We're starting to see this problem in our area this past summer. Today, our town's Facebook page was flooded with reports of two, large military planes flying at treetop levels and at high speeds.

Doing some research, I found this article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/a ... _term=.896d0d8a7573

What is concerning, is that, like missiles, we had no advanced warning that these planes were approaching, due to their high speed. One moment it's silent, then next moment, you hear/feel a loud roar and feel a gust of wind as the jets whiz past your head at speeds probably in excess of 500MPH. From my research, they may have been doing radar evasion tactics. They did not shot up on FlightRadar24, either.

It takes a good minute to get a Phantom out of the air, not nearly enough response and evade time, and one of these days, a low flying military jet is going to hit a hobbyist's sUAS, flying right over their backyard as a result. Likely not a matter of 'if' but of 'when'.

The stealth nature of these NOE flights makes it nearly impossible for sUAS operators to know in advance and to evade these fast-moving AC. It's not like hearing a helicopter, where you have tens of seconds to get out of the way. These planes come and are gone in the space of 7 seconds. That leaves one 3 seconds to interpret the advancing sound and where the sound is coming from and what the heading of that AC (or multiple in the case of today's flight) is and whether it will intersect with the sUAS' position. Not a situation a hobbyist wants to encounter!

Sorry - I don't understand what a four-decade-old article about an errant low-flying C-130 has to do with high speed jets.  If there are jets, and if you're in an MOA, you can keep track of when it might happen.  There's a local number you can call or you can call a nearby airport.  If you're not in an MOA, I don't think military jets would often swoop in below 400' out of the blue.  

MHO

P.S.  Besides, aren't you moving to Japan?  

Mark The Droner Posted at 2018-10-3 13:53
Sorry - I don't understand what a four-decade-old article about an errant low-flying C-130 has to do with high speed jets.  If there are jets, and if you're in an MOA, you can keep track of when it might happen.  There's a local number you can call or you can call a nearby airport.  If you're not in an MOA, I don't think military jets would often swoop in below 400' out of the blue.  

MHO

We're not in a MOA. In fact, in the 52 years I've lived at this address, no planes ever flew low, with the exception of a large homemade aircraft owned by an eccentric wealthy fellow, which flew over the house  very low back in December 1999. Sikorsky was running a lot of helicopters out this way in the mid 1990s, but I think the numerous complaints of noise by the wealthy residents along the lake put a stop to that.
The C130s are something new since this summer. It's happened twice that I am aware of, and the whole town's Facebook page lit up with complaints and fears of a plane crash within minutes of it passing overhead. When I can feel the blast from the engines, on the ground, that's WAY too low.

The Japan move has been in progress since early 2016. As a retired senior citizen, I've got all the odds against me. If we buy a home there, we'll have to exit the country every 80-90 days and reenter. That's not going to work very well. My friends all moved there 30+ years ago, when they were in their early 40s, and it was possible to get a job and a visa. For me to get in there, I'm going to have to try some unique approaches, capitalizing on my vacuum tube audio expertise and the scarcity of those skills in Japan.

I have this potential problem each time I fly at our local beach. lots of open space, great view, perfect. But It can also become a military aircraft transit in seconds as they travel onward to the Lake District for training. In a somewhat longer timespan we have folk in microlights turning up to do landings and take offs, all with no warning. I check everything I can before I fly and still these folk can be there and I have to deal with it. Part of my training for the PfCO was to know what to do in those cases, and that is get out of the way! Jet engines can be heard (unless you have severe hearing problems) and large microlight canoopies can be seen. So following the rules keeps everyone safe. Can be a pain if you want to fly but sometimes we just cannot do what we want to do.

this how i call flying low .... and .. No Airports over here