I just almost got creamed by a helicopter!

[ccase39]

I was in a field at a local park playing with ground station. I had been flying for about 20 min and after a few successful runs I put in a new battery And was hovering at about 50ft plotting out my next flight plan and all of a sudden a helicopter passed about 50ft DIRECTLY over me!
Our local police department does not have a helicopter to my knowledge but we do have a national guard training facility about 5 miles away. I assume that is who it was because it was green and rather large. It was definitely military.
I have no idea why he was flying so low and what are the chances they just happened to pass by. I really can't remember ever seeing one of this type anywhere near here.
Did somebody get nervous and call the cops who in turn called the National Guard? That seems a bit much. It was close enough that the wind jostled my bird quite a bit.

I sure hope I don't get a knock on the door.

 

[SteveMann]

Odds are that the helicopter pilot never even knew you were there.

 

[who]

Pretty sure the cop would investigate before sending in the national guard lol.

 

[Hughie]

I sure hope I don't get a knock on the door.

I dont understand why you are worried if you did nothing wrong ?

 

[catchingchrome]

Also it might appeared to be 50 feet but was likely much higher.... Good job you didn't take it down!

 

[ccase39]

I'm not worried really, just odd. Sure national guard has better things to do than chase down someone in a park flying a quad at 50ft.

 

[Andrey320]

The heli was probably not there for you.
But the next time you hear that loud sound, you should drop altitude.

 

[barefootbeachcombing]

Also it might appeared to be 50 feet but was likely much higher.... Good job you didn't take it down!

I almost got hit by an airplane a few months back.

I was flying at about 150 feet AGL (maybe a little lower) when a plane came down the coastline at a very low level. And I did not misjudge the height. There's no airport near the location. Aren't there minimum flight levels even for general aviation? Scared the crud out of me!

 

[MonsieurAnon]

There are minimum heights, but there's plenty of cowboy pilots, just like there's plenty of ignorant UAV operators.

 

[ianwood]

Having a pilot's license doesn't prevent stupid.

http://www.ianwood.com/images/*******-chopper-11.jpg

Here's a genius pilot flying a film helicopter 40ft over a residential building practically sideways. About 100ft AGL.

 

[ccase39]

Yea the one today was WAY closer than those but I am surprised to see so many flying that low. There is no way the pilot should have been flying that low.

 

[PhantomFanatic]

I was in a field at a local park playing with ground station. I had been flying for about 20 min and after a few successful runs I put in a new battery And was hovering at about 50ft plotting out my next flight plan and all of a sudden a helicopter passed about 50ft DIRECTLY over me!
Our local police department does not have a helicopter to my knowledge but we do have a national guard training facility about 5 miles away. I assume that is who it was because it was green and rather large. It was definitely military.
I have no idea why he was flying so low and what are the chances they just happened to pass by. I really can't remember ever seeing one of this type anywhere near here.
Did somebody get nervous and call the cops who in turn called the National Guard? That seems a bit much. It was close enough that the wind jostled my bird quite a bit.

I sure hope I don't get a knock on the door.

I'm surprised prop wash didn't affect your Phantom? 50' would be close enough, or so I think.

And, if no one has welcomed you, Welcome to the forum and Welcome to the family! (That is how I feel towards most everyone here!) The other ones don't last long!

 

[ccase39]

It did knock me around a little bit. I was in a hover and it was jumping around in about a ten foot radius and then GPS steadied it. It didnt knock the crap out of it or anything but it definitely took it out of steady hover for a second.

 

[Happyflyer]

I almost got hit by an airplane a few months back.

I was flying at about 150 feet AGL (maybe a little lower) when a plane came down the coastline at a very low level. And I did not misjudge the height. There's no airport near the location. Aren't there minimum flight levels even for general aviation? Scared the crud out of me!

I had the same thing happen late last summer at the beach also. I was not up yet, but that plane was not up very high.
Nearest runway is 4 miles away.

 

[MonsieurAnon]

Happyflyer; not that it's logical that a plane would be climbing for that kind of distance, but being 4 miles from an airport is illegal in some jurisdictions... you might want to check that in case you get fined.

 

[sdtrojan]

Aircraft can fly as low as 500' AGL over sparsely populated area, lower if over water as long as not within 500' of any person, vessel, vehicle or structure. So I could essentially sit at Del Mar all day long with my video camera filming violators. "Real pilots" need to get off their high horses.

 

[MonsieurAnon]

To be fair to the real pilots sdtrojan, when their aircraft crash it's often a more serious affair than when ours do.

 

[Happyflyer]

Happyflyer; not that it's logical that a plane would be climbing for that kind of distance, but being 4 miles from an airport is illegal in some jurisdictions... you might want to check that in case you get fined.

From where I was, where the plane was, and the direction of the two runways, they would have had to make several turns to get in line to have flown past my location. Just to check, last summer(I take the word summer lightly, it was COLD)I was about 1/2 mile from the end of a runway and popped up about 50 feet to check and the quad had no problems or any warnings. I think it is just too small of an airport to keep quad from takeoff.
A question on that. What do big airports transmit that the Phantom picks up and warns you not to fly?
.
I don't fly by the airport. Just a test and never got over 50 feet up and not in line with end of any runway.

 

[ianwood]

To be fair to the real pilots sdtrojan, when their aircraft crash it's often a more serious affair than when ours do.

Yes, but that doesn't negate the issue of pilots doing stupid maneuvers well below 500ft AGL.

 

[Suwaneeguy]

I recall a certain scene from a movie where the helicopter pilot was covering a traffic jam over a high bridge.
He got right down beside the bridge and got into an argument with someone.
Of course it was all staged, but the story line said he got a reward from the FAA and had his license yanked for doing it.