So I recently moved to a new house and we are a little over 6 miles from a major international airport.  I have always taken the drone for short little joy ride type flights just out of my backyard, but once we got settled in I discovered we are right along the landing approach and the planes seem to be coming in really low.  I am quite sure that at our location they are well below 400 feet.  Being 6 miles out, its not in a restricted area as far as the go app is concerend meaning it does not lock me out.   I guess same with the FAA as long as I am under 400 feet right?  (I am not doing this by the way).  So my question I guess is what to do or not to do here.  Right now if I fly at all, I am staying under 100 feet just to be on the safe side.  I certainly don't want to colide with a commercial jet, but I was also under the impression that at 6 miles and under 400 feet I shouldn't.  Aren't they supposed to stay over 400 feet outside of 5 miles.  

Hard to imagine a big airliner over your home at 500 ft 6 miles from the landing strip. That would really be a daunting sight. However, you'd better be able to prove you were under 400 ft when they show up at your house. I wonder what a P3 looks like after it was sucked into a jet engine?  

I would stay safe and stay under 250 feet (76m). Since they doing a landing approach 6 miles out, it would be a very very rare (emergency landing) for them to be that far down.

Id play it safe, you can get some major fines. However in your defense you are correct with the 6 miles out. Another thing, pilots can almost never see a drone unless it is directly in front of them 50 feet away, or above them. It's almost impossible for a spec colored white to be seen by a pilot looking down at the ground, so chances of them spotting it are also slim.

Yeah that's not something I ever want to find out (getting sucked into a plane that is lol).  The flight path is actually not exactly over the house, but about a couple of hundred yards off over an open field.  I could be wrong on the height but having had the drone at 400 feet (not here but elsewhere) and thinking about what that looked like, these big planes look to be pretty low.  Could be an optical thing because of the size differences, but I can read the numbers off the planes.  I had contemplated calling the tower and asking the question as to what height these come in at, but I probably would end up on some list.  Like I said for now I am staying under 100 feet, but I was just curious if anyone new what the restrictions were on these big planes.

MrPinaColada Posted at 2016-6-16 12:00
Id play it safe, you can get some major fines. However in your defense you are correct with the 6 mi ...

Regardless of the jets altititude, they have the right of way, period. It is your responsibility to maintain separation. Planes have to maintain their separation distances unless they are taking off or landing. If their glide path takes them lower than 400' so be it. Although it's possible that they only feel like there lower because they're  so freakishly big.

soundbyte58 Posted at 2016-6-16 14:09
Regardless of the jets altititude, they have the right of way, period. It is your responsibility to ...

No argument, but sometimes easier said than done.  These drones don't move all that quick in relation to a 737 so if I am up there and have to get out of the way I can be a bit screwed.  I would assume that these pilots know that drones are out there past the 5 mile marker and if they are low they might hit one?  I am not finding a lot of info out there on what the actual flight plan is and short of flying up and letting one go by I am not sure how to know if I am flying safe or not.

Rnfaust Posted at 2016-6-17 02:55
Hard to imagine a big airliner over your home at 500 ft 6 miles from the landing strip. That would r ...

I've lived under flight paths for many years. I'm with Rnfaust -- those things are probably higher than you think. Distance perception can often be mistaken.

You can download maps that show typical commercial flight paths in the U.S.  Just google it.

Rnfaust Posted at 2016-6-17 02:55
Hard to imagine a big airliner over your home at 500 ft 6 miles from the landing strip. That would r ...

A large passenger jet cruises between 350 to 500mph. On approach, it is traveling at 100 to 125 mph or between 2 to  2.5 miles per minute. It's descent rate is about 700 feet per minute. Therefore, it cannot be at 400 feet 6 miles out. I would guess it was somewhere between 1000 to 1500 feet AGL as it drops more quickly a few hundred feet from the runway when the pilot cuts power and transitions to a nose high altitude as he floats down the runway and stalls the plane just above the ground.

