Yesterday I brought along five students for a VIP private tour of the Air Traffic Control center and tower at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. It is extremely helpful for those drone pilots who have not had any or much exposure to the airspace issues faced by controllers, to do a tour like this. We started in the dark radar room and ... Read More »
The Aviation Safety Network gathers data on complaints or reports by manned aircraft regarding sightings or misses between UAS and manned airplanes. Since the database has been recorded there have been 2,750 reports filed. This is not a comprehensive listing and does not contain many reports from the FAA after 2017. Some of them are like the examples below. The ... Read More »
Here is my latest effort for AOPA, the best aviation association out there. I would love to tell you that as an aviation writer, public safety remote pilot, and longtime airplane pilot I’ve always made the best decisions when it comes to flying. The reality is, I have not. But this is also reality: Every pilot makes mistakes. “The FAA ... Read More »
I wanted to start a new feature of taking a look at those rules we often forget about that regulate our UAS flying. The Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR). FAR 91.13 Careless or reckless operation. (a)Aircraft operations for the purpose of air navigation. No person may operate an aircraft in a careless or reckless manner so as to endanger the life ... Read More »
New public safety drone pilots face a severe problem in their early flight years. They lack the experience and confidence to say “no” to flying. As a UAS pilot, we can never forget FAR 91.3 that says “The pilot in command of an aircraft is directly responsible for, and is the final authority as to, the operation of that aircraft.” ... Read More »
Like everything else in out flying world, nothing is ever clearcut. Yesterday I was at an operation that was a public demonstration that was located up against a small airport (43). But could Part 107 UAS pilots fly over the airport? I made the call they could not for the following reasons but I welcome your feedback and discussion if ... Read More »
Just recently a rather worrisome issue has arisen regarding UAS anti-collision lights. It does not matter what you have seen in advertisements regarding strobes, all strobes are non-compliant. There is a lot of advertising out there which claims strobes for UAS meet the standards. But I got curious why none of the ads advertised the strobes coming with the appropriate ... Read More »
I received a communication from the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) to all members that brings up some points which are perfect for the wave of public safety UAS pilots. You see it is all about being professional pilots and professionalism in flying. I think the points it raises are excellent for new public safety drone pilots. This is what the ... Read More »
I’ve had the pleasure of running into so many good and amazing people in the public safety UAS world. People who are passionate about the public safety work they do. It is truly a blessing to be part of this community even though I came in through the side entrance. Growing up I thought I wanted to be a law ... Read More »
The latest update of the DJI Pilot App has made an important chance to those using the DJI XT Thermal camera. I’ve written before about thermal Color 1 palette for making targets jump out. In this latest software release, two important thermal updates are present. Isotherm Presets You no longer need to set temperature ranges for person search of fire ... Read More »
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