Just what we need, terriblepublicity. SO watch this and judge for yourselves. As far as I've understood (and I live  close to the beach, not terribly far from where this happened, if you use "before u fly" it's very obvious that most of the beach is a warning zone, there are heliports everywhere, for hospitals tourism and police, not to mention banner planes. Common sence tells us that we cannot or should not fly 400 feet because of high traffic, traffic that has the right of way, I personally try to stay at 200 feet tops around here doring weekends and bulk of the day, traffic dies at dusk, whisch is my favorite time to fly anyway, also early AM the traffic is manegable. I don't care if he was below 400 feet, unless you have advised the faa of your flight path and altitude, in other words a flight plan, you are NOT in the right with a close call like that. Choppers are loud and easy o see if your bird is within line of sight, hey give you plenty of time to go real low till it pases!

wow that was so close would be so bad if it crash on it

Yikes..... that would have ended badly.  

Being a retired Helicopter pilot this is very troubling to see. Drone pilots need to be aware that Commercial Helicopters do not fly under the same rules as fixed wing aircraft. Helicopters are considered rescue vehicles and in most areas can fly below 400 feet routinely.

When you are flying be sure to stay clear and watch for maned aircraft activity. Let's keep everybody safe and protect our hobby as well.

Rich

RichJ53 Posted at 2018-8-21 07:52
Yikes..... that would have ended badly.  

Being a retired Helicopter pilot this is very troubling to see. Drone pilots need to be aware that Commercial Helicopters do not fly under the same rules as fixed wing aircraft. Helicopters are considered rescue vehicles and in most areas can fly below 400 feet routinely.

you know, I posted this in other forums also and someone from another had an arguement that the FAA has no ruling that stipulates legality of helicopters flying below 400', is he right? Is this an unwritten "law" or is there a clause that waves minimum altitude rules? If so, does it specify "rescue operations" or anything else as a "reason" to permit it?

mixchief Posted at 2018-8-21 09:14
you know, I posted this in other forums also and someone from another had an arguement that the FAA has no ruling that stipulates legality of helicopters flying below 400', is he right? Is this an unwritten "law" or is there a clause that waves minimum altitude rules? If so, does it specify "rescue operations" or anything else as a "reason" to permit it?

I do not have the FAR's memorized but, just because UAV's are allowed to fly in the airspace below 400 feet, the FAA states to stay clear of manned aircraft.   
14 CFR 91.155 - Basic VFR weather minimums

"Notwithstanding" ruleThough specific altitudes are called as noted below - there is an over reaching general requirement to maintain sufficient altitude that if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface can be made. This may be significantly higher than 500ft or 1,000ft500 ft ruleAn aircraft must maintain an altitude of 500 feet above the surface, except over open water or sparsely populated areas. In those cases, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure.1000 ft ruleAn aircraft must maintain an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement, or over any open air assembly of persons.

** Other aircraft, such as helicopters, powered parachutes, and weight-shift-control aircraft, are not required to meet the FAR 91 minimums, so long as their operation is conducted without hazard to persons or property on the surface.



Airplanes have to maintain 500 feet above the ground or 1000 feet above the highest obstacle.  Not sure why someone would think there is an unwritten law, that's plain silly.

The flight rules are different for Helicopters (rotor wing) and airplanes (fixed wing). We share common rules but have unique flight operations. Some city's could have restrictions preventing a Helicopter to land on public property (even for emergency's)

Landing at airports, helicopter traffic avoids fixed wing traffic at all times.


I hope this helps …. I didn't look up everything, just put the quick answers in my post

Rich

Thank you, the clears up my question quite well. Is this copied and pasted from FAA rules?

mixchief Posted at 2018-8-21 18:41
Thank you, the clears up my question quite well. Is this copied and pasted from FAA rules?

Yes, you can look up basic FAA rules and regulations;
I simply copied the  VFR  (Visual Flight Rules) section  for weather and visibility FAA regulation (14CFR 91.155) under FAA 91 series of basic rules.

IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) which are completely different and not the topic in this case.  part C135 commercial regs have additional things for us to follow, but the basic rules tell the story. As you can imagine, there are always exceptions to the rule if posted.

Rich

I think it happened in Hollywood, FL

Wow, impresive.