aggressive when meeting up with drones. Who's creating "more" problems during the encounter?!

 

[BlackHawk388]

No, only the words of the pilot and flyer.

You don't comment on the chopper pilot's decision to follow the drone flyer. You agree or disagree with what he did?

My point is that, I have read more than a few stories now on how chopper pilots are getting aggressive when meeting up with drones. Who's creating "more" problems during the encounter?!

I tend to agree with you. The helicopter pilot has no right to take the law into his own hands anymore than the guy who shot one down with a shotgun.

The reality is simple, though. The FAA is marking all of these encounters and will use them to limit our hobby. Once again, I'll say that those who're insistent on being irresponsible flyers are going to cause us the most harm. Force this government into making a decision and watch it be an over reaching one.

 

[snerd]

............ The reality is simple, though. The FAA is marking all of these encounters and will use them to limit our hobby. Once again, I'll say that those who're insistent on being irresponsible flyers are going to cause us the most harm. Force this government into making a decision and watch it be an over reaching one.

Absolutely correct, of course. And there is really nothing you or I can do about it. Posting stories about them, and ridiculing them, has not worked. That's been done for years now, with the number of numbnuts only "increasing". So I don't worry, I be happy, I fly. I look forward to the best I can do each day. Life is good.

 

[GoodnNuff]

No, only the words of the pilot and flyer.

You don't comment on the chopper pilot's decision to follow the drone flyer. You agree or disagree with what he did?

My point is that, I have read more than a few stories now on how chopper pilots are getting aggressive when meeting up with drones. Who's creating "more" problems during the encounter?!

I did comment on the pilot following the drone. Again:

You nor I have any idea how close the helicopter came to the drone, the pilot on the ground, or anything else. If he followed, did he follow with the copter or with his camera and zoom lens only?
And lastly are we even commenting on the same video? They daytime junkyard fire is what I am commenting on, not the night flight.

But again, we have a helicopter equipped with a powerful telephoto lens for news reporting, and we have no idea how close the pilot was to the drone when he filmed it, but we can guess he was not close based on the first shot that has the drone in the frame - we see the camera show it far in the distance, then quickly zoom in and bring it into focus. all from a distance.

And again, the point of this is not whether the drone pilot endangered the copter pilots, or whether the drone pilot took the correct evasive action - the point is the drone was spotted in the sky with the naked eye by two different helicopter's crews.

 

[SteveMann]

I tend to agree with you. The helicopter pilot has no right to take the law into his own hands anymore than the guy who shot one down with a shotgun.

The reality is simple, though. The FAA is marking all of these encounters and will use them to limit our hobby. Once again, I'll say that those who're insistent on being irresponsible flyers are going to cause us the most harm. Force this government into making a decision and watch it be an over reaching one.

Right. More rules will stop stupid.

While I can't find it on the ALPA website, I have been told by an attorney at the AOPA that ALPA policy is that pilots are encouraged to report any drone sighting. Reading the list of drone sightings released by the FAA last November, and often "quoted" by sensational news reports, shows just how low a threshold it is to be on the list. There is a report from someone complaining that there was a drone 100 ft over their neighbor's house. Another, probably the most ridiculous is the report of a drone in a tree. By the way, none of the reports or encounters in this list say anything about evasive maneuvers by the reporting pilot, and most are more than five miles from any airport.

But, again, the FAA can't make up a rule just because they want to. They have to go through the NPRM process and respond to every comment received before finalizing any new rules.

The most likely first contact between a personal drone and a civil aircraft is going to go unnoticed by the crew.

 

[snerd]

............. The most likely first contact between a personal drone and a civil aircraft is going to go unnoticed by the crew.

But not by the drone flyer LOL!!

 

[jadebox]

But, again, the FAA can't make up a rule just because they want to. They have to go through the NPRM process and respond to every comment received before finalizing any new rules.

If they identify a real safety risk (or are forced to by Congress), they will react. But, I don't think the FAA wants to regulate hobbyists out of spite or whatever. They don't have the resources and, in my experience at least, they have respected the rights of hobbyists to use the air space. They aren't looking for unwarranted justification to regulate us. If they asked pilots for reports, I would assume they are prepared to separate the wheat from the chaff.

In any case, I suspect they are more concerned about commercial small unmanned systems and their impact on the airspace. We could soon have ten of thousands of small UASs flying around every day.

-- Roger

 

[N017RW]

FAA Mission Statement:

"Our continuing mission is to provide the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world."

 

[SteveMann]

If they asked pilots for reports, I would assume they are prepared to separate the wheat from the chaff.

It's not the FAA asking for pilots to make drone sighting reports, it's the Airline Pilots union, ALPA. Reportedly. Like most drone sightings, this rumor is unverified.