Mavic 2 hits Helicopter

Have you seen this guys ? …

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He was looking down at his tablet when he heard a loud impact, and then noticed his drone was no longer in the air.

He could hear that “loud impact”, but couldn’t hear the helicopter coming? :thinking:

More troubling is the Japan Airlines aircraft that hit another aircraft whilst landing at Haneda airport this morning. Can’t blame that on a drone. Sounds like Haneda ATC at fault or the pilot of the coastguard aircraft. ?

And we all know manned flight has priority.

As a side note I would like to know the full facts regarding the legality of both flights prior to the accident. As we know the drone should have got out of the way.

Incident occurred at 180ft - aren’t manned aircraft supposed to stay above 500’ ?

Maybe the helicopter was coming in to land.

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Why? It’s not as if there’s an airport nearby …

Oh, wait, my mistake

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Ah, in that case I withdraw my comment about altitude - obviously the drone should not have been flying that close to the airport ( unless he had ATC permission )

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The address is 1.63 miles from the centre of the main runway, half a mile from the end, and less than a quarter of a mile from the centre line. Very busy airport (Daytona Beach), so I can’t see them giving permission to anybody.

The helicopter was able to land safely, but damage to its rotor blade was estimated at $60,000.

Does a chopper prop really cost that much? :thinking:

Should have checked out Master Airscrew on Amazon :man_shrugging:

After a rotor strike, maintenance manual would call for a new rotor head and maybe swash linkages etc.
It would need a lot to get its AW certificate
Not cheap things heli’s :man_shrugging:

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OK, that scuppers my plans for buying a used chopper off ebay :face_with_diagonal_mouth:

I also guess that the cost may include any lost commercial work, incase they were on a job, but forced to land.

It was a tourist flight company so yes the cost of leasing a replacement would be very expensive

The joys of aviation hey Chris :laughing:

Possibly affordable?

That’s a boat anchor…

Large passenger helicopter flew over me on Christmas Day. Didn’t look to be above 500 ft and flew a couple of loops. Thought someone nearby had a new drone for Christmas

This thing I take away from this is actually how little happened. Choppers are always cited as the most vulnerable aircraft for damage from drones because of the rotors. And here’s a direct hit, with a chunky Mavic 2, not the little bits of plastic most people fly with these days (myself included). The Mavic 2 was the big metal beast that survived the Iceland volcano with me in 2021 and didn’t melt. It’s a little tank, yet even with a direct hit, there was no catastrophic crash and no one was hurt. So if anything, this provides a real-world example of how little will happen with a direct hit of a larger drone, so hopefully now we can fully expect the CAA & FAA to realise how over-regulated these little bits of plastic we fly are and open up the skies for us… :wink:

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Love your optimism @ianinlondon :+1:t2:

And my sense of humour? :wink:

Of course :rofl: :+1:t2:

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