Flight Reports are an important part of being a responsible drone operator.
They inform other airspace users about your planned - or in progress - flight of a drone in a particular area, at a particular time, for the purposes of greater aerial safety.
In this howto guide, @IaninLondon walks you through the process of using Drone Scene to submit a Flight Report.
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Thank you. I have been using Drone Assist up until now to file my flight reports. Didn’t realise i can do this in Drone Scene. Excellent!
Please don’t take my post the wrong way…it’s just an observation.
It used to be that we could fly RC model aircraft anywhere we had permission, usually in some farmers field in the middle of nowhere, and never had to tell anyone where, when, or how long we were flying for. We just flew.
That isn’t to say we could do what we wanted - the Air Navigation Order was a thing decades ago, and you could still be in trouble for damaging property and everything else that goes with operating a big heavy object that can cause harm.
Even the larger drones of today are lighter than the models we used to fly, and they fly relatively slowly (yes, they can fly fast flat-out, but my car can also do 125 MPH even though it isn’t legal to do so on the public highway, if you understand what I’m saying).
Kinetic energy being 0.5 * m * v^2, and being capable of flying in excess of 150 MPH for some models, you don’t need to be a genius to figure that if a model aircraft hits you, it’s not going to end well.
Why am I stating the obvious?
When I go fly my (manned) glider, I drive to the airport, get in the aircraft, and fly. I don’t file a flight plan as I’m under VFR rules, flying in class G airspace, out of an uncontrolled airfield.
I’m still required to check NOTAMS, but otherwise I’m not required to tell anyone where or when I’m flying. I can fly anywhere it is legal to fly (i.e., outside of controlled airspace) and not even carry a radio to do so.
I find it … disturbing … that I would need to report where I’m flying a drone, considering all the restrictions placed upon how I can fly it (within VLOS being the most limiting), considering I don’t need to tell anyone where I’m flying my glider.
The surveillance state is already too large, and I really fail to see who is “helped” by knowing where I’m flying a small drone in a relatively confined area. We are already prohibited from flying in certain areas for legitimate reasons, so we are hardly going to be operating there in the first instance.
What purpose does it serve to report my activities in uncontrolled airspace, considering I don’t need to in order to fly a large, manned aircraft?
You don’t have to file a flight report - its not a requirement but more of a considerate thing to do if your flying in a popular location to give others a heads up that someone is in the area flying. These flight reports do not restrict anyone from flying even if one has been submitted. Its more to do with awareness so you don’t end up flying into someone as the pilot may not be visible to you or the drone as your TOAL locations are not the same but your occupying the same bit of airspace.
Do you not announce on the radio your location when flying your glider so that others are aware of your location ? Its sort of the same thing.
In the 3 or so years I have been flying I have never submitted a flight report as I have not felt the need to do so as I have not flown at a popular location and if I have I have never flown very far away to warrant the need of one. Its all basically down to risk assessment of your flight really.
Do you not announce on the radio your location when flying your glider so that others are aware of your location ?
No. It’s all see-and-avoid.
I’m not suggesting that improving safety isn’t a good thing - it’s just that the real world is far from ideal, and is in fact nefarious more often than we like to think. Our drones already broadcast our precise locations in real-time while flying. Announcing our intention to fly and where we are flying is just another privacy-busting idea, and puts our personal safety at risk.
My glider has FLARM which alerts other gliders to my presence, and gives a clock-position and relative altitude to where I am (and like-wise, where other FLARM-equipped gliders are). This is only a recent addition to help assist with “see-and-avoid”.
There is no reason why our drone controllers couldn’t present similar information to alert us to the presence of other drones. The position can be relative to the controller, so we know where to look in the sky. This can be done without busting our privacy. The data is already broadcast; it just needs to be processed.
I do think its a very small % of people that file a flight report and of that small % I am sure even less know really why they should be doing it. Its just a risk mitigation tool at the end of the day and there are plenty of ways to do this as you have mentioned.
But like all systems they are the good and the bad side to it and like most things its what your happy to do or not in some cases in order to keep yourself and others safe in the sky.
I for one feel that these reports are maybe a bit overkill when your suppose to be flying VLOS etc but I guess if there is like 4 of you in the sky at the same time without knowing then maybe something like this could be of benefit - but it’s all about risk and what one assists as being a risk I guess.
If I’m flying in the Lake District I inform the RAF directly.
Exactly the reasons I file reports and do appreciate when I see others doing the same in an area I very regularly fly in.
See the big meet thread, we announced our plans and the glider club still ignored it.
Not really? 
Only DJI drones broadcast their data out, and even then it’s only to DJI AeroScope receivers within range, and even fewer since they encrypted it.
For those of us who have used both systems, any preference?