Who says planes don't fly below 500 feet?

Pharm · Feb 17, 2017

I've read numerous threads with differing comments about whether we drone pilots need to worry about planes flying below 500 ft. Here's an example of why, regardless of the rules, "see and avoid" is a good practice for us all. My wife and I took a spin on the lake and were heading home. I was watching in front of me, looking for other boaters, logs, etc., and thought for a moment that I saw a Cessna coming at me. I laughed to myself thinking "Yeah, right". Then I realized there WAS a Cessna heading toward me! He veered to the right and rose in altitude a tiny bit so there was never any real danger of us colliding. I'm just glad I wasn't following the boat with my Phantom! I managed to grab my phone and shoot a short video as he passed. I frequently fly my Phantom over the lake right below 400 ft but now I'm a bit nervous about it (even though the plane would have been BELOW me!).

jellofan · Feb 17, 2017

Drug smugglers?

rich_schultz · Feb 17, 2017

Too bad you can't make out the tail number. As a pilot as well that's as stupid for a non seaplane landing as a drone at 1000 feet. Separation rules keep us all safe. We all do ******* stunts but it's a quick way to get in trouble

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With The Birds · Feb 17, 2017

You might find he can fly as low as he likes over water. I keep the phantom below 40m over water as I often encounter AC at 200 ft. not as low as they aeroplane looked but a lot lower than 500ft.

Kirby Johnson · Feb 17, 2017

Pharm said:
I've read numerous threads with differing comments about whether we drone pilots need to worry about planes flying below 500 ft. Here's an example of why, regardless of the rules, "see and avoid" is a good practice for us all. My wife and I took a spin on the lake and were heading home. I was watching in front of me, looking for other boaters, logs, etc., and thought for a moment that I saw a Cessna coming at me. I laughed to myself thinking "Yeah, right". Then I realized there WAS a Cessna heading toward me! He veered to the right and rose in altitude a tiny bit so there was never any real danger of us colliding. I'm just glad I wasn't following the boat with my Phantom! I managed to grab my phone and shoot a short video as he passed. I frequently fly my Phantom over the lake right below 400 ft but now I'm a bit nervous about it (even though the plane would have been BELOW me!).

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Is Harrison Ford back out of the hospital?

Pharm · Feb 18, 2017

jellofan said:
Drug smugglers?

Well, maybe. It said "El Chapo" on the side. Hmmm....

skyacramer · Feb 18, 2017

Is there an airport near by?

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Pharm · Feb 18, 2017

skyacramer said:
Is there an airport near by?

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About 20 miles.

DanMan32 · Feb 18, 2017

I know that "Nah, can't be. Wait, IT IS!" when an oncoming car appeared to be in my lane. He was, we collided. Fortunately it was a low speed impact as I was nearly stopped and I think he was stopping too.

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NewMexicoFlyer · Feb 18, 2017

While hunting out in the middle of the desert a few years back we had two f16s strafe us at 100'. We saw them coming, and instantly they were there. Pretty sure I could have hit them with a rock.

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YachtsCF · Feb 20, 2017

Flying at a local island park a couple weeks ago two powered paragliders took off from a grassy parking lot behind me and headed right towards my old phantom at about 100 feet above the water. As soon as I saw them I lowered my phantom and tried to avoid them bringing my phantom back. I stopped flying for about an hour to make sure they were completely gone. I don't know if they saw me but I felt as if they were trying to play chicken with me.

When I resumed my flight I flew along the beach somewhat close to a few condos to make sure they wouldn't come close if they happened to show u again. Lo and behold they come flying straight towards my drone once again. I lowered my drone as much as possible to try and bring it back home once again dropping behind a condo, loosing singal in the process and line of sight with my phantom.

My phantom went into return to home mode shooting up to 300 feet. Once it regained signal I see one of the paragladers on my screen flying right next to me, I'd say about 50 to 100 feet away. I put my drone in sport mode, flew my drone home as quickly as possible, packed up and left.

On my way out of the park I see the other paraglide flying quite close to a Cessna plane that must've been flying at the required 500 feet. These guys were flying over the cruise ships leaving and crowded beaches on the opposite side of the island where I was. I don't know about paragliding regulations but what I saw sure looked as very illegal to me not to mention taking off from a parking lot.

