Low flying light aircraft

[Chuck R]

Actually, it's legal (In the US and under certain circumstances listed here) to fly over water at an altitude less than 500ft. FAR 91.119(C) states that an aircraft must maintain an altitude of 500 feet above the surface, except over open water or sparsely populated areas. In those cases, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure.

It's still incumbent on you, the UAV pilot, to see and avoid. Which means the UAV is required to yield the right-of-way to manned aircraft. That doesn't mean you have to land when you see another aircraft, it just means you have to stay out of its way while maintaining safe separation (FAR 91.113(a).

The FAR's are referencing manned aircraft, btw.

 

[Mike Shockley]

Mike, Here's what I found doing a little web research. FAA regulations: According to §137.51, the crop duster must operate “with maximum safety to persons and property on the surface” and the crop duster must have obtained prior written approval from the FAA and notice of the intended operation must be given to the public. Further, the crop duster must submit a plan to the FAA that considers the flight obstructions and plans for a possible emergency landing.

Pilots are required to file a "congested area plan" if they are planning to fly low around homes or businesses but there is the catch, what is a "congest area"? In the case of one crop duster this actually when all the way to the US Supreme court. It did not end well for him since he had been warned by an FAA inspector in the past and still flew very low without a congested area plan.

I can say having lived in Iowa that, if you plan to fly your drone ANYWHERE in a heavy agricultural area, you should expect crop dusters depending on what time of the growing season it is. I have seen crop dusters who took off from grass landing strip "airfields," with no FAA towers within miles. They fly, dust the crops, return to the airfield to reload and fly again. Maybe they filed something with the FAA, maybe not. I can't say. But it doesn't matter. If I planned to fly a drone over cropland, I and my spotter would be the ones watching all the time for a crop duster. If my drone was in the air and I was lucky enough to hear a crop dusting plane or helicopter coming, I'd land immediately in the corn, wheat or bean field. Your drone might get "dusted" but better that than crashing into the crop duster's aircraft.

T

 

[AMGPilot]

Crop dusting is covered by https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2...FR-2011-title14-vol3-part137.xml#seqnum137.51 FAA 137.51. The actual flight plans are "Canned" i.e. you write them once for a parcel of land and then just keep resubmitting it every time you fly that parcel also most application services have a "company flight manual" which covers all the procedures such as emergency landings, wire clearance etc etc.

Since most farms are covered by class G airspace the communication and control is pretty non-existent

Here are the class g rules
Class G airspace includes all airspace below FL600, not otherwise classified as controlled. There are no entry or clearance requirements for class G airspace, even for IFR operations. Class G airspace is typically the airspace very near the ground (1,200 feet or less), beneath class E airspace and between class B-D cylinders around towered airstrips.

Radio communication is not required in class G airspace, even for IFR operations. Class G is completely uncontrolled.

VFR visibility requirements in class G airspace are 1 mile (1.6 km) by day, and 3 miles (5 km) by night, for altitudes below 10,000 feet (3,050 m) MSL but above 1,200 ft AGL. Beginning at 10,000 feet MSL, 5 miles (8 km) of visibility are required, day and night. Cloud clearance requirements are to maintain an altitude that is 500 ft below, 1,000 ft above, 2,000 ft horizontal; at or above 10,000 ft MSL, they are 1,000 ft below, 1,000 ft above, and 1 mile laterally. By day at 1,200 feet (370 m) AGL and below, aircraft must remain clear of clouds, and there is no minimum lateral distance.

It should be noted that there are certain exceptions where class G extends above 1,200 feet AGL. This is usually either over mountainous terrain (e.g., some areas in the Rockies), or over very sparsely populated areas (e.g., some parts of Montana and Alska).

