Drone and RC plane fliers are being constantly told that they are a danger to aviation but when you look at the actual figures it becomes clear that low-flying by manned aviators is becoming the single biggest risk factor in fatal light aircraft incidents. You will also notice that CAA New Zealand appear to be admitting that drones are not the risk that a hysterical media and a crazy pilots’ union claims them to be.
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News Rant: Low flying aircraft, more dangerous than drones15:28
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Bruce, regarding low flying, does CAA impose fines or remove licenses? If not, perhaps you should consider running for Parlement to influence these issues. (I remember that, in 1991, 11,000-ft was a minimum altitude because of SAMS.) On another subject, today’s news prompts me to acknowledge that New Zealand is the most benign country in a group of benign countries, the English Speaking Union, ESU. I know you also acknowledge that. And you are NZ’s central advocate for a benign pass-time, model airplanes. So, you may want to modulate your voice. JL
P.S. I’m dismayed at the rush to judgement by the press regarding the 737-8 crash. Typically, the American NTSB takes months to issue findings. But this happened in Africa, on an otherwise slow news day, which may contribute to the generated momentary hysteria. Altho disliking cockpit automation, I can only say that I’ve flown The Boeing Aircraft and Storm Door Company’s products since 1954 and I’m still walking and talking. JL
Superb rant and all perfectly valid points! ?? I too have personally witnessed very low flying aircraft and helicopters etc fly well below 500ft in quite a populated area as well, very disturbing if things should go wrong! ??
This perception that drones are dangerous and are a high risk to manned aircraft is completely without foundation but trying to convince the authorities or the CAA is like peeing in the wind! ????
l suspect there’s an agenda behind the restrictive regulations relating to drones. Maybe, they want to clear the airspace from 0′ – 400′, for commercial use; drone-delivery services or Police/state surveilance?
on our neighborhood social media I see people looking for lost drones all over the place, thanks to the drones it’s not even worth the effort no more to be involved in RC Sailplanes, people have got so paranoid over drones because They got cameras on them they’re afraid that someone will find their marijuana plants, or some girl out in the backyard by the pool worry about if someone will see her melons
thanks bruce, the hobby needs more vocal people like yourself.. CAA, well, hmmmm
Bruce, I just sent this to my local FAA office and asked them to send this to their management and also am sending this to my congressman and senator. Thank you.
Implement Geo-Fencing on planes as DJI have implemented in their Quads etc. Good for us, good them. This double standard is killing people.
I had a similar encounter with a low aircraft while flying my model. Out of nowhere a bush plane came over head at tree top level and I had to take evasive maneuvers to get out of the way. (Mind you I was not doing anything wrong,I have flown there many times previously, nor do I live near any airports) blew my model all over the place with its prop wash. Is say tree top level is not legal. And if I can see the rivets in the panels, I’d say that’s pretty low for a real aircraft.
Currently. Wait till everyone and their grandmother have sub 250g 0-100mph in 2 seconds drones.
Like you said, no ones even supervisong the flights of manned aircraft that are flying under 500ft and crashing. CAA is scared (me too) cause theres so many dumb fucks who are already flying under 500ft illegally and crashing all while being fully licensed and certified pilots.
Of course pilots are far more dangerous than drones or rc aircraft. No fatalities from drone collisions but 10’s of thousands killed by licensed pilots over the last 50 years. ‘Drone Danger’ is ‘Fake News’.
This is how you rant. Thank you one more time, sir. It reminds me an old song and it goes like this:
If I had a hammer
I’d hammer in the morning
I’d hammer in the evening
All over this land
I’d hammer out danger
I’d hammer out a warning
I’d hammer out love between
My brothers and my sisters ah-aaah
All over this land.
It’s the same idea as snow boarding in America when it first came out. Was deemed bad, dangerous and no good. Drones are so widely used now and are used for good reasons. In NYC police use them to watch the streets during New Years Eve and daily. They are used to find lost people.
Oh no a neighbor flew a drone over my property! What to do, I feel so endangered. Not. Cute little thing, sounded like a large angry mosquito.
right on bruce!
Don’t you have to fly below 500′ to hit the ground? You forgot to mention that weather was a factor in a few of those accidents you mentioned.
The most dangerous part about any trip on an airplane is the drive to the airport so let’s ban cars. More people are killed by donkeys each year than die in airplanes, let’s ban them too. No drones involved.
Aviation safety is all about identifying risk and taking steps to mitigate the risk. Drones are a risk to aircraft safety so the rules are there to seperate them. You stay below 400′ and I’ll keep above 500′. There was a good article in the NZCAA magazine Vector about this… page 4.
I imagine the reason the CAA are publicising this as much as they can is simply because there are a lot of drone users who don’t belong to a club, don’t fly legally, don’t appreciate the risk and there is no other way of getting the message to them. I don’t see it as a hate campaign, but a necessity of the need for effective communication. Talking to pilots is easy… they know where we live.
I know of at least two instances recently where a pilot was prosecuted for low flying, so the CAA obviously do take a dim view of people who break the rules in airplanes too.
If you haven’t heard Bruce, Australia’s CASA is proposing compulsory drone registration for drones over 250grams now.
No RC controversy was present prior to multirotor aircraft.
Your rants are true as always. You forgot the money making schemes of councils providing permissions to fly “drones” over council land. Likewise with DOC. Impractical and hey..who owns these areas anyway..oh yes, us!!
I live in California, and at my flying field we have a manned helicopter that flies over our RC airfield about once or twice per week at an altitude of less than 200 feet. Sometimes he flies no more than 50 feet above the tree tops. So, every time we hear his chopper coming, everyone has to scramble to land and get out of the air. We fly at a known RC airfield, yet this inconsiderate pilot buzzes our airfield on a weekly basis. Some of the old timers who fly sail planes a hard time scrambling to get down from a thermal when the helicopter comes by because he hauls ass at low altitude, and sometimes he is upon us before anyone has a chance to get out of the air. One of my older buddies crashed his beautiful glider because he was just trying to get out of the air as the helicopter came over us with little warning skimming over our tree tops. It gets pretty nerve racking sometimes, as we RC pilots do not want to hurt anyone, but this crazy heli pilot keeps putting us in some tough situations. My older buddy basically decided to crash his glider, rather than to hurt the jerk who is breaking laws by buzzing our field. Yet, it’s the RC pilots that are called dangerous and a nuisance. So, thank you for bringing this up. You are spot on, as usual.