Man of Honour
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- 29 Mar 2003
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Drone hits passenger jet
- Thread starter Arazi
- Start date
Man of Honour
- Joined
- 29 May 2004
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- 4,488
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- Tall building nearby
It's a shame, sadly it will no doubt happen.
The more expensive Quads (Drones is a daft word) have limiters on them to stop you from flying certain heights now. Naturally the cheaper ones don't have this because of cost.
Again, it's the idiots doing this, much like with everything: laser pens, speeding, buying guns online, drugs. Outright banning them would be ridiculous but if it happened they'd need to put in procedures so that if you buy a Quad you have to register it, if you don't and are caught flying it wherever (unless private land I guess) you get fined/points, much like an unregistered car.
I'd be happy to do that, assuming it's not an extortionate cost obviously.
The more expensive Quads (Drones is a daft word) have limiters on them to stop you from flying certain heights now. Naturally the cheaper ones don't have this because of cost.
Again, it's the idiots doing this, much like with everything: laser pens, speeding, buying guns online, drugs. Outright banning them would be ridiculous but if it happened they'd need to put in procedures so that if you buy a Quad you have to register it, if you don't and are caught flying it wherever (unless private land I guess) you get fined/points, much like an unregistered car.
I'd be happy to do that, assuming it's not an extortionate cost obviously.
It might have been "floating debris". Strange.
I heard it was highly likely to have been an empty plastic shopping bag that had been whipped up by the wind, if the Pilot had been quick and smart enough he might have caught the bag and saved himself 5p the next time he went shopping.
Don't you have history with them?
Possible, yes. But not with most of the ready to fly stuff Joe McNoobface buys. And the people with the kit and knowledge probably know better. Check out "FPV from the edge of space" on youtube... Incredible stuff
I've dealt with a lot of reports 10000ft and above. The vast majority are below 5000ft though.
Regarding the incident which sparked this thread, they have not concluded that it definitely wasn't a drone. There just isn't enough hard evidence to confirm it was.
So it's a non-story to help drive the hate of them yet again, fantastic.
It isn't a total non story when you look at the amount of reports from pilots saying that they had close calls with a drone. This highlights that there is an issue with some people having zero common sense and flying them in areas they shouldn't be.
Someone mentioned about RC planes and not having the same issues. Most people who fly RC gliders, power planes and helicopters are members of a club and have insurance through the BMFA etc so if they do cause any harm or damage to property whilst flying they are covered. It seems there is a more common sense approach taken. What drives the drone boom is anyone can buy one and pretty much self teach themselves to fly without destroying it and one key point is a camera or video recording device can be attached to it. If the latter hadn't started happening drone sales wouldn't be so high in my opinion. How you now start to police the drone situation I do not know.
I work in the aviation industry, albeit not the engine side, and recall reading an article about drones and drone ingestion into an engine. An engine is designed and tested to ingest a big bird or hail etc and at worst the result should be a contained engine failure. The key word there is contained. The worry with drones is the Lion batterys and any other bulky item being ingested could cause an uncontained engine failure. The engines tests do not currently include firing drones at them so no one knows the end result. An uncontained engine failure is not something you want as parts are spinning at very high RPM and on exiting the engine will more than likely pass through the next structure they come into contact with be it the wing or fuselage. Think there was a 777 which had an uncontained engine failure whilst still on the ground recently somewhere and that spat hot parts into the fuselage and set it on fire.
If find it very hard to believe a multi rotor would even make it that high (10k ft) before the battery died unless it was purpose built to do it. I can't think of anything off the shelf that would. Your run of the mill Phantom would get you to about 2500ft. The old model, before the added geo-fencing to the software. Even then, you wouldn't be able to see it that high. Even 150ft up, it's hard to see something that small line of sight.
A plane (powered glider more likely) can, but your average joe wouldn't be able to do it. Again, it would need to be purpose built and flown in the correct manner to get it that high. You can't just point it vertical and start climbing, as again, you'd run out of power.
More like a genuine report from a pilot which has found its way into the media. The pilot report would have been made on the basis of flight safety. Whether or not there was an actual collision in this case, it's good that the problem of irresponsible users is getting some attention.
That aligns with what the experts tell us, that the high level sightings are more likely to be fixed wing or professional high-spec kit. Attention was drawn to a group on the outskirts of London who aim to set altitude records among others.