New fear unlocked

[Grumpy]

I guess I'll start off with "yes, I was complacent"...

Cruising up the east coast last weekend, under positive control, heck, inside a class B...enjoying the sunset view of NYC directly over JFK at 7000ft when I see a bright red dot just left of the nose.  About the time my brain got past the "what the @#$@# is that?", it flew past my left wing and I could see the 4 rotors on the drone that was hanging out there....in the middle of a class B...over JFK...like I said, I was complacent and not even expecting to see anything.

I reported it to Tracon and they took the information.  I was fully expecting to get a phone number, but to my surprise, that was the end of it.  I was curious so I did some Googling and turns out, yep, near misses are pretty much old hat these days.  FAA has a whole webpage with hundreds of reports.  Maybe I've just been lucky up till now, but I did not even consider drones as a threat at 7k' in a class B...now I know better and figured I'd spread the word a little.  Turns out drones have a service ceiling around 16k'...guess I'll be on O2 when traveling from now on.

Stay safe, head on a swivel and drones don't show up on anything....

[Fly Boomer]

1 hour ago, Grumpy said:

Turns out drones have a service ceiling around 16k'...guess I'll be on O2 when traveling from now on.

Stay safe, head on a swivel and drones don't show up on anything....

Good to know.  If they top out at 16k, I'll just have to go higher.  With the speeds we are making and the size of these drones, I doubt if vigilance will help much.

[N201MKTurbo]

All the ones used for commercial purposes should have ADS-B. but that's the problem. The commercial operators are trained about the rules. The amateurs are the ones with no rules and no ADS-B.

[Fly Boomer]

3 minutes ago, N201MKTurbo said:

All the ones used for commercial purposes should have ADS-B. but that's the problem. The commercial operators are trained about the rules. The amateurs are the ones with no rules and no ADS-B.

No rules, no ADS-B, and no brains.

[N201MKTurbo]

There was this kid I worked with who is over the top with everything he does. He built this quadcopter that had 8 blades and each one was about 3 feet in diameter. The thing weighed about 50 Lbs. It was scary! It could kill you! He had it hovering about 4 feet up, I pushed on it, it was like pushing on a fence post. 

He lives a few blocks from an airport and under the Class B. One day he comes to work and told me he was trying to see how high he could get. He said he had it up to 7000 feet. I asked "over your house"? He said "yes". I read him the riot act and told him to read the regulations. I told him If I heard of him doing it again I would report him. He got the message.

[Fritz1]

damn, this is getting to be like space debris!

[whiskytango]

Per FAA mandate, as of September 16, 2023 all drones weighing 250 grams (about 1/2 pound) or more were required to be registered with the FAA and have Remote ID.  The date for compliance has been kicked down the road until March 16, 2024, due to complaints by the drone manufacturers that they could not get enough Remote ID modules to equip the fleet.  It will be interesting to see the level of compliance once RID is mandatory. Many drones made by DJI already have Geo-Fencing built into the firmware to keep idiots from flying in controlled airspace.  

[Fly Boomer]

3 minutes ago, whiskytango said:

Many drones made by DJI already have Geo-Fencing built into the firmware to keep idiots from flying in controlled airspace.  

Don't tell the Chinese government.

[Echo]

My wife and I had a drone "stalking" us while we were walking our dogs.  Just hovering at about 15' and tracking us.  NOT cool.  Pilot was NOT in sight.  Humans.  Sigh.

[Fly Boomer]

9 minutes ago, Echo said:

My wife and I had a drone "stalking" us while we were walking our dogs.  Just hovering at about 15' and tracking us.  NOT cool.  Pilot was NOT in sight.  Humans.  Sigh.

I it legal to shotgun those things out of the air?  Pretty sure I could bring it down at 15 feet.

[Echo]

Just now, Fly Boomer said:

I it legal to shotgun those things out of the air?  Pretty sure I could bring it down at 15 feet.

I had been bird hunting and had a 12 gauge in vehicle.  That drone was toast at range.  Back in the day (before rag-arm set in with age) I could of hit that thing with a baseball/softball/football.  IT WAS CLOSE.  I have a Remote Pilot license and wouldn't ever think of "hanging out" around humans I don't know who did not ASK to have me loiter in their vicintity...

[Fly Boomer]

1 minute ago, Echo said:

I had been bird hunting and had a 12 gauge in vehicle.  That drone was toast at range.  Back in the day (before rag-arm set in with age) I could of hit that thing with a baseball/softball/football.  IT WAS CLOSE.  I have a Remote Pilot license and wouldn't ever think of "hanging out" around humans I don't know who did not ASK to have me loiter in their vicintity...

Yeah, they get that feeling of anonymity like having an Internet presence to hide behind.  People will say and do things they would at least think twice about standing in front of you.  Hey, you're not an AI bot are you?

[whiskytango]

7 minutes ago, Echo said:

My wife and I had a drone "stalking" us while we were walking our dogs.  Just hovering at about 15' and tracking us.  NOT cool.  Pilot was NOT in sight.  Humans.  Sigh.

Once Remote ID becomes a requirement, you can use an app such as Drone Scanner to get the real-time drone altitude, location, pilot identification, pilot location, and location history for any drone that you see.  The FAA will also get that info, so hopefully drone operators will be held accountable for bad behavior. 

[T. Peterson]

2 hours ago, Echo said:

My wife and I had a drone "stalking" us while we were walking our dogs.  Just hovering at about 15' and tracking us.  NOT cool.  Pilot was NOT in sight.  Humans.  Sigh.

A 12 gauge would have fixed that nicely!

[N201MKTurbo]

Did you give it the one finger international symbol of love?

[N201MKTurbo]

I would probably huck a rock at it. If I hit it and the owner came over and gave me grief about it, I would say “let’s call the cops and see who’s side they are on”?

[hubcap]

I thought drones were limited to 400’ AGL

[N201MKTurbo]

1 minute ago, hubcap said:

I thought drones were limited to 400’ AGL

They are by regulation. They can fly to great heights from a physical standpoint. I bet they could get to 20000 feet if they had enough battery. Geo fencing works for some. There is nothing stopping anyone from building their own, including writing their own software. So they can do anything they want. Regulations be dammed.

[N201MKTurbo]

My experence is that most drone operators don’t even know there are regulations.

[N201MKTurbo]

You can buy a decent drone at Harbor Freight….

https://www.harborfreight.com/high-performance-drone-with-480p-cameravideo-59537.html

[Yetti]

It's like y'all don't have vultures or anything to avoid on a regular basis.

[N201MKTurbo]

4 minutes ago, Yetti said:

It's like y'all don't have vultures or anything to avoid on a regular basis.

They are better at avoidance than most drones…

[Pinecone]

11 hours ago, whiskytango said:

Once Remote ID becomes a requirement, you can use an app such as Drone Scanner to get the real-time drone altitude, location, pilot identification, pilot location, and location history for any drone that you see.  The FAA will also get that info, so hopefully drone operators will be held accountable for bad behavior. 

IF, and a big IF, the drone meets the requlations about Drone ID and Remote Pilot license.

[N201MKTurbo]

I watched a video the other day that showed how to configure your remote ID so no one can see it with the phone app. The remote ID is essentially ADS-B, but there is a WIFI connection for configuration. It's that WIFI port that the phone apps use to get the info from the drone. The WIFI isn't required by the regulations. You can tell it to ignore WIFI connection requests except when the button on the remote ID module is pressed. 

[Yetti]

19 hours ago, N201MKTurbo said:

They are better at avoidance than most drones…

Most of the time.   I did see an instructor and student where the windscreen was broken and they were sorting out bird parts from the cabin area.