[quote]DEFINITION OF ‘VISUAL LINE OF SIGHT OPERATION’- ‘CONTROL THE VISUAL FLIGHT PATH’
In order to control the visual flight path of the UA, it must be kept within a suitable distance of the RP such that they can monitor the aircraft’s position, orientation and the surrounding airspace at all times. [/quote]
Also, the arbitrary 500m rule has now gone. Its now entirely dependent on the above.
Orientation is but a part of flight which is mostly relevant in a hover to determine the compass orientation of the drone, in orientation the drone is either facing away from the RP tail in and nose out, facing towards the RP nose in tail out. Yaw the drone left or right it enters either left side in or right side in.
Many years of flying SUAV, I’ve been programmed to fly out of conflict by entering into “perspective view” flight, which blends isometric, orthographic and orientation seamlessly microsecond by microsecond within the flight envelope. Once in “perspective view” judgement of the aircrafts’ orientation, altitude, attitude, and speed enables better avoidance of perceived conflict.
What I’m saying is there’s no guidance article or legislation that can educate on how to fly, actual flight practice near the edge of you eyesight capabilities is the only way to learn about your own capabilities.
There’s brutal realisation after an attempt at flying a banked circle at the edge of your visual abilities and dependant on the aircraft size; I know I’d struggle to fly a circuit with a Min 2 at it’s visual edge.
Here’s a clip of a flight that starts from orientation to perspective, there’s a reason why he starts nose in as it’s his foundation for the rest of the flight.
I eventually stopped wishing for those skills, but did some baby ones though, still got the helicopter, bit of an ornament now. Early carbon frame with Raptor parts, flew like it’s on rails, I think it’d scare me now…
" the remote pilot is able to monitor the unmanned aircraft’s flight path and so manoeuvre it clear of anything that it may collide with."
Logically if you are flying forward then the most effective view would be FPV. I’ve never heard of a full size piloted aircraft avoiding a collision because the pilot was observing his plane via an external and remotely positioned camera. It’s obvious that those whom formulated this definition and requirement have no experience of flying a RPUAS, whether that be a foamy warbird or a drone.
And when it comes to BVLOS the CAA state:
BVLOS flight will normally require either:
** a technical capability which is equivalent to the method the pilot of a manned aircraft uses to ‘see and avoid’ potential conflictions - this is referred to as a Detect and Avoid (DAA) capability*
The Air-Sense feature employed in some DJI drones, such as the DJI FPV Drone, should qualify. It alerts you when a full size aircraft is in the area. Curiously Micro-Light pilots are not required to carry DAA instrumentation.
The CAA also comment further on BVLOS:
** a block of airspace to operate in which the unmanned aircraft is ‘segregated’ from other aircraft - because other aircraft are not permitted to enter this airspace block, the unmanned aircraft can operate without the risk of collision, or the need for other collision avoidance capabilities*
** clear evidence that the intended operation will have ‘no aviation threat’ and that the safety of persons and objects on the ground has been properly addressed.*
There is nothing that suggests that BVLOS is illegal, or that VLOS is enforceable if the RPUAS and the pilot meet the above requirements.
You ask to see a drone operator who flys by looking at the drone. Well I do as I dont have a suitable phone I can attatch to the hand set. I need specs to read any information on a screen but if I wear them to try to follow the drone in the air I lose it after about 20ft .But I can follow the drone just using my eyesight to ensure its clear of any obstacles. I have attatched 2 led lights to the front legs of the drone. The lights are the very narrow type which are normally attatched to the fork legs of a bike. I fix them to the side of the drone legs so that when I can no longer see the lights I know the drone is “facing” away from me.
I can then see which way round the drone is facing. I very rarely look at the screen on the handset.
At my age (82) my eyesight is not going to get better, so its a way of getting round a problem. At least by following the drone in the sky I can make sure I am clear of obstacles.
Probably not a very hi tech solution but it works for me.
I tend to glance down at the handset prior to take off purely to verify that handset and drone are connected then usually I might check during the flight to see whether I am using the photo or video modes. At my age these things do not come instinctively to me.
I tend to watch the bird in flight as I feel that is more “real” for me.
Where I live is an active training area for helicopters from a RAF base about 12 miles away. There are no restrictions on flying here but a drone/helicopter interaction is always going to end badly. As soon as I hear them about I land as they use the area for low level training Usually below 100ft. I can guage their height by comparing them to a 120ft wind powered generator 150 mts away. I look forward to weekends as they do not seem to do any training then
Yes, I am one of them. Neither the old or new VLOS rules factor in location, which to me, is a major consideration for requiring VLOS.
As most folk will know, 99.5% of my flights are out in wide open country side. No buildings or people around for miles. Based on risk alone, there is significantly less chance of an incident taking place. Equally, most of my targets are vast, like iron age hillforts, valleys, ancient landscapes. Typically, these cannot be shot from less than 100m away. And at that point (in the daytime, without crees) I do struggle to see the drone, so of course, I rely on the screen. Along with the wealth of telemetry that I’ve paid for.
On the flip side, if I am shooting smaller targets, especially in confined spaces - such as being close to trees, waterways, structures - then yes, my primary focus is by VLOS.
This is the way I operate. The old 500m rule and the new 78-page War & Peace article won’t change that.
@clinkadink I’m glad you have said that before me. On Wednesday I was way out of VLOS of my drone. I was flying over the sea taking photos of an island. The only thing put at risk was my wallet if I ran out of battery on the return and it landed in the sea.
I will continue to fly within the bounds of my ability and put uninvolved people at the minimum of risk. I think of myself as a conscientious RP and do most of my flights at sunrise when I think I can do the least amount of harm or inconvenience to other people.
My priority is to ensure the flight is as safe as it can possibly be, and to do that I often have to break the rules. If the rules that have been put in place were about safety there wouldn’t be so many of them.
I doubt whether any operators stick to 100% of the regs 100% of the time. The regs have been framed to cover all types of unmanned flight. Consequently you cannot have one set that suits all perfectly.
The best we can do is fly safely with consideration to other people and above all not put anyone at risk. There are lots of things that other people do that annoy me but I have to accept that provided they do not put me at risk I have to be prepared to accept what they do in the same way I go to great lengths not to put anyone else at risk
Flying Shroppie
As far as I know there never was a 500m distance regulation, (see the regs) it has always been VLOS with a SUGGESTION that something like 500m would be expected…
Might be because I did the old PfCO training early on (within a couple of months of buying my first drone) and it’s drummed in to you there, but it’s always seemed clear to me that ‘VLOS’ means being able to orientate the aircraft, not just pick it out as a dot in the sky.
And it’s not about always flying by eye and never looking at the screen (indeed, you have to do that to keep aware of battery and signal strengths) - it’s about knowing where your drone is and where it’s going and being able to avoid obstacles and/or land without the screen if you need to. I’ll quite often reply with “these things practically fly themselves” when people ask if they’re hard to fly… but you do also need to know what to do when they don’t.
That’s actually pretty similar wording to what we had before. This is the VLOS section in CAP722 v8 from November 2020:
Looks to me like all they’ve done is remove the reference to 500m. Understandably, IMHO, because a lot of folk seem to fixate on the number but ignore the very clear caveat.
I agree entirely with JoeC. It clearly says it should be flown within VLOS and not that you have to look at it all the time. As long as you can point it out and know which direction it’s heading, then alternating between the drone and the monitor with your eyes must be the safest thing to do.
