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USA How is this legal?

Coming from a family of pilots many of whom are heli pilots, myself I'm fixed wing, I can tell you with pretty good authority that any thing striking a rotary wing in flight can cause immense damage even a crash. Your right, that drone would not fly upward into the rotor wash. The most likely scenario for a main rotor collision would be a heli making a banking turn into the the path of the drone. A tail rotor strike would be less catastrophic but in low altitudes autorotation landing becomes more and more difficult. This whole conversation veered off in a different direction than how it started, but it is still one worth having. The fact is, that helicopters and drones are often flying in the same altitudes and a collision is in no ones interest. And the helicopter would always get the worst of it. Replacing a drone will cost couple thousand, replacing a single main rotor blade can cost 30K with installation and re-balancing. And in the event of a crash, you cant replace a life.
 
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"As a commercial pilot you should know that there is a ton of different kind of volunteers and designee's from FAA who have reporting authority." Really, didn't know that. (I was flying before you were born, sonny.).

BTW, Any person can report any pilot misconduct to the FAA.

I fail to see your point.
I did not mean any disrespect Sir.
Point is that contrary to your first statement that FAA force consist only of 1500 aviation inspectors, resources to monitor conduct besides Flight Examiners & FAA designee's (as you corrected yourself) include Any person can report any pilot misconduct to the FAA.
(and as an ATP at the age of 49 I hardly qualify to be called sonny, but will accept it out of respect)
 
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Coming from a family of pilots many of whom are heli pilots, myself I'm fixed wing, I can tell you with pretty good authority that any thing striking a rotary wing in flight can cause immense damage even a crash.

Touché. What happens when a bird strikes a rotary wing? Let's say a 10 lb. goose, because they're migratory and are almost always flying in a group, I would think collision would be fairly common. As we all know, these geese brought down an entire 747.



Your right, that drone would not fly upward into the rotor wash.

This really is my main point. Regardless of the effect a drone has on a helicopter, all that is moot if a drone is flying where a helicopter would never fly. And as you pointed out, above the drone simply means the drone would be crushed under the thrust of the helicopter rotors.




The most likely scenario for a main rotor collision would be a heli making a banking turn into the the path of the drone.

Touché. But I think we can agree there would be no "banking turns" 100' AGL over a fire.



A tail rotor strike would be less catastrophic but in low altitudes autorotation landing becomes more and more difficult. This whole conversation veered off in a different direction than how it started, but it is still one worth having. The fact is, that helicopters and drones are often flying in the same altitudes and a collision is in no ones interest. And the helicopter would always get the worst of it. Replacing a drone will cost couple thousand, replacing a single main rotor blade can cost 30K with installation and re-balancing. And in the event of a crash, you cant replace a life.

Touché. But, as we're all very well aware, helicopters crash a LOT withOUT the aid of drone collision. Lives are lost. Property is damaged. In the case of the original post, the drone got footage SAFELY where a helicopter would have impeded operations and would be much more dangerous hovering over houses and people. For some reason, these very profound, very valid points seem to get lost in the "drones are unsafe" / "FAA rules say..." rhetoric.

D
 
If both were licensed and the drone was under 400 feet in an unrestricted in the USA it's just an accident?
An accident is defined as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft that takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, and in which any person suffers death or serious injury, or in which the aircraft receives substantial damage.
An incident is an occurrence other than an accident that affects or could affect the safety of operations.
What's the difference between an accident and an incident?
 
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