So I was over sac international today descending past 9000' and low and behold a flipping drone passes off my left side a little low at about 50'. Scared the shit outa me! I reported it to NorCal approach who said they would pass it on. I didn't even know the things went that high.

Any specifics? Was it a plane or a multicopter? People are starting to call all RC model aircraft drones.

Similar thing happened to me last year at 9500' outside of wells, nv. Be careful out there.

Bill Berle and myself have flown R/C model aircraft for years -mostly in the area south of Van Nuys,CA. airport .I now fly at the Dry Lake Beds of Northern Arizona .The AMA dictates that the FAA has provisions "that no MODEL AIRCRAFT be higher than 400 ft. AGL " and be more than 5 miles from a airport .These "drones" are nothing more than the R/C model airplanes,helicopters mounted with cameras -sensors etc. Now that the Chinese are into making very small camera technodle every teenager wants to see the next street over girl or gang. Advertising these "toys" for the hordes on radio shack or ebay for the masses The present group of drones are computer controlled with stabilization computers -and navigate by gps. I still have dozen or so models( mix of GAS and Electric) that occasional see the air -under my control(old Kraft-Micro Avionics-RS radios-Spectrum ) many miles away from airports -and NEVER over several hundred ft. AGL.

I don't buy it. I have flown RC for 30 years. Nothing less than military drones or very high end equipment $$$$ with a purpose would be at that height......well..... unless local ground elevation is well over 8000ft.


If it was a "plane" was it an RC 50 ft away or a real one with no transponder 500 ft away

FPV RC flying has been around for a long time. The more responsible RC pilots follow AMA rules. Not only does it give us a national voice against the FAA regulating RC planes out of existence, it provides insurance for us as well. At a lot of the "old timers" events, we get way over 400' But the 400' is only if your flying within 5 miles of an airport. I have had my playboy at 6000' and I had to use binocs to see it as I got into and updraft and I thought I was going to loose it. Gliders caught in thermals sometimes run away as well.

Don't realy give a shit if you buy it. At 50' it was hard to call it anything else.

akavidflyer wrote:Any specifics? Was it a plane or a multicopter? People are starting to call all RC model aircraft drones.

it was a quadra copter and it was white.

The fact you could see it was a quadcopter & white...that's the scary part! on them

When I was doing multi engine training and just trying to kill time (we had to just fly around to build night time) we passed some sort of drone. It had a blinking light and that's it....no nav. It also was over sac. We told norcal and they said they'd pass it on. I wonder if it's the same idiot. Need to get some nogs and track that jerk down.

Beale AFB flies drones the time, just NE of Sacramento airspace.
The TFR is mostly active.

What, if any, are the rules for flying drones in the US? Transport Canada just updated their regs and I think they are great, but as usual, a lot of people think it's a money grab and invasion of privacy. It's actually free, so no money involved, and is for commercial operators. Recreational users are limited to 400', not over populated areas, and no closer then 9nm to an aerodrome.
Do you guys have any rules down there?

The drones at Beale have a 130' wingspan and fly considerably higher than that

Vick wrote:The drones at Beale have a 130' wingspan and fly considerably higher than that

Hahahaha!! Nice one Vick. Justin those quadcopter drones are GPS equipped and fly back home to a specific spot. There's a chance that it got away from the operator. I hope that was the case because if it's not the person operating it is providing some serious ammo to wreck RC flying for the rest of us.

Dude you need to fly with the 12ga clear the sky of machines flown by people willing to place our life on the line from their couch.

In the very near future, there will be a loss of life accident due to one of these cursed things.

My only hope is the resultant multi million (billion?) dollar lawsuit brings the due negative attention to these flying murders, hopefully bringing about their ban.

It's a difficult issue. One one hand you have a very useful technology: An inexpensive. slow-flying/hovering stable platform that is great for photography or surveying or whatever. I personally would love to invest in some of this stuff to make better flying movies. On the other hand, you have an incredibly high rate of adoption by the general public who are completely oblivious to the existence of regulated airspace, and lack the emotional investment of having their real butts up in the sky.

In past 50 years, radio controlled hobby flyers have steadily grown in numbers, spurred by the same technological advances that have helped pretty much everything else, but until now those RC aircraft required some actual skill and dedication to enjoy. If you've ever flown a RC plane, they are not easy to control due to the shift in spatial orientation your brain has to adapt to. It's hard even if you're a great pilot of real airplanes. Have you ever tried flying a RC multi-rotor? There is absolutely nothing to it; it's 99% software, and there's no urgency to react because no airspeed or velocity required to stay aloft. It's finally the thing that has apparently put the radio control hobby over the top, and all the old neurotic enthusiasts (like me) now belong to the age of The Before.

I think the American Modelers Association must be shitting their collective pants because the FAA has been forced to act. The whole deal in their recent ruling about stating that violations via UAV would result in violations against pilot certificates (if possessed by the UAV operator) was game-changing, at least for us who dabble in both.

But what does it mean for Joe Mall-rat? Nothing. Some guy posted a video on another non-aviation site last year of GoPro footage taken from his DJI Phantom, of flying in IMC (actually dense scattered, in-and-out) above 2,000 AGL. He was heavily chided by others but the takeaway is that the technology exists to make this easy and there is no end to the number of ignorant individuals who will take advantage.

Solution? Shit, I dunno. With our lives at stake, I'm not necessarily opposed to industry reform to require transponders or GPS altitude ceilings via software (DJI might already have this.) The trouble is, it's a modeling/kit-builder's/hackers' hobby and there's no way to enforce it other than with some flagship violations and punitive enforcement. Freedom is great right up until your stupidity threatens my and/or my family's life.

In responsible and knowledgeable hands, they are great tools and I wouldn't hesitate to fly in close proximity to one in a controlled scenario like filming. But when Jimmy Legomaniac initiates his decent out of the clouds from the comfort of his desk in between monitoring Facebook posts... gotta draw the line.

Same thing may have been said about the numb-nuts who thought it was cute to point lasers at airplanes. I'm betting a couple of serious violations, followed by either jail time or huge fines will get someone's attention. Unfortunately, right now, there's no enforcement to speak of.

What that means is that we're creating an industry. And, anyone familiar with law enforcement can tell you that the worst scenario you can come up with is to permit an activity for a period of time, then pass a law against it, and hand it over to the enforcement folks to "fix". That's exactly where we're going with this.

The trigger will be a major accident, with hundreds killed, I fear, by a collision with a "UAS".

But, the problem is, there are a LOT more folks interested in operating "UAS" now than there are interested in operating airplanes. Frankly, it would be pretty easy to simply ground all the "non essential" airplanes (like us) and figure out how to separate airliners from drones.

That may well be the "ultimate solution". After all, we wouldn't want those Europeans to get ahead of us with this new technology......and who gives a shit about Cessnas and Pipers anyway?

MTV

I am Assuming most of these small non military UAVs that are operated beyond line of sight(+500ft or even in imc) with the aid of FPV cameras allowing the operator to see in real time. They are using see and avoid just like all of us vfr pilots so what's the big deal? I have lost count of the close calls I have had with other aircraft even in controlled airspace operating in this be hive merril, lake hood, Ted Stevens, elmendorf, airspace. can't all those dam kids just stay inside and play video games haha

FPV cameras allow seeing straight ahead. I'd like to think most pilots are looking a lot more then just straight ahead. A lot of these UAVs can also change direction very quickly, making FPV somewhat useless.

Vick wrote:The drones at Beale have a 130' wingspan and fly considerably higher than that

Lol I was just about to say the same thing and post a picture of a Global Hawk..... Justin, I'm surprised you thought that was a quad copter!