How does this keep happening... what can we do about it?

L

leafdog

Member
Hi all,

http://vimeo.com/95205315

I know we've all seen these type of videos before, but I'm starting to get really annoyed now, we've been around from the beginning and have done everything by the book. When you get people flying in this way (and undoubtedly getting stunning footage) I think its going to have a big impact on our businesses, because when production companies and potential clients see this kind of footage they are going to expect this is the norm and that capturing these types of shots to be a straight forward task. With no knowledge of the airspace, permissions etc...

We are based in London and get requests for flying in the city a lot. How do we address this growing problem of irresponsible/illegal flying? as I think we will start losing work out to people who operate in this manner......

Thoughts from y'all ?
 

fltundra

fltundra

Member
I can tell from being a private pilot that the FAA is going to turn this hobby upside down. With clowns like this putting peoples safety and other aircraft at risk it's only a matter of time, unfortunately.
 







L

leafdog

Member
amazingly I still had the tab open so have managed to save the video, do you guys want to see it? Just for the record, I'm not on a witch hunt, people genuinely make mistakes but surely not doing stuff like this is just common sense?
 
Last edited by a moderator:

J

jes1111

Active Member
Claims to be "not professional", i.e. no reward therefore "recreational use", not subject to CAA rules. Still a jerk though - the River Thames through London is one of the busiest helicopter air corridors in the world - so maybe what he did was illegal anyway - try sending an email to the CAA :)
 

Av8Chuck

Av8Chuck

Member
That video was apparently already taken down.

As a commercial pilot I can tell you that there is absolutely no mention of RC or commercial AP from RC in the FAR/AIM which means that this doesn't fall under the jurisdiction of the FAA. The likelihood of a mid air collision between an RC and full size aircraft is pretty low. Its also a bit disingenuous to think that somehow regulations are going to make everyone safer:






Airworks at RCGroups.com pointed this out and went on to say "I think the FAA needs to keep its nose where it belongs , and obviously is doing such a great job at what they do. give themselves another vacation."

I might not ares with how Airworks said it but I do agree that any attempt to regular this profession needs to be in context of, well, reality. You can't legislate stupidity.

Also, I'd bet that during the same time frame there were any number of runway incursions, near mid air collisions, bird strikes and hard landings that didn't involve a drone and wend largely unnoticed.
 
Last edited by a moderator:


Droider

Droider

Drone Enthusiast
Claims to be "not professional", i.e. no reward therefore "recreational use", not subject to CAA rules
Click to expand...

Nope sorry it does not matter that he was not using it for commercial gain, which could be argued anyway because he posted it on his 'Professional' website. He still has to follow the rules on flying a model aircraft which states the flight must be responsible and safe in in accordance with the rules and regulation of there ANO. He was on the flight corridor into city airport, within the helicopter corridors and a some point way over 400ft.. we all make mistakes but common sense should prevail.
 

iceman

iceman

Member
Not sure what the delited video was but was it like this? https://vimeo.com/89812852 anyone claiming this is recreational is delusional! and why would they add it to their portfolio of work on their business website? I can see this is going to have to be a self regulated industry in order to protect our own interests. Oh! and just watch as all these videos go offline
 

iceman

iceman

Member
Dave you beat me to it, I was just writing my last post when you posted yours, you must type with 2 fingers
 


Av8Chuck

Av8Chuck

Member
jes1111 said:
Claims to be "not professional", i.e. no reward therefore "recreational use", not subject to CAA rules. Still a jerk though - the River Thames through London is one of the busiest helicopter air corridors in the world - so maybe what he did was illegal anyway - try sending an email to the CAA :)
Click to expand...


I hope you guys don't think I'm a jerk but I didn't really see anything wrong with that video. He didn't appear to fly over people, with a fisheye its hard to tell but it appeared that he was below 400', and he didn't seem to fly erratically. If I were flying a helicopter that low up the river I would certainly be on the lookout for other helicopters, balloons, RC's etc and it wouldn't be that difficult to spot a white Phantom with LED's flying around that slowly.

I kept expecting to see a plane flyby in the shot and the Phantom fall out of the sky because of wake turbulence or something. Other than the fact that the aerial was not that good I think citizens should have the right to try to get those kinds of aerial shots.

There are a lot of A-hole pilots around that seem to embellish close encounters, maybe they want their 15 minutes of fame?
 


Droider

Droider

Drone Enthusiast
Av8Chuck said:
I hope you guys don't think I'm a jerk but I didn't really see anything wrong with that video. He didn't appear to fly over people, with a fisheye its hard to tell but it appeared that he was below 400', and he didn't seem to fly erratically. If I were flying a helicopter that low up the river I would certainly be on the lookout for other helicopters, balloons, RC's etc and it wouldn't be that difficult to spot a white Phantom with LED's flying around that slowly.

I kept expecting to see a plane flyby in the shot and the Phantom fall out of the sky because of wake turbulence or something. Other than the fact that the aerial was not that good I think citizens should have the right to try to get those kinds of aerial shots.

There are a lot of A-hole pilots around that seem to embellish close encounters, maybe they want their 15 minutes of fame?
Click to expand...

@ Chuck.

In the UK we have a direct route for aerial permissions for comecial work. These permissions are granted by companies sticking to the CAA (your FAA) rules. A very similar but even more daring flight in spain resulted in the total ban of civilian UAV's over night. We don't want that happening here.

I really doubt a full size hell pilot OR a FW pilot would be expecting that on their approach to city airport and in the grand scheme of things on their approach a piddly Phanotm wont going to be see until it gets sucked into a air intake.


It may have been a very innocent mistake but ignorance does not stand up in court.
 


You must log in or register to reply here.
Top