I was out at Cherhill today with the drones. As usual, I checked Drone Scene before hand just to make sure there aren’t any new NOTAMs. It was all clear, other than the usual microlight yellow zone.
After a few minutes in the air, about 100 feet up above the southern tip of the Olbury Castle (hillfort), a small plane (like a Cessna 152) came across from the north . I am guessing it was about 200 feet up.
I immediately lowered the Mini 3 Pro until it had passed. But a few minutes later, the same happened again, but with a different plane, this time a 4 seater
This continued for at least an hour I gave up in the end, packed up and left.
Now for the questions …
I know Drone Scene and other sites/apps make use of data provided by Altitude Angel. Therefore, Drone Scene will only display the information that it is given. I.e. DS is not the issue here
Should have these flights been logged somewhere, e.g. such as a NOTAM, and therefore would have been displayed accordingly on Drone Scene?
Am I correct in thinking that they are not authorised to fly this low? My understanding is that they need to keep a 500 foot separation from the ground, and allowing for changes in elevation. Hence, a 100 foot buffer between the drones maximum altitude and planes minimum altitude.
There was no incident today, yet there could easily have been; the potential for drones and small planes flying under 400 feet - with no warnings logged anywhere to alert the drone operator
You are asking for Drone Scene to predict small plane flights?
Find me any site that can do that?
Because, when you are flying your drone, you aren’t looking at Drone Scene. That flight is probably less than 2 minutes old when it was in your area. So - even if DS showed live flights you’d still not see it in time - because you’d be looking Fly/Go4/Litchi/DroneHarmony/etc.
What you really mean is why isn’t the DJI Fly/Go4/Litchi/etc apps showing live planes.
I understood that if someone plans to use a piece of land that isn’t normally used for “flying planes” … they would need to register this ‘somewhere’ before hand. This would then trickle through the system and end up on Drone Scene.
These flights were under 400 feet. I fly under 400 feet. There was no warning in the app or on Drone Scene. I don’t want to use my DJI Care Refresh just because a plane hit me, as I only like to claim when I’ve cocked up.
We had one of these do a “touch n go” at our flying strip a few years back. One of our club members was onboard as he was trying to find one of his models that was a flyaway the previous day.
There are a few folk in this area that fly from their own property. There’s one chap who houses a Tiger Moth and takes off and lands on his property. There’s also a few privately owned helicopters that fly and land on the owners property.
We’ve never had a problem with any of them. There is one chap who flys from the Heli-port adjacent to LBA whom has made it his mission in life to report our above 400ft activities to LBA ATC every time he passes, irrespective if we have any models in the sky or the fact we have a 1000ft exemption in place.
Farmers (rich ones) usually have a field mown for a toal strip. They are in the FIR (the Bundu) and usually fly VFR (see and be seen) The fields are unlicensed and very often no details are available of them. So…beware of what we used to call “wildies”.
If you put your ‘flight plan’ into the
Altitude Angel mobile app, you can enable warnings for flights that are approaching nearby through push notifications.
Admittedly they need a transponder and you need a data connection, and they don’t always seem to come through when DJIFly is open, sometimes Ive had them all come though in one go after.
Nonetheless I’ve found it useful flying near the coast where small private aircraft seem to like to push what counts as far enough offshore to fly below 400ft
I’m not sure you can. I think the responsibility will always land with you to (a). Be aware of any traffic, be it expected or unexpected, (b). Be progressive enough to be the pilot that takes remedial action to avoid an issue.
They are never going to see you and won’t even be looking for you, at least, not until drones are required to have some form of ID transponder.
I think that, like people with big cars, aircraft pilots will always assume it’s your job to get out of their way.
Anyway, that’s my take on it. I have had this happen quite a bit in places where I fly and I always consider it best to take action regardless of whether the aircraft has seen me or not. I’ve also had the aircraft pilot do a 180 and the come back again.
This is the bit I am unclear about, not the logging of a report … but the 400 feet part.
The hillfort where I was droning was 1500m from the private airstrip. Obviously, they need a certain distance to climb above 400 feet. During that time however, they flew over me … about 6 times. I am therefore guessing this is perfectly normal and legal. Pass. It is a first for me regardless.
. I am guessing it was about 200 feet up.
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