Close call with RAF Typhoon

Jesus, sounds like a close one! Must have been pretty frightening. So lucky you weren’t in the air

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Hi @bobflyman. That’s a pretty amazing close encounter. The Typhoon is a fantastic aircraft. Ive seen a few at airshows in the past but ironically probably not as close as my own personal flyby on Tuesday. To be actually in the air in a paraglider when they flyby must be something else. I take your point about having a camera with you. That kind of photo opportunity doesn’t come along very often.

Hi there @DiamondDragon. It definitely made me stop and think. I,d have been gutted to lose my new drone but possibly not a miffed as the RAF losing one of their best fighter aircraft!

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It was so fast I doubt a camera would have caught anything much, barely a second, but the memory of it lives on!

A drone in the engine intake on a Typhoon wouldn’t be very healthy that’s for sure!

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I’m in Suffolk and Apache’s, Chinook’s, Ospreys and the odd Hercules put in fairly regular appearances here.
I’ve been in a similar situation a few times now luckily with me being in the air just before or after the military have turned up in the same airspace usually below 400ft and often at ‘treetop’ height.

When I fly I’m always listening out for the sound of rotors (as I should) and when I do I get down, but the possibility of descending from up to 400ft down ‘onto’ and into the path of an aircraft is a definite possibility which always concerns me. The lower they are, the less audible warning you seem to get.

I use the NATS app regularly before flying but this doesn’t give any indication of military operations. I know this because I contacted them with my concerns and was told that they were actively engaging with the military to try and improve the situation, but as things stood then (I contacted them a little over a year ago) the military did not publish their activities as navigation warnings and therefore NATS were unable to include them. Maybe the situation has improved since I contacted them. I hope so.

I do everything I can to mitigate/avoid a bad situation, short of not flying at all. My drone is festooned with LED’s to make it as visible as I can, I really don’t want to be the first person to bounce a drone off of the canopy (or worse) of a Apache, Chinook etc.

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My experience is definitely very similar to yours @Torsen. I also share your view about not being the first person to collide with a low flying military aircraft or any other aircraft for that matter. I m now purchasing further Strobon crees for my drone. I won’t be surprised if the next thing are reports of a UFO flying in the local area.

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Point taken, but I’ve been flying fixed wing, (tail draggers, biplanes, 3D )for thirty years and drones for quite a while. The more knowledge one has, the safer one will be. I’ll never be afraid to learn more :neutral_face: :grinning:

Just a bit of an update. Had the Ex4 out yesterday with Strobon crees onboard. Had VLOS to well over a kilometre away in daylight. Could have went further I’m sure but then realised that first of all, not sure of the legality of flying at this distance (I ll check out other conversations on that shortly) and secondly I don’t think I,d normally be flying over a km away anyway. It nice to know the new drone can easily handle that distance but more importantly that it is also easily visible at distance too with the crees on. I feel that I can have a bit more confidence again.

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