Large planes on ascent or descent appear lower and slower than they are. Ever watch a jet just after takeoff? It looks like it's going so slow it should be falling out of the sky when in fact it is going several hundred mph but it doesn't look that way because it is also ascending at 2000 to 3000 feet per minute.

On final approach, jets are traveling at about 2.5 miles per minute (150 MPH), they descend at 500 feet per minute so they're at 1200 AGL at 6 miles. The altitude limit guideline for drones is 400 AGL so you're fine.

Sorry my ignorance about the rules in US .  In France whe have a legislation that cover all aspects of flying including  fly  "near" airports. I supose that the same thing happens In US if so, Its just read and  follow the FAA legislation.

gary.ok@hotmail Posted at 2016-6-17 03:03
Yeah that's not something I ever want to find out (getting sucked into a plane that is lol).  The fl ...

I think at 6 miles out a commercial airliner is way more than 400ft.

See that's why I come on here.  We got this down to the math.  No ignorance at all.  We too have legislation and my question was more that even following the rules it sure looks like I could still have an issue.  But assuming some of the math I think this is more of an optical illusion than a real problem.  The planes look really low, but in reality they could not be that low and still shed altitude at any reasonable rate.  Taking it even further, a 3 degree angle of approach at 6 miles away would put it at about 1660 ft.  I never really thought about it like that but it seems to line up with some of the other suggestions on decent rate.  I guess I will put it at 300 feet and stay well out of the path and see what it looks like.  My guess is its not even close now.  

gary.ok@hotmail Posted at 2016-6-16 13:47
See that's why I come on here.  We got this down to the math.  No ignorance at all.  We too have leg ...

You're fine if the planes on ILS approach it should be around 3 deg. And even on a visual approach the altitude difference at that range would be negligible. We're only talking 3 wingspans of a 767.

The outer limit is 5 Miles. An Airliner is mighty large compared to your Phantom so they appear to be below the 400' You are doing things right and thanks for being responsible. None of us want to jeopardise anyone or flight. I am outside of the 5 mile marker from a Military Base that fly's Herc's. They are flying at 2-300 feet above me. Am I right be able to go the 400', yes, common sense, No. So when they are up I am down. Again glad that you are a responsible flyer.

rodger Posted at 2016-6-16 18:55
The outer limit is 5 Miles. An Airliner is mighty large compared to your Phantom so they appear to b ...

I couldn't have said it better myself. It's a small price to pay really. Safety is paramount!

5 miles out all jets are between 1800 - 3000 ft. Download a Flight Tracker app and watch their approaches and reported height.

This looks good, even 5 miles out you may still be in controlled airspace.

https://app.airmap.io/

Try www.flightradar24.com on your desktop computer for free.  It shows all planes in the air near you.  My daughter lives about 10 miles from Philadelphia International Airport and the planes over her house look low but are actually over 2000 feet up.

soundbyte58 Posted at 2016-6-16 23:02
I couldn't have said it better myself. It's a small price to pay really. Safety is paramount!

Yes it works well and makes sense. Picture the 5 mile radius like a funnel with the spout at the Airport itself and the large opening at the top and as the funnel gets larger so does the height go up as it is the approach area.

Aircraft on approach to a runway are on a 3 to 1 glide path. For every mile from the threshold they are approximately 333 feet high. At six miles they should be about 2000 feet high.

romeogolf70 Posted at 2016-6-18 08:46
Aircraft on approach to a runway are on a 3 to 1 glide path. For every mile from the threshold they  ...

That is incorrect on more than one level. Firstly, the normal glide slope for aircraft that are inbound on ILS is not 3:1. Also, 1/3 of a statute mile is 1760', not 333'.

I would check the aviation publications.  The airspace surround major airports is Class B airspace, and can have dimensions beyond 5nm (the one by my house is 7nm).

The FAA also has an app called B4UFly, found on the google play store, and Apples App store.  It will show you surrounding airspace