Slashdot Mirror
Record-Breaking 11000ft Flight Sparks Criticism In Pilot Community
An anonymous reader writes: In an attempt to break the world 'how high can you fly a consumer drone' record, an anonymous person from the Netherlands flew a Phantom 2 Quadcopter to a height of up to 3.4 km. That is more than 3 km above the maximum European Union legal height of 120 meters, which has applied since July 1, 2015 to hobby drones. Undoubtedly he set a new record of sorts, which also led to substantial discussions among the drone pilot community on the safe use of drones. At a height of 3.4 kilometers or 11000 feet you can indeed run into regular air traffic, or cause a lot of damage in case of a crash. Fortunately not in this flight -- but the battery had only 4% capacity at the moment of landing.
There aren't billions of birds at 11,000 feet.
And at low altitudes where planes commonly are (e.g. around airports) we scare them away with rockets or outright kill them.
Maxim: People cannot follow directions.
Increases in truth directly with the length of time spent explaining them
Don't have a Slashdot account, but I am an instrument rated private pilot. How close and likely? Within 50 feet of impact at 9k feet, to be exact. The drone would've killed me instantly on impact - I was traveling at approximately 190kts on an instrument flight plan and didn't see it until the last minute (nor did ATC). I filed a near miss report with the FAA. Drones are a problem - this wasn't my first run-in. N845P, Cirrus SR22, if you want to look up the reports.
They do, actually. Rocketry enthusiasts routinely submit NOTAMs (Notice to Airmen) to the FAA for distribution notifying that areas of airspace are to be closed off for rocket flights. Granted, these vehicles routinely reach anywhere from 1000' to 30,000' so they just close it all off.
And I believe in the areas allowed, it's actually marked on charts as restricted airspace so you must fly around it or get permission from the controlling authority.
Of course, the problem is this usually takes place far away from civilization into basically deserted areas (also far away from popular air routes). which takes a lot of fun out of the whole thing when you have to drive 2-3 hours to get to the cleared area, but it means no one is even close to being put in danger.
Right now, we're relying on big sky theory ("see and avoid"). It works, most of the time, until your big sky gets a little crowded. Near misses happen pretty routinely, even under control of ATC. It's also why ADS-B is a new and exciting technology - before that, smaller aircraft don't usually have TCAS systems, while the bigger airlines do. (Proactive pilots routinely purchased "PCAS" Personal Collision Avoidance Systems - basically a portable transponder receiver that works identically to a TCAS except it can't do a TCAS negotiation). A TCAS to TCAS link means two aircraft converging would communicate for a non-conflicting resolution - one will climb, the other emergency descent. A TCAS advisory is considered so important, they are to be immediately obeyed even if it goes against ATC. (In the early days of TCAS, this did cause collisions).
ADS-B tries to provide same but is available to all.
And let's just say TCAS advisories, PCAS advisories and ADS-B traffic displays have been praised by many a pilot.