What’s the point of logging flights?

The CAA don’t. Vertical is feet - horizontal is NM and km.

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Well, we’re under no legal obligation to file a notification via NATS. But drones have a bad rep so it is best if we are the ones who are acting responsibly.

The CHIRP incident reporting system may be relevant: it doesn’t require chapter-and-verse about an incident, it’s just about raising awareness of the potential for an incident.

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It does seem very hypocritical when a load of people that have probably (and probably knowingly) exceeded a speed limit on the UK roads (which most certainly is illegal and prosecutable!) in the past month (or less), and here we are pontificating the last millimetre of non-adherence to
guides / recommendations / actions / whatevers as if the world will stop rotating should there be another “offender”.

Have you also noticed that every single driver on the internet is also the paragon of excellence? You certainly never hear of one admitting that they seriously cocked up. This is why I am on the internet … it improved the standard my driving instantly.

:man_facepalming:

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Yikes sorry :no_mouth:

Only reason I’m ranting to be fair.

In response to being legal, On another post about speed limits;
No I’m not perfect. There have been times I’ve ‘lost sight’ temporarily of my drone & needed the map & a quick movement to see it again. I now use the strobes. A grey Mavic against a mountain woodland is a challenge. I’d like to meet the person that this doesn’t happen too.
I do my best. Submit & record so that nobody can complain about me. I think that’s all we (the responsible fliers) can do. :+1:

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Interesting to read this thread, I agree with all thats been said. I register all my flights unless I am doing some low level test flights below 100 feet (30m) out the way of everyone. I do see other drone flights registered here in Somerset. Now flying the Mavic Air 2 I recently bought two Lume Cube anti collision strobes that I have mounted each side. Although not CAA approved they are FAA approved and are clearly visible at the max height and range that I fly.

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They were prob Drug Runners😂

Or illegal immigrants that don’t like boats!

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I believe its International, not CAA, but then I could be wrong!

Continuing the discussion from What’s the point of logging flights?:

Hello All,
I think some of you may have been slightly misled by the min altitude quoted above for light aircraft. The 1000ft is indeed the minimum but ONLY over towns and cities, it used to be much higher (as in able to glide out of trouble if there was an engine failure) but the minimum altitude away from town is actually 500ft above ground level and 500ft from structures and people. However, if flying over open water you can fly even lower as long as there are no people or structures within 500ft. (I don’t know how big the reservoir was, or if it could be classed as open water.) 50 feet over the open sea is legitimate. (but slightly foolhardy and not got time to react if something goes wrong which is why you don’t see it being done very often, if ever)
The reason that drones are altitude limited to 400ft is precisely for this reason.
It is perfectly legitimate, for instance, when training in a light aircraft, to have an assumed engine failure (instructor literally will pull the throttle back unexpectedly when he knows (thinks) its all clear and safe to do so, at say 1200ft, and go through the process of identifying a landing site, preparing for a crash landing and lining up with the field/beach or whatever, all the while gliding down at the best rate to an imaginary landing, and at 500ft aborting the landing and reviving the engine and climbing back to cruising altitude.
This can legally be done in any uncontrolled airspace, and is why we must always be on the look-out eyes and ears for their engines because it can happen almost anywhere.(unlikely in hilly areas) It is perfectly legit, but seriously frowned upon, to cruise at 520ft above the ground, its not a 1000ft minimum.
It’s also quite common for a light aircraft with friends of the pilot in it to go and “buzz” their house…again perfectly entitled to fly near 500ft around the house and waggle wings etc.

I wish more people would use the NATS app to post their flight activity. After my short flight over at Aberdaron today I went to visit some friends who were camping nearby. After getting permission from the campsite owner I did a short flight to get some ariel shots of my friends camping below. Before doing the usual checks for wind, fight restrictions etc I checked NATS which was showing clear for my location, posted the flight and took off. Went straight up to around 100ft to position for the photos and without warning a powered hang glider came over the trees at same height as me heading straight towards my drone.

Had to go into sports mode immediately and descend to avoid a collision. Kind of makes all my checks and posting on NATS a waste of time as clearly some other folk don’t bother. Thankfully I was able to get out of the way but had to do so in a hurry as I don’t think he spotted my Mini at all. Cheeky monkey came back a few mins later and did a really low pass of the campsite. Really need to be extra vigilant wherever you are flying!

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I’ve never posted a flight plan to NATS and can’t see myself doing so.

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@leeheyes I suppose doing so would help the operator if something untoward were to happen insofar as showing they were trying to be responsible. But as I said above and as I found out today, it’s not going to help if the airspace “looks clear” because other aviators don’t bother to use it and log their proposed flights. Edit: by other aviators I mean those flying larger craft like hangliders etc which are likely to cause a bigger issue if an accident occurred.

I’ve no objection to anyone else doing it I just don’t really see the point. There’s a nice spot to fly 4 miles from my house. I could say I’ll be there in 6 hours time and find life gets in the way and I never get there so it’s a false report. I could get there and log my flight as I start, but someone else may have travelled some distance to fly there if they think there will be no other user.

As I said, if other operators wish to publish them great. I just don’t see the point

@leeheyes I think I’m getting to that point myself after today’s experience. Suppose I thought I was being a responsible flyer by doing the log but I don’t think there is that much value in it from what I can see. I’ll see how it goes on my next few trips out.

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You can always edit your flight plan or cancel it all together. I’ve done it where thinking ahead & the weather has changed - apps never get it accurate here - Id be a bit miffed if I had travelled more than 30 mins to find a circle pop up or another flier especially if something bigger. No one at this time can make you report it but there has to be validity of should something happen unless it wasn’t me pops up. :man_shrugging:

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Consider:

Someone’s on holiday driving about in a part of the country that they don’t know at all, no real idea where they’re headed and even less idea when something of interest will appear into view around the next corner that makes them want to fly - now! - because the setting sun / the stream train / etc won’t sit there and wait.

But you’re suggesting that they have to log a flight for some time in the future (possibly after driving more miles to get phone data signal first) and sit about until that time - JUST to avoid someone else being miffed?

Really?

Because I’d say that >95% of all my flights have been in similar unexpected situations.
The drone is in the car, or in my backpack on a long trek, and ready to fly. And I’m not going to waste time on logging anything.

It’s not even a requirement to provide notice to fly a plane!

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