It’s not close, it’s all to do with perspective. Think how small even a mavic 2 or 3 is compared to the length of the wing which is about 6m in length.
In that photo the drone measures 60x and the wing measures 344x where 344x = 6m, x = 17cm therefore in that pictue the drone would be 1047 cm diagonally we can clearly state that the drone was alot closer than the plane to the camera otherwise the wing would appear alot longer.
Caveat i used photo shop to get the measurements, and exaggerated the size of the drone slightly so it measured bigger than it would have been
Again
Still doesn’t excuse the muppet who decided to fly his drone even though a NOTAM was in place. I think he got off lightly.
2 Likes
Agree with all that but the Hurricane would have past the drone a matter of seconds earlier
The real problem with this situation, is not how close the airprox was, or if the media photoshopped the evidence.
This is not an error or drone operator mistake,.
This is a situation he walked into with both eyes open.
He new the aircraft flights were happening. A grown adult consciously making a decision and knowingly refusing to follow the instructions of a NOTAM that could lead to the endangerment of others, then choosing to lie about it…
WTF is the guy on?
Imo it is the same as flying in airport FRZ etc.
Totally unacceptable, inexcusable and undefendable…
I haven’t seen anyone accept it, excuse it or defend it. The fact that he shouldn’t have done it and deserves (at least) what he got doesn’t justify ludicrous statements by the police in court or some of the media coverage.
1 Like
As I have already said… I totally agree with you …
But that’s what the OP tried… Lied to try and get out of it…
Maybe. The way read the OP is that if the drone code was more explicit about reading NOTAMs it might not have happened. But I could be wrong. And that was before he said in court that he read the NOTAM and ignored it…
I suspect if a NOTAM wasn’t in place, this wouldn’t have been a big case.
Ahh but do manned aviation read and take note of notams. Generally probably not. Even today i witnessed a private helicopter fly overhead at under 80m ( notam in place) we witnessed a couple of years ago at anglezark
a PPL fly past at under 400ft with at least 2 NOTAMS in place. So if a pilot who’s life could depend on it isn’t paying attention to them why should we expect a hobbist drone flyer pay attention.
They read NOTAM’s for the entire route before the flight.
The route is usually planned around them or extra attention taken in specific areas.
What was the NOTAM?
Light aircraft flight Yesterday. At anglezark a couple of year’s ago i put one up and i believe it was either @kvetner or @PingSpike who put one up.
I have also gad conversations with PPL pilits who admit they don’t always check them.
2 Likes
I don’t think any pilots are going to check the type of reports we generate.
They will only get a report of official NOTAM’s published by NATS.
If you look how busy the map is at notaminfo it would be chaos if they added in drone flights.
1 Like
The 500ft rule for manned aircraft in the UK is a distance from any person, vehicle or structure not a height AGL
1 Like
I think with the advent of aids such as Skydemon that situation has greatly changed for the better
Over the warehouse that i work at where there are people o the roof fitting solar panels 
1 Like
Perfectly possible for it to be automatically flagged on a pre-flight briefing report which typically includes all NOTAMs along the filed route.
They don’t need to look at a map and do it manually - anything on the flight path comes up as part of the briefing sheet.
Problem with a lot of drone flights is very few are filed days or hours in advance - a lot of people when they register the flight do it a few mins ahead when they decide to fly in that area (or not at all which is perfectly legal).
There is a need for a joined up system with manned and unmanned can get easily notified of conflicts in an area. Its a bit of a mess currently. The data exists but no set procedures for sharing and utilising it.
Agree with that but our drone reports are not NOTAMs.
1 Like
They’re not but the backend system they’re on means they could be introduced onto the route briefing very simply with pretty much no extra effort.
Some commercial flights do get NOTAM’ed but typically only those operating in or near FRZs or similar. Its rare.
Thats the issue - enough data exists for both types of user to share and help but no useful procedures seem to exist to make each side aware of the others (be that drone flights not showing on briefings but also things like low fly or adsb not being sent from manned).
The system really needs joining up.
(Irrelevant to this post though - we’re dealing with a dickhead who committed multiple offences in full knowledge of what he was doing). No amount of info sharing will stop people like him.
1 Like
Thanks. It was going to be my new hobby/business but I think will end up being a once in a lifetime experience!
) airspace.