N017RW said:
That was my point(s).
There's no context in this video. Just like other infamous videos in recent decades you only see the end of the 'event' not what led up to it which MAY explain the outcome.
Assuming the airspace is as 'johan' indicated... the multirotor may have been there first.
The news choppers only saw it, or at least taped it, descending if I recall correctly.
Now the operator sees full-scale a/c and bugs out of there.
Exactly what any responsible operator should do.
Kinda changes things, IF TRUE.
I agree, it does seem that the pilot did descend and leave the air space when two helicopters were in the area.
We don't know how long the 3 of them shared the same air space - it may have been as short as the video makes it seem, or it could have been much longer, we don't know.
However this was a big fire that shut down one of the major highways for several hours. Big news. Now most of us in this area would have enough sense to realize that a fire this big is going to attract at least two of the local news station helicopters, as well as the DOT's small copter to report on traffic reroutes, and we would stay out of the air space.
Most of us would fly below the 400ft level ADVISED by the FAA.
And I'm not sure if he is in restricted air space or not. Not sure where the pilot launched from, however the scrap yard is 5.2 miles from McChord Field (Air Force Base's airport) as one drives. The air field is much closer as the bird flies, within the 5 mile limit I'm quite sure.
Both the pilot and the cameraman from Chopper 7 place the drone at 50 feet above their blades, and then say it flew even closer to the Channel 4 helicopter BEFORE Chopper 7 turned, started filming him, and he quickly fled.
This happened two days before the one year anniversary of the KOMO news helicopter crash, killing both the pilot and the cameraman, which explains why there was such a reaction from those aboard the news copters.
When I hear aviation expert John Nance (google him if you don't know who he is) on the local news telling people how dangerous this stunt was, I put a lot more veracity in his statements than I do cadre of hobbyists whose collective aviation experience amounts to strapping a camera on a drone and flying it out of the box.
I also find comparing reactions from this forum to that of RCGroups forums to be very interesting. Not one person defends nor excuses this pilot's flying, nor do they react like this is the end our hobby. They just agree it was not safe, not smart, and potentially very dangerous.