Out of the last 10 times I have been flying, at a range of locations, during 6 of those I have had 'Airprox' events where I have felt I have had to move because of low flying aircraft. In 4 of those, I was fairly convinced that the other object was where it legally should be, at least 500 ft above surface. In those cases ( I am never above 400 ft myself) I still move away at 90 degrees from the vector and descend as fast as possible, mainly for the practice rather than because I think I need to move in order to avoid a collision.
But in 2 of those recent flights I have come across a plane that I judged to be at around 350 ft AGL (before I launched) above Stedham Common, Hampshire and a helicopter over Petersfield Playing fields, which I definitely had to move to avoid at 200 ft because I hastily (but probably inaccurately) judged that it was roughly at the same altitude as my craft. The heli was successfully avoided by my action, but I wouldn't be surprised if I showed up in the infamous UK airprox reports at some point. I should point out that neither of these locations are in any way off-limits to UAV pilots or within 5 miles of any airfield or airport.
How can we get better at judging distances from afar ? I have only my own perception that the aircraft I saw was at 350 ft or that the heli was at 200 ft. Is there anything I could have done from the ground to later verify that ? Don't think a photo would have contained much in the way of size reference, and alas, I didn't have my headcam on this time... Is it possible to develop better visual skills in this area, and if so, what sort of things can we do to practice ? All thoughts welcome...
But in 2 of those recent flights I have come across a plane that I judged to be at around 350 ft AGL (before I launched) above Stedham Common, Hampshire and a helicopter over Petersfield Playing fields, which I definitely had to move to avoid at 200 ft because I hastily (but probably inaccurately) judged that it was roughly at the same altitude as my craft. The heli was successfully avoided by my action, but I wouldn't be surprised if I showed up in the infamous UK airprox reports at some point. I should point out that neither of these locations are in any way off-limits to UAV pilots or within 5 miles of any airfield or airport.
How can we get better at judging distances from afar ? I have only my own perception that the aircraft I saw was at 350 ft or that the heli was at 200 ft. Is there anything I could have done from the ground to later verify that ? Don't think a photo would have contained much in the way of size reference, and alas, I didn't have my headcam on this time... Is it possible to develop better visual skills in this area, and if so, what sort of things can we do to practice ? All thoughts welcome...