Moral of the story: if you have a close and or feel manned aircraft might be in danger, even if you're flying within regulation, land your drone and pack.

AnchorageAk · Feb 20, 2017

It is only 500 feet over people and buildings. Many of us fly under that up here.

m0j0 · Feb 20, 2017

I'm all for being safe with my AC but the story here is the asinine behavior of the Cessna Pilot. Where are all the pilots that come in here to chastise quad pilots for doing dumb things. This is dumb on an entirely different level. Real lives (pilot at least) put in danger. With a real aircraft... not a 2 pound quad. Seriously, I'm waiting for all drone Police to chime in ... let's go.. you know who you are..

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kennedye · Feb 21, 2017

AnchorageAk said:
It is only 500 feet over people and buildings. Many of us fly under that up here.

Don't you guys also have different VFR rules as well? (I know about the "twilight" definition differences.)

Neon Euc · Feb 21, 2017

Thinking outside the box here (yes yes I do that a lot[emoji12]) I like to keep an open mind and say that for all we know he might be doing an emergency landing as could be a fuel/altitude problem or maybe that person or a passenger may be in a critical and sick condition with heart problems and decided to cruise low by the lake so if he was going to crash it would be out of peoples way.

Neon Euc

AnchorageAk · Feb 21, 2017

kennedye said:
Don't you guys also have different VFR rules as well? (I know about the "twilight" definition differences.)

The VFR rules are the same as far as I know. Twilight, or night is define differently. I mean, in July it doesn't get dark till midnight, and then it is still light enough to read a book. I have a night restriction.
I can't remember the exact wording, but it does depend on the time of year, and the position of the sun over the horizon. The details can be found in the Alaska Supplement. No experience flying outside. Just the 25 years up here flying a "12", and a supercub..

AnchorageAk · Feb 21, 2017

m0j0 said:
I'm all for being safe with my AC but the story here is the asinine behavior of the Cessna Pilot. Where are all the pilots that come in here to chastise quad pilots for doing dumb things. This is dumb on an entirely different level. Real lives (pilot at least) put in danger. With a real aircraft... not a 2 pound quad. Seriously, I'm waiting for all drone Police to chime in ... let's go.. you know who you are..

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I know some of you want like this, just take it easy on me. What he did was totally legal. He did move to the side to avoid flying over them. How is it unsafe?Even the poster said it was safe. I don't remember, but I don't remember there being a horizontal limit. Just have to fly in a safe manner. If you substitute, drone in the place of aircraft, in this case, I am sure that there would be a group of people that feel that was unsafe. The aircraft pilot is trained, and goes for a check ride every two years to make certain he knows what he is doing. The plane is examined every year to make certain it is safe. If it is commercial, every 100 hours. Can't say that about the drone. I believe if you aren't use to being around planes, you are more likely to feel he was unsafe. Same with drones, we hear all the time how evil they are. This is just another way of looking at things. Low flying planes are a issue up here, it scares the hell out of me. I could be in one of those planes. Also, flying the drone. I got some strobe lights for it to light that thing up. It is not uncommon for planes to be below the tree line.

Pharm · Feb 21, 2017

NewMexicoFlyer said:
While hunting out in the middle of the desert a few years back we had two f16s strafe us at 100'. We saw them coming, and instantly they were there. Pretty sure I could have hit them with a rock.

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They strafed you? What weapons did they fire at you??

Allen deckard · Feb 22, 2017

Kind of a done topic but.

Over Open Water or Sparsely Populated Areas: an altitude allowing for a linear distance greater than 500 feet from any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure;

So actually no altitude per say but 500 feet in any direction anyway not a drone thing and I haven't flown in a few years but I was pretty sure it was 500.

Pegasus2 · Feb 22, 2017

I have at times helicopters of the Army and Gendarmerie flying around at under 500 feet. I even had a Rafale from the French Air Force hedge hopping over and he was certainly below 500 feet. I didn't get his tail number, but I don't think it would have made any difference even if I tried to report it.