I was flying southwest of Seldovia today when I overhead another pilot talking to a drone operator. Could only hear one side of the conversation but the pilot thought the drone was being flown from a boat. Scouting for bears maybe? Drone for/while hunting is illegal in Alaska (heard that from a F&W guy at our Sheep Show a month or two back). Scouting for fish? I don't know if that is legal or not. Or doing something else entirely perhaps. Interesting that the drone pilot was on 122.9.

Barnstormer wrote:I was flying southwest of Seldovia today when I overhead another pilot talking to a drone operator. Could only hear one side of the conversation but the pilot thought the drone was being flown from a boat. Scouting for bears maybe? Drone for/while hunting is illegal in Alaska (heard that from a F&W guy at our Sheep Show a month or two back). Scouting for fish? I don't know if that is legal or not. Or doing something else entirely perhaps. Interesting that the drone pilot was on 122.9.

As for the air safety aspect, isn't this ideal that the drone operator is on a traffic advisory frequency?

When filming, especially with a drone in the air, I am on frequency. Though I usually choose a discreet frequency so as to not clog frequency if the purpose is air to air with aircraft under my direction. I'd monitor the advisory otherwise.

I can't speak to the hunting or fishing ramifications, but that seems against the spirit of the laws that currently apply to manned aircraft and hunting.

Very illegal to scout for game in Alaska with one. I haven’t looked for my self but a coworker that’s a big drone guy said that basically that animal becomes off limit for the year. I haven’t looked in to it as I just use mine for pictures. Scouting for fish became illegal years ago at leash in the Cook Inlet from what some commercial guys told me. I think it’s similar to planes. If you disturb the animal it basically becomes harassment and is frowned upon. Could be wrong I’m not sure.

But you can get a good picture of bears in difficult situations with the drone. Or overhead shots of sea lions with out worrying about a moose stall!

Just be REAL careful flying ANYthing over marine mammals, like sea lions. NMFS and FWS have some pretty painful remedies for any disturbance an “aircraft” might cause.....

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