I live in South Central Maine..
There's this guy who has a unregulated airport at this lake within 4 miles of me. I try calling him every time I take off with my bird, and they never answer.. Nor do they have voice mail.
Off and on I'd see him taking off and flying away from my location normally.
Well, today, I tried to call, with the same results. So, I did what I normally do, watch the skies for a few minutes then take off. I flew around for a bit, got near the lake where his little airport and seaplane reside, and just when I got there, I see his plane, flying at 110 feet, practically scraping trees as he circles around. My drone was at 300 feet or so, he was so close to the ground I could see him looking at me then looking up and veering straight for my bird. I switched to sport mode and zipped back to my airspace quick as heck, moving up to 350 so when it was all said and done, it looked like he was trying to stall his engine on purpose. Luckily he didn't, but it makes me wonder..
There's all this talk about manned aircraft hitting drones and whatnot. He was clearly not flying his aircraft legally, at least that's what it looked like. He was flying rather low over the highway, an auto dealership and a trucker gas station. Like, sub 150 feet AGL. Could he then be considered a hazard in MY airspace at that point, not to mention a hazard to everything else below him? If he tries to report me to the FAA, what recourse do I have? I have like 5-10 witnesses to his behaviour and it seems like he does this sort of thing all the time in the area, from what others tell me. Granted, it is technically the airspace of the unregulated airport, but does this mean he can be a dangerous jerk in his own airspace?
There's this guy who has a unregulated airport at this lake within 4 miles of me. I try calling him every time I take off with my bird, and they never answer.. Nor do they have voice mail.
Off and on I'd see him taking off and flying away from my location normally.
Well, today, I tried to call, with the same results. So, I did what I normally do, watch the skies for a few minutes then take off. I flew around for a bit, got near the lake where his little airport and seaplane reside, and just when I got there, I see his plane, flying at 110 feet, practically scraping trees as he circles around. My drone was at 300 feet or so, he was so close to the ground I could see him looking at me then looking up and veering straight for my bird. I switched to sport mode and zipped back to my airspace quick as heck, moving up to 350 so when it was all said and done, it looked like he was trying to stall his engine on purpose. Luckily he didn't, but it makes me wonder..
There's all this talk about manned aircraft hitting drones and whatnot. He was clearly not flying his aircraft legally, at least that's what it looked like. He was flying rather low over the highway, an auto dealership and a trucker gas station. Like, sub 150 feet AGL. Could he then be considered a hazard in MY airspace at that point, not to mention a hazard to everything else below him? If he tries to report me to the FAA, what recourse do I have? I have like 5-10 witnesses to his behaviour and it seems like he does this sort of thing all the time in the area, from what others tell me. Granted, it is technically the airspace of the unregulated airport, but does this mean he can be a dangerous jerk in his own airspace?