Flying in trees

The 400' limit in Australia only applies to flight within controlled airspace. Download the CASA app called "Are You Safe to Fly your Drone?". It gives you the rules for Australia.
Trust me , I'm an Air Traffic Controller!
I hope not! You have no idea.


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Any pilots flight path is going to be above the mountain terrain at a safe altitude equal to a safe glide path alltitude to clear any tree or obstacles on those mountain ranges so really your Phantom was in safe flying areas from aircraft based on their safe flying alltitude for the terrain. Boy does that get mind boggling. Be safe fly safe and have fun!!
What about crop dusting pilots and helicopters? They are both licensed to fly below 500ft, and believe me they come out of no where in rural areas where you think you are safest.


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I suspect I might have a lot more idea than you think. I have been a Controller for 35 years working in both towers and enroute, and have held a pilots licence.
The Safe to Fly flyer is linked from CASA's website. Whether you like it or not, they are the regulatory authority. For what it's worth I'm not a fan either.
As regards your mandatory broadcasts and airspace knowledge, I get to watch and listen after I close the tower. Most non professional pilots don't comply with any of it. FACT.
The same applies to compliance with CAR's as regards the actual requirements for safe flight above terrain. FACT.
There is no way that your average drone pilot can hope to understand the airspace let alone regulations. So are you suggesting that no one except a professional pilot should be able to fly them?
 
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What about crop dusting pilots and helicopters? They are both licensed to fly below 500ft, and believe me they come out of no where in rural areas where you think you are safest.


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Crop dusting and low level flying requires a low level endorsement. Whether or not these pilots actually have this endorsement is another matter. But for anyone who doesn't, 500ft is the legal minimum you can fly in a fixed wing aircraft unless on approach to or departure from an aerodrome.

Helicopter minimums are generally at 300ft, hence my previous comment about the strange ceiling for RPAs.
 
I suspect I might have a lot more idea than you think. I have been a Controller for 35 years working in both towers and enroute, and have held a pilots licence.
The Safe to Fly flyer is linked from CASA's website. Whether you like it or not, they are the regulatory authority. For what it's worth I'm not a fan either.
As regards your mandatory broadcasts and airspace knowledge, I get to watch and listen after I close the tower. Most non professional pilots don't comply with any of it. FACT.
The same applies to compliance with CAR's as regards the actual requirements for safe flight above terrain. FACT.
There is no way that your average drone pilot can hope to understand the airspace let alone regulations. So are you suggesting that no one except a professional pilot should be able to fly them?
No I'm suggesting nothing, but it would be sensible to make it clear that certain areas can be flown unlicensed, how hard could it be to map all aerodromes and helipads in a simple graphic ( not unlike marine zones) and say, good here, bad here.

What is stranger is the allowance of unlicensed and uninsured commercial activity, I can't see that working.


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No I'm suggesting nothing, but it would be sensible to make it clear that certain areas can be flown unlicensed, how hard could it be to map all aerodromes and helipads in a simple graphic ( not unlike marine zones) and say, good here, bad here.

What is stranger is the allowance of unlicensed and uninsured commercial activity, I can't see that working.


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Couldn't agree more.
 
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.... how hard could it be to map all aerodromes and helipads in a simple graphic ( not unlike marine zones) and say, good here, bad here....

I love the idea, and can see the thought behind it, and it would be fantastic, but I suspect far too complex, and far too inaccurate to be a lot of use... perhaps local model shops could do it for their local area, just as a very rough guide for their customers (complete with disclaimer at the bottom saying it is intended only as a guide and it's the flyer's responsibility.. blah... blah... blah...
However, to do it at any greater scale than that may be impractical

For an example, my local town has a major airport - that would be easy to do with a simple graphic, and several hospitals with heliports, those would be expected to be there and easy to add to the graphic - but I live in Australia and use the OzRunways app (there's probably an equivalent for your area if you don't live in Australia) and when I look on that, I find heaps of hidden heliports that I never knew were there - even a nearby doctor's surgery has a heliport which I guess is just there for use in emergencies, but I certainly had no idea it was there, I've never seen it used, or heard of it being used, but for a simplified graphic I guess it would need to be included in the "bad here." So basically, my entire city would have to be listed as "bad here" which I know isn't strictly the case, but in a simplified graphic they'd have to err on the side of caution and include every known heliport as "bad."

When I zoom in on the OzRunways app, then just place two fingers on the screen, it gives me the distance between the two points, so I can zoom in on the map to find those small areas between the heliports and measure out whether I'm good to fly there based on the distance to the heliport. Some gaps between the heliports would be too small to realistically show on the simplified graphic, but as a general guide done for customers, it would possibly be feasible and even appreciated, but for someone to do a whole country, or even just the major areas of a country, it would be prohibitively expensive, and impractical.
 
Thanks for posting your video. Flying through trees is one of my cinematic objectives. I like the scene where you were looking straight down the trees and moving horizontally slightly. That could be developed into an artistic impression.

Here in the Midwest, we don't have tall lodge pole pines, so my approaches will be different. I was delighted to see you maintained contact with the drone. Fortunately, the canopy is not that dense where you were flying. Dense, broad leaf trees may not be as forgiving.

Out here, a single tree in line of sight can block WiFi.
How have folks managed to fly in the trees? I get no satellite readings (3 at most). Flying only in atti mode?
 

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