Was flying my P3A in the countryside yesterday when I heard a helicopter, I decended straight away to about 10 metres and saw the Police Helicopter slowing to a hover above me at less than 100 metres, I landed it and watched as the Police Heli loitered around for about 20 minutes then it left.

2 uniformed walked towards me as I was about to take off and said the Helicopter pilot wanted them to pass on his thanks to me getting out their way so quickly, then I had a good chat with them - Explained how I have liability insurance through BMFA and showed them how I have the P3A all marked up with my name and number - even let one of them have a little go. Both were really positive and asked if I'd be able to chat to some local schools with them about educating people on the use of drones.

Overall a really positve experience, great to see a Police force taking the right approach to managing Drones and not the usual heavy handed stories you tend to hear about. I thought their idea of doing a drone roadshow around schools was a great idea too, what a good idea to get kids engaged in the hobby in the right way.

Kudos!     Great story!!!!    we need more people over all with respect of other aircraft.      

many do not know but in all cases with drones MANNED AIRCRAFT ALWAYS HAVE RIGHT OF WAY!

i had to avoided coastguard as well while on the beach in HHI SC.   heard a heli coming down the beach.  i was in gps mode around 250 feet with my bird around 700 away from me filming  my daughter and German Shepherd playing together.   heard the chopper so threw it into sport, dropped to 50 ft and flew back to me asap.       no idea if the coast guard chopper even saw my drone while they were flying along the coast around 300-400 feet off the water but wasn't going to take any chances.   id rater not been seen by manned pilots than run a chance of another report of a "close call"

awesome post  

Great post, shame the newspapers don't publish stories like this.  They prefer the "crazed drone pilot endangers hundreds of passengers as the pilot got a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye" stories.

Great demonstration of airmanship sir, and nice that the local police acknowledged your vigilance :-)

Posts like this never make it to the media. Now if he remained flying and had a bad police encounter it would have been on the today show.

I had one police chopper fly in to look at my quad.  I landed it in the snow under the pine trees and then sat in my car until they left, When they were gone I raced over grabbed my quad and also left.   

Another time I spotted a police car from the sky heading to the park I was flying in.  I had been buzzing around for a while and kept it under 100 m, park was pretty much empty but I didn't take any chances,  Landed the drone, threw it in the car and then headed off before they arrived.

Maybe I am a little paranoid but I don't want my quad confiscated so I just avoid conflict versus confront it head on. There are plenty of other places to fly.  

Nice one.  I once had a Gendarme (French Police) ask if I could send him some shots.  He was OK about me flying around the outskirts of a small town.

Good post!

Good on you and for the feedback, nice to hear something positive.

Good post