Mark Guille
 Second Officer
Flight distance : 2290810 ft
Jersey
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eggbeater Posted at 2017-12-20 12:09
Western states and many other places have very tall mountains, passes and canyons that rise higher than 500 meters from launch points. According to FAA regulations UAVs need to stay with in 400 of the ground so as you fly up the side of a mountain staying within 400 of the ground you should be able to fly up to 400 above the peak of a mountain to look over the other side. This would be a valuable tool for SAR as well as filming mountain sports activities. The same goes for passes and canyons. In flatlands like Jersey broadcast antennas may rise above 1640 feet and need to be inspected. This was one of the reasons given by the FAA to create the 107 for commercial use to help save injuries from climbing towers to inspect. I haven't been able to find any regulations regarding the 500 meter limit. It seems to be an arbitrary limit not required by the rules. Please correct me if Im wrong and show me the regulation. Please give the reason why the 500 meter limit and not a 400 foot limit if airtraffic is a concern. Anytime you fly over 400 AGL you could endanger the national airspace so why even alow a 500 meter limit? Please explain. With this limit I can not recommend DJI products to my local SAR team as I dont want the team to become dependent on an aircraft with such limitations. The question is how many people need to die because a SAR team was unable to reach or find victims in time. How many tower inspectors need to fall before the limit is removed? And dont tell me there is an altitude hack as government agencies dont use hacked aircraft.
Unfortunately Eggbeater, laws, rules, regulations, restrictions etc. have to be in place, not only for intelligent, sensible folk like yourself but for the biggest of idiots among us. Separating the wheat from the chaff here, is an impossible task and so these restrictions apply to us all. If we remove restrictions for your SAR team because you claim somebody will die if not, then the next guy will want his restriction removed too, before you know it, the "next guy" and all his ilk are buzzing around enjoying there new found freedom at 2500m and somebody becomes the first person to take out a manned aircraft. In aviation, you should be asking "what if" all the time.
I may be wrong but after a quick search on the internet, there appears to be less than 150 towers in the whole of the United States, over 500m. Looking at US tower fatalities back as far as 2003, I could see no fatalities from above 1200ft which is achievable with the 500m limit.
As far as the 500m/400ft restriction/law is concerned, a line has to be drawn somewhere and this is where DJI has drawn it. I very much doubt this number was pulled out of a hat and would imagine DJI had taken advice from aviation authorities, worldwide, authorities that are more than aware of SAR requirements, I can't see DJI disregarding such advice because of a comment from a forum member. If this was to be the case, all restriction would have been removed ages ago (since this topic has been discussed many times now).
Best of luck on your campaign to get these restrictions removed, you are going to need it.
Mark G. |
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