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Whos airspace is it anyway?
597 3 2017-7-21
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Terry G
lvl.3
Flight distance : 1773327 ft
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United States
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The  attached You Tube video is the view from our deck here on Lake Michigan north of Holland, Mi. The view is about 65-70 feet above the water level.
Yesterday I flew my drone north up the shoreline at about 50-60 ft above the water then retured and landed. Within less than 1 minute a gyrocoptor with 2 aboard flew in the exact  path I had just flown. I looked at my watch and felt good I was out of their way. THEN minute passed and I heard a loud roar only to see a small private (10-12 passenger?) come thru the same area. All 3 of us were under 100 ft over the lakes surface and all about the same distance off shore. I didnt hear anything about a mid air collision but I have to believe that there are a few pair of stained shorts right now. I was in the line of sight and under 400 ft as required, so who would  be at fault should a collision have occured?

2017-7-21
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Mabou2
First Officer
Flight distance : 811257 ft
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Always the Remote Pilot in Command.  We are required to give way to manned aircraft at all times.  That said, woulda been pretty screwed up to cause an accident in a place where you felt pretty sure you were safe.  

That said, I can't tell how high the clouds are in your video.  I THINK they are fairly high, but there also appears to be something like fog in the near distance????  (I could be wrong).

Keep in mind that you are allowed to fly up to 400' normally, BUT, you are required to stay 500' under the cloud ceiling, and you aren't allowed to fly within 2000' horizontally of clouds or fog.  So, if the clouds were only 800' up, your maximum allowed flight altitude is only 300'.
2017-7-21
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Terry G
lvl.3
Flight distance : 1773327 ft
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There was a slight haze but skies were clear. I'm aware that I have to yield to manned aircraft but its pretty hard when they are approaching at 250-300 mph on the deck out of no where.
2017-7-21
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Nigel_
Captain
Flight distance : 388642 ft
United Kingdom
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Terry G Posted at 2017-7-21 14:11
There was a slight haze but skies were clear. I'm aware that I have to yield to manned aircraft but its pretty hard when they are approaching at 250-300 mph on the deck out of no where.


1. Keep it in sight so that you can avoid collisions.
2. If you see a manned aircraft approaching and have time then descend, but don't drop out of sight since that may trigger a lost signal RTH and end up higher than you started!
3. Remember that quadcopters descend very slowly, if you don't have time to descend out of the way then make sure you remember which side of the manned aircraft you are supposed to pass on when in the air, go the wrong side and they may turn into you!
4. Gyrocopters can't do 300mph!  Use sports mode and you should easily be able to get out of it's way, even if it is called Little Nellie.
5. A passenger jet really shouldn't be below 500 ft, you probably misjudged it's size.
2017-7-21
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