building implosion: what does hobbyist need to know?

[ribjig]

General announcement to my city of an upcoming 10AM building implosion;
(former hospital stripped of all but concrete, about 12 stories tall)
In announcement, there is defined ground exclusion zone of about
1.5-2 blocks in all directions from building.
Would that also be an air exclusion zone?
Besides all the usual requirements:
no flying over groups of people, under 400', etc., is there
anything else a hobbyist must know or do?
(will be upwind to avoid dust cloud)
(taking stills, not video)
Am assuming as many as (20) other drones present...
Thanks in advance.

 

[With The Birds]

Your assuming there will be other drones in the air- have you considered news agencies might be flying full size aircraft in the vicinity? This scale of demolition of significant infrastructure usually is of media interest.

 

[ribjig]

Thanks for pointing out potential issue.
How about some specifics?
Would news helicopters assume drones in area
& fly at, say, 1K ft...?
Is a hovering 200' high drone under a hovering 1000'
high helicopter an FAA violation?
If yes, what acceptable distance between hobbyist
drones & helicopters covering same event?

 

[sar104]

Thanks for pointing out potential issue.
How about some specifics?
Would news helicopters assume drones in area
& fly at, say, 1K ft...?
Is a hovering 200' high drone under a hovering 1000'
high helicopter an FAA violation?
If yes, what acceptable distance between hobbyist
drones & helicopters covering same event?

Those are all good questions. There may or may not be a TFR put into place to protect air traffic. Only authorized aircraft and drones (probably none) will be inside the TFR. You cannot assume the helicopters will maintain 1000 ft AGL to avoid drones. The requirement for drones is to yield to manned aircraft, but there is no required horizontal or vertical separation specified. 200 ft AGL under steady 1000 ft AGL traffic is probably fine, but if a helicopter is flying around at varying altitudes then it may be insufficient clearance.