 

[Dave Stanton]

I have already contributed to this discussion but then this morning I went to fly at a huge local park. It's mostly baseball fields with no one on them in the morning. Basically, I had hundreds of acres to myself. It is nowhere near the main airport or any landing strip and there is no air force base here. I was just practicing, about 80 to 100' altitude. I have flown here many times and NEVER seen any aircraft near here before. All of a sudden out of nowhere, a small, single engine plane appeared. I have no idea what his altitude was but let me say I could easily read all the numbers/letters on his aircraft and clearly see the pilot through the window. He was so low I never saw him until he came flying just over the tree line at the edge of the park. This is the Piney Woods and Pines here grow to over 100' but that's it. Like I say, I was under 100' up so there was never a collision danger but horizontally he was within 50 yards of me. I descended as fast as I could the minute I saw him, got down to about 50' when he flew buy. There were no special markings on the plane, it was not an emergency flight, not labeled corporate and I have no idea why he would have been that low over an empty park. He continued that low until he was almost over the downtown them increased altitude until I lost him in the distance. Strange but lucky for both of us.

 

[Dave Armbrust]

D

I have already contributed to this discussion but then this morning I went to fly at a huge local park. It's mostly baseball fields with no one on them in the morning. Basically, I had hundreds of acres to myself. It is nowhere near the main airport or any landing strip and there is no air force base here. I was just practicing, about 80 to 100' altitude. I have flown here many times and NEVER seen any aircraft near here before. All of a sudden out of nowhere, a small, single engine plane appeared. I have no idea what his altitude was but let me say I could easily read all the numbers/letters on his aircraft and clearly see the pilot through the window. He was so low I never saw him until he came flying just over the tree line at the edge of the park. This is the Piney Woods and Pines here grow to over 100' but that's it. Like I say, I was under 100' up so there was never a collision danger but horizontally he was within 50 yards of me. I descended as fast as I could the minute I saw him, got down to about 50' when he flew buy. There were no special markings on the plane, it was not an emergency flight, not labeled corporate and I have no idea why he would have been that low over an empty park. He continued that low until he was almost over the downtown them increased altitude until I lost him in the distance. Strange but lucky for both of us.

Dave,

If this was not a congested area the pilot can be as low as 500' from any man made object such as a home, car, boat, etc. He can be much lower if he is landing or taking off.

Most small aircraft are much higher than 500' and if you see an aircraft at 500' it will appear to be alarmingly low to you. You will be able to clearly read all the number/letter on his aircraft as you describe.

I will commonly go down to 500' and even lower in a unpopulated area when doing emergency landing practice with a student.

Another reason he may be this low is if he is taking photos. Remember small planes have been taking low level photos for a lot longer than drones have.

If flying a drone and you hear an aircraft then descend as you described to reduce the risk of collision. If you are below 100' AGL it is highly likely he will go that low unless he is landing or taking off.

If you are spending a lot of time looking at the screen rather than the drone, you need a spotter to watch at all times for low flying aircraft.

 

[Dave Stanton]

D


Dave,

If this was not a congested area the pilot can be as low as 500' from any man made object such as a home, car, boat, etc. He can be much lower if he is landing or taking off.

Most small aircraft are much higher than 500' and if you see an aircraft at 500' it will appear to be alarmingly low to you. You will be able to clearly read all the number/letter on his aircraft as you describe.

I will commonly go down to 500' and even lower in a unpopulated area when doing emergency landing practice with a student.

Another reason he may be this low is if he is taking photos. Remember small planes have been taking low level photos for a lot longer than drones have.

If flying a drone and you hear an aircraft then descend as you described to reduce the risk of collision. If you are below 100' AGL it is highly likely he will go that low unless he is landing or taking off.

If you are spending a lot of time looking at the screen rather than the drone, you need a spotter to watch at all times for low flying aircraft.

All good thoughts Dave. I did think perhaps it was a student practicing emergency landings. We do have a flight school in town at the local university. It's just that I've never seen any plane that low in this area before that wasn't near an airport and I was nowhere near an airport when I saw this plane. I knew there was no collision danger, I was barely above the treetops. Still, it was a big surpise. The park I was flying in is huge, very open and when there is no baseball going on, it's a great place to fly a drone, normally. Perhaps I'll call the university aviation and aeronautics school to remind them of this so if they have student pilots wanting to fly over the park they'll know there might be drones in the area. While I rarely fly over 200', I can't vouch for the many amateur drone fliers some of whom I know thinks it's cool to "see how high you can go."

Sometimes I have a spotter but often I just can't get anyone to do it for me. When I'm flying I watch the craft almost constantly only glancing down occasionally to check the shot or look at flight data but, I know, the FAA says I need a spotter every time. I'll work hard on getting that. Thanks for the input.