Drone ceiling?

Paul (UK) · May 22, 2019

There was a report recently of another drone near miss, this time at Heathrow airport London, pilots reported seeing a white square shaped drone (DJI?) pass under left wing approximately 20 feet below. The aircraft itself was at 6,000 feet! Can our drones reach these sort of heights?

British Airways flight faces 'near-miss' drone collision near Heathrow

A British Airways flight carrying 300 passengers came within just feet of striking a drone that was flying near Heathrow Airport.

inews.co.uk

Mrgs1 · May 22, 2019

So much negative news, it's hard to tell truth from the lies. Certainly took long enough to be reported, suggesting slight suspicion about it being a fact, but some drones could fly higher than the legal ceiling. Perhaps another set of regulations the government want to push through, drum up some anti drone feeling, since it's died down a bit.

FlushVision · May 22, 2019

Paul (UK) said:
There was a report recently of another drone near miss, this time at Heathrow airport London, pilots reported seeing a white square shaped drone (DJI?) pass under left wing approximately 20 feet below. The aircraft itself was at 6,000 feet! Can our drones reach these sort of heights?

British Airways flight faces 'near-miss' drone collision near Heathrow

A British Airways flight carrying 300 passengers came within just feet of striking a drone that was flying near Heathrow Airport.

inews.co.uk

Theoretically yes but it would unlikely land in one piece. Drones take far longer to descend under power than they take to reach a certain altitude. Once a drone like a phantom, say, reaches 6000' AGL it will already be deep into it's power reserves and will be unlikely to have enough juice left to land without crashing.

Such reports similar to what you mention above have, in the past, proven to be dubious for reasons that I can't be bothered to explain. Imagine being able to see a white drone the size of a Phantom when traveling at speeds that an aircraft will be traveling at 6000'. One such report of a drone hitting an airliner a couple of years ago turned out, after investigation, to be a plastic bag. Think about it: a white plastic bag. Say no more.

Ty Pilot · May 22, 2019

At 5MS ascent rate or 16 feet per second, it would take a full power climb of around six and a half minutes to get to that altitude, and at full power your flight time would be cut drastically so; it is doubtful you could then make the return trip to earth without a free fall of some distance.

Sounds like those pilots were using the standard airline industry 'Drone ID Chart'

Grumpy · May 22, 2019

Ty Pilot said:
At 5MS ascent rate or 16 feet per second, it would take a full power climb of around six and a half minutes to get to that altitude, and at full power your flight time would be cut drastically so; it is doubtful you could then make the return trip to earth without a free fall of some distance.

Sounds like those pilots were using the standard airline industry 'Drone ID Chart'

View attachment 16695

I'm thinkin' it's the one on the bottom.

FlushVision · May 22, 2019

The drone the pilots probably saw (if they saw anything at all)

Ty Pilot · May 22, 2019

Fred Garvin · May 22, 2019

FlushVision said:
..... Imagine being able to see a white drone the size of a Phantom when traveling at speeds that