Help with Flying Safely

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Does anyone know of a good resource for checking the safe flying parameters of a given area?

I know of skyvector, which is for flight planning
ie class B, Class E zones and their given flight floors.
However im more concerned with lower flying traffic, such as medivac, news helicopters or other low flying craft.

I have seen some individuals stating they have flown to 1000 feet or higher, and wondering what precautions they took.
If you have your drone at 1000 feet and a medivac or new chopper comes in the area, a collision is possible.

Is there a place to check on these things?

Thanks!
 
Go to a local FBO (where small or corporate aircraft refuel) or any flight school and purchase a "Sectional Chart" for your area, it is easy to read and very basic, on the side in one of the folds it also has a legend with all symbols and stuff should you need help. There you can see Helicopter corridors and any seaports in the area along with restricted and prohibited areas.

As a rule of thumb I would stay 3-4 miles away from ANY airport and stay bellow 400ft. If you know what a class "B" airspace is you need to run away from that
 
amrflyingdude said:
Go to a local FBO (where small or corporate aircraft refuel) or any flight school and purchase a "Sectional Chart" for your area, it is easy to read and very basic, on the side in one of the folds it also has a legend with all symbols and stuff should you need help. There you can see Helicopter corridors and any seaports in the area along with restricted and prohibited areas.

As a rule of thumb I would stay 3-4 miles away from ANY airport and stay bellow 400ft. If you know what a class "B" airspace is you need to run away from that

Thanks for the info, this is very helpful.

Regarding Class B airspace, the region i would be flying in is Class B, but the floor is 3500 feet. Are you saying not to fly at all (even below 400) in this area?
 
jdenkevitz said:
amrflyingdude said:
Go to a local FBO (where small or corporate aircraft refuel) or any flight school and purchase a "Sectional Chart" for your area, it is easy to read and very basic, on the side in one of the folds it also has a legend with all symbols and stuff should you need help. There you can see Helicopter corridors and any seaports in the area along with restricted and prohibited areas.

As a rule of thumb I would stay 3-4 miles away from ANY airport and stay bellow 400ft. If you know what a class "B" airspace is you need to run away from that

Thanks for the info, this is very helpful.

Regarding Class B airspace, the region i would be flying in is Class B, but the floor is 3500 feet. Are you saying not to fly at all (even below 400) in this area?

The FAR's state that "No aircraft, except for the purpose of take-off and landing, can fly below 500' AGL (Above Ground Level) over a sparsely populated area or below 1,000' over a populated area". They do not define "populated or sparsely populated". If you are under Class B airspace, then I assume you are near a big city and it would probably be "populated".
 
And also, the safe harbor provision of AC 91-57 states that you should stay below 400 feet. Also, the floor of Class B space is not 3500. Depending on how close to the airport it could be AGL, or 400 or 700 or 1200, etc.
 
jdenkevitz said:
amrflyingdude said:
Go to a local FBO (where small or corporate aircraft refuel) or any flight school and purchase a "Sectional Chart" for your area, it is easy to read and very basic, on the side in one of the folds it also has a legend with all symbols and stuff should you need help. There you can see Helicopter corridors and any seaports in the area along with restricted and prohibited areas.

As a rule of thumb I would stay 3-4 miles away from ANY airport and stay bellow 400ft. If you know what a class "B" airspace is you need to run away from that

Thanks for the info, this is very helpful.

Regarding Class B airspace, the region i would be flying in is Class B, but the floor is 3500 feet. Are you saying not to fly at all (even below 400) in this area?

Once you know the "b" airspace starts high enough for you to fly then your next concern is lateral separation from the class "B" Airport . You don't want to be flying a drone a bit known for flyways near a B airport, if your phantom crosses an active runway even during a flyaway you are in trouble. I would say check the boundaries for altitude restrictions and then stay 3 to 4 miles away from that airport and you should be fine. Same for all other airports BTW.

Also, Pilots report a lot so they are aware of situations and such (it is in some cases mandatory like moderate turbulence or ice for example), if you are near a busy "B" airport and a pilot reports a flying object they will look for it, an after 9/11 those things are not fun to go through.
 
rmklaw said:
And also, the safe harbor provision of AC 91-57 states that you should stay below 400 feet. Also, the floor of Class B space is not 3500. Depending on how close to the airport it could be AGL, or 400 or 700 or 1200, etc.

I may well be reading it wrong, but according to : www.skyvector.com, the Baltimore-Washington TAC map has the area I wish to fly in listed (a non yellow section between Reisterstown and Owings Mills) as being within a 100/35 ring, which I believe means 10,000 foot for ceiling, 3500 foot floor. Below that 3500 foot floor would be Class E? I may be completely wrong, just trying to clarify my understanding.
 
lgeist said:
jdenkevitz said:
amrflyingdude said:
Go to a local FBO (where small or corporate aircraft refuel) or any flight school and purchase a "Sectional Chart" for your area, it is easy to read and very basic, on the side in one of the folds it also has a legend with all symbols and stuff should you need help. There you can see Helicopter corridors and any seaports in the area along with restricted and prohibited areas.

As a rule of thumb I would stay 3-4 miles away from ANY airport and stay bellow 400ft. If you know what a class "B" airspace is you need to run away from that

Thanks for the info, this is very helpful.

Regarding Class B airspace, the region i would be flying in is Class B, but the floor is 3500 feet. Are you saying not to fly at all (even below 400) in this area?

The FAR's state that "No aircraft, except for the purpose of take-off and landing, can fly below 500' AGL (Above Ground Level) over a sparsely populated area or below 1,000' over a populated area". They do not define "populated or sparsely populated". If you are under Class B airspace, then I assume you are near a big city and it would probably be "populated".

So basically all RC modeling is illegal under Class B airspace? Or is it that this is the case for Class B listed as 100/SFC? Does the floor height modify this?
 
amrflyingdude said:
jdenkevitz said:
amrflyingdude said:
Go to a local FBO (where small or corporate aircraft refuel) or any flight school and purchase a "Sectional Chart" for your area, it is easy to read and very basic, on the side in one of the folds it also has a legend with all symbols and stuff should you need help. There you can see Helicopter corridors and any seaports in the area along with restricted and prohibited areas.

As a rule of thumb I would stay 3-4 miles away from ANY airport and stay bellow 400ft. If you know what a class "B" airspace is you need to run away from that

Thanks for the info, this is very helpful.

Regarding Class B airspace, the region i would be flying in is Class B, but the floor is 3500 feet. Are you saying not to fly at all (even below 400) in this area?

Once you know the "b" airspace starts high enough for you to fly then your next concern is lateral separation from the class "B" Airport . You don't want to be flying a drone a bit known for flyways near a B airport, if your phantom crosses an active runway even during a flyaway you are in trouble. I would say check the boundaries for altitude restrictions and then stay 3 to 4 miles away from that airport and you should be fine. Same for all other airports BTW.

Also, Pilots report a lot so they are aware of situations and such (it is in some cases mandatory like moderate turbulence or ice for example), if you are near a busy "B" airport and a pilot reports a flying object they will look for it, an after 9/11 those things are not fun to go through.

Ok this makes sense. I have no intention of being anywhere near any airfield. The flyaway range for my Phantom 2 is probably 10 miles or more if its full charged, so im going to try for that plus several more miles as a safety.
 

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