New breaking story talks about a helicopter flight instrctor who blames a DJI Phanton drone for his avoidance maneuver that forced him to hit a small tree and crash.  There's no official finding from the FAA yet, but it's just more bad press for our hobby/business.   Even if this is later found to be an error by the pilot/instructor it refects badly on us and people will only hear the accusations which already are coming from mutlipe news sources and start to think every drone is a threat to public safety.

Please be safe out there so we can all continue flying and having a great time.

Links:

https://www.uasvision.com/2018/02/19/dji-phantom-causes-helicopter-crash/

http://bgr.com/2018/02/18/drone-helicopter-crash/

Any updated news?  I heard about this yesterday, and was shocked there hasn't been any new news...? Then again, FAA probably doesn't talk about on-going investigations so....

Also, just to add something of substance: manned aircraft are typically not quiet/silent.  These aren't stealth helicopters..they make a lot of noise.  If you hear manned aircraft in the vicinity, do the right thing.  The FAA has very clear rules on what you, an unmanned aircraft pilot must do when faced with a manned aircraft. Yield. Period.  That probably means flying away from, dropping altitude, making a quick landing...whatever you need to do.

It's also possible that the instructor was lying about the presence of a drone in order to limit insurance liability?  Is it weird that I find it odd that helicopters don't have simple 360° black-box cameras when they fly?

I'm going to reserve judgement until I read the official report post-investigation.  

That is sad to read.