SteveMann said:
ianwood said:
Personally, I suspect the pilot of the news chopper saw the drone, realized he'll be out of a job soon and got pissed off.
You are probably right on the mark there. The Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) and the Professional Helicopter Pilots Association (PHPA) will be most vociferous in their negative comments to the FAA when the NPRM for small UAV regulations come out.
If the drone had hit the helicopter in the tail rotor (which would be so highly unlikely because the downdraft of the main rotors would literally blow it out of the way), it could have brought it down. But what was the helicopter doing that low over a crowd? (Legally they can fly at any altitude).
That is "factually inaccurate."
Except when necessary for takeoff or landing, no person may operate an aircraft below the following altitudes:
(a) Anywhere. An altitude allowing, if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface.
(b) Over congested areas. Over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement, or over any open air assembly of persons, an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft.
(c) Over other than congested areas. An altitude of 500 feet above the surface, except over open water or sparsely populated areas. In those cases, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure.
(d) Helicopters, powered parachutes, and weight-shift-control aircraft. If the operation is conducted without hazard to persons or property on the surface—
(1) A helicopter may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed in paragraph (b) or (c) of this section, provided each person operating the helicopter complies with any routes or altitudes specifically prescribed for helicopters by the FAA
The FAA should be investigating this incident - because the helo pilot was not following FAA guidelines. Let's be careful where we throw rocks, "real pilots", because they can ricochet back!