Interesting 
From the descriptions of all “drones” in those reports, I’d say they were more than likely helium balloons. More so the last one. A Eurofox at 2800ft simply wouldn’t hear a whooshing sound as a drone passed by. My honest opinion is that the Airprox people who compile these reports are totally anti drone.
2 Likes
The only spherical drone is the Power vision egg and thats white.
1 Like
The first report says a “a large black coloured drone with no lighting”. My Inspire is large and black, but it’s covered with lights front and back, my old Walkera is large and black, also covered with lights front annd back. Inspire 2s and 3s have got more warning lights than the M6 when they’re doing roadworks… Ditto with the DJI M series. Large black helium filled balloon?
The second reporter said that he saw a “quadcopter” between 50cm and 1m in size and that it was red. The sun was very bright and hazy, I’m thinking that he saw a Red Kite on a very good thermal at 1500ft.
Third report was from the right hand side plane in a 2 plane formation. The reported said they saw a black drone pass on the LEFT hand side of the LEFT hand plane. Wouldn’t it have been better for the pilot of the LEFT hand plane to have reported it?
4th report says the “drone” was blue, round and about 1 ft in diameter. At the speed they were flying they would have had about 1/100th of a second to see it, check the size and colour and identify that it was a drone.
The last one is from a pilot of a Eurofox microlight who heard “a whirring or whooshing” sound. The Eurofox is powered by a Rotax engine which isn’t exactly whisper quiet, and with the headset that he probably had on, he wouldn’t have heard Metallica if they were sitting in his back seat! Once again, round or slightly elliptical 50cm black object. Call me cynical, but I’d say that was another large helium party balloon!
2 Likes
Is there any way to make rebuttal statements when these are produced? There are great comment made above from knowledgable persons.
My drone has had a “near miss” with a Chinook … in an FRZ!
My drone was in an upstairs room and the Chinook stayed crazy low taking off from the airport. 
Had to check all the tiles were still on the house it created that much of a down-draught.
3 Likes
Slightly off topic, but several years ago I worked in Air Traffic Control at RNAS Culdrose and one of my duties was to take low flying complaints on the switchboard.
My all time favourite call was from a woman who swore blind that a SeaKing had “followed her home from work”.
As it turned out, the lady was driving north on the A3083 which runs north to south on the Lizard, and passes right by Culdrose and its satellite airfield RNAS Predannack.
The same road which is used as a poor weather route for SeaKings returning home from Predannack to Culdrose on foggy days. Which the day in question was.
I think the lady in question was quite disappointed not to have a helicopter pilot as a stalker…
2 Likes
It’s gone from 30 to 42 feet
It passed through the open cockpit window and made the pilot drop his sandwich.
Was flying over fields near Milton Keynes yesterday when this one came over. Heard it a long time before I saw it and I landed sharpish as soon as I heard it tbh! Was flying nowhere near any restricted areas, and not sure where it would have come from.
I’m crap at guesstimating heights - I’ll leave that to everyone else!
This thing cruises at 200mph. I suspect most of us are generally flying stuff that is 8-12" in diameter, I am very skeptical that a pilot would see anything at all unless it happened to go straight past the windscreen.
It’s easy to overthink this chopper danger.
Chinooks fly by here often - and rarely as low as 500ft unless landing at Soton airport (which is very rare).
Currently there are 50 choppers in the air over the WHOLE of the UK … and just one Chinook (highlighted - Type H47), and only one chopper below 500ft, and its callsign “CMND02” makes it clear that it’s military and, since it’s not showing now, was probably landing somewhere. (They do go VERY low to land … 
)
Sure - the military do go low - but of the 16 military choppers now in the air - none is below 500ft.
Whilst in stats mode - there are only 12 aircraft in the air over the whole of the UK that are also at, or below, 500ft.
The bottom one is a Boeing 737-800 … so more than likely in an FRZ landing or taking off … one hopes, for the sake of the passengers and the people living in the crash area. 
1 Like
Taking off from Edinburgh at 13:46
1 Like
And the pilot’s name?
Yeah - could track them all in more detail - but (a) CBA, (b) added nothing to the “not much flies low” message. 
Laughed my arse off, sprayed coffee all over my screen. Thanks
George
I believe it was Otto
3 Likes
And when the autopilot smiles?
Same way the CAA, “estimate” how many drones crash each year, but don’t get reported. I for one am not going to fill out an incident report, when my mini3 pro crashes into a bush in my garden when it’s a few feet off the bloody ground.
Having been dropped off in a Chinook under fire (that took hits) and a Merlin that dodged an anti-air missile, I do wonder whether the pilot would even notice flying straight through a drone… Spotting a drone as described here seems incredibly dubious, let alone being endangered by one.
1 Like