near miss with military helicopter
- Thread starter SteveEsqueda
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I'm so sorry to hear that. I'm very glad you got to know him. I'll bet he was a character.
Thank you sir.Jerry was a Constable for many years and well known throughout the county.He was quite a character in many ways,always fun to be around.
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actually he is legally flying where he is flying, the military often take gratuities they should not, for instance, the law states you have to be a certain distance from the coast before you can fly below 600ft.
I should also point out perspective is a bugger, things can look close but bee very far apart.
I should also point out perspective is a bugger, things can look close but bee very far apart.
You sir, are so wrong on your legal references, that it would be comical if this was a laughing matter. Spreading of misinformation is extremely counter productive to this hobby and a great disservice to flyers here, that know as little as you do, and come here for help.
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First off it is doubtful that the crew of the copter even saw your drone.
Secondly, as others have noted you have to avoid him. If that means (in your judgement) simply staying in place, then that is fine as long as your judgement was right.
Time to react in such a situation could be very short. The suggestion of CSC might have dropped you onto the helicopter.
Lastly, other than ingestion of the drone into an engine, your P3P would have caused no damage to the helicopter on collision. And even with ingestion most of the parts would have jammed in the PS (I believe). And if, finally, anything hit the turbine then a possible engine failure and most US military helos have 2 engines so they would have made it fine. Some guard units still have single engine huey's I think? OH-58's are retired now.
Don't worry, the bill to repair/replace an engine wouldn't exceed about $800,000 or so. Plus cleaning of the crews pants.
OTOH, supposing it was, say, a U/SH-60 picking up a VIP (O7 or higher, or perhaps some congress critter) from John Wayne on a "Training flight" to take him home and there was such a mishap, I'm sure said O7 or CC's aides would see to it that there was no particular enthusiasm in finding out who owned the drone ...
Secondly, as others have noted you have to avoid him. If that means (in your judgement) simply staying in place, then that is fine as long as your judgement was right.
Time to react in such a situation could be very short. The suggestion of CSC might have dropped you onto the helicopter.
Lastly, other than ingestion of the drone into an engine, your P3P would have caused no damage to the helicopter on collision. And even with ingestion most of the parts would have jammed in the PS (I believe). And if, finally, anything hit the turbine then a possible engine failure and most US military helos have 2 engines so they would have made it fine. Some guard units still have single engine huey's I think? OH-58's are retired now.
Don't worry, the bill to repair/replace an engine wouldn't exceed about $800,000 or so. Plus cleaning of the crews pants.
OTOH, supposing it was, say, a U/SH-60 picking up a VIP (O7 or higher, or perhaps some congress critter) from John Wayne on a "Training flight" to take him home and there was such a mishap, I'm sure said O7 or CC's aides would see to it that there was no particular enthusiasm in finding out who owned the drone ...
Anyone ever do a CSC and restart it close to the ground. Saw it done on YouTube but wondered if it was a reliable course of action to save the Phantom if you had to do it?
It's been done, but the restart itself needs to be a couple of hundred feet up at least.
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There's a somewhat entertaining "drop" of a Phantom from another drone and while I believe he got the motors going, the P crashed anyway.
Another video has a Mavic Pro doing it from what didn't appear to be very high (100' or so?) and he succeeded.
I am not a Helicopter Pilot, but have been interested in Helicopter flight most of my life. Auto-rotation requires changing the pitch of the main rotor basically changing the airflow. Drones don't have that ability!
I'd like to see the Mavic video, since I have one of those - do you have a link for it?
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Don't have Google where you live?
I just looked at it, and it was much higher than 100' (so much for my memory) and I didn't hear anyone say what height.
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Definitely not for a variety of reasons the first being stability (needs power) and the second being that the props would turn in the wrong direction going down! (I can't conceive of quad attitude that would keep the blades spinning in the correct direction).
A helo has variable pitch and so the pilot drops the collective to keep the blades spinning in the correct direction so he'll have lift to "glide" and stored energy to stop the descent and land. (Helo pilots please correct me here).
Thanks. I found some data on that test. Shutoff was at 400 ft, restart command after 1 second. The Mavic dropped 120 ft before the motors restarted, and lost another 70 ft before stabilizing. Very impressive.
I could have Googled it of course, but I got the impression that you had the link to hand.
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There is one other option that has merit. I am always aware of my altitude when flying. However, I have my maximum altitude set higher than the limit of 400 feet. The reason is because if a helicopter or other manned aircraft or even birds are flying low and may enter my airspace, it is my responsibility to get out of the way. The DJI Phantoms P3P/A can descend at only 3 m/s = 10.8 km/h = 6.7 mph. The other alternative if needed is to ascend at the higher speed max of 5 m/s = 18 km/h = 11.2 mph. Yes, you may go over the 400 foot limit, but anything is better than hitting a manned aircraft. This can also get you out of trouble with birds too as birds cannot ascend straight up, they need speed to gain altitude which requires them to flap their wings. Seems the options available are dive, ascend, fly at break neck speed in another direction, stay put, or CSC but a last resort. There may be other options but it depends on the situation and the environment. Sounds like you made the right decision in your situation.
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@NRJ I've been considering setting my altitude limit at 100' higher than the legal height for the same reasons. Another axis of freedom if needed. I haven't so far. To be sure, in Sport mode the P4P and MP both haul some pretty impressive vertical *** (nearly 1000' / minute in S mode for the MP or P4P in P mode; 1180'/minute for the P4P in S mode).
If a helo pilot is tooling along and sees a drone he would most likely climb to the right. Less likely dive to the right.
So perhaps the best thing for a drone operator to do (if heading towards the helo) would be to dive to the right since he'd be more likely to climb to your left. In doubt, go down.
If a helo pilot is tooling along and sees a drone he would most likely climb to the right. Less likely dive to the right.
So perhaps the best thing for a drone operator to do (if heading towards the helo) would be to dive to the right since he'd be more likely to climb to your left. In doubt, go down.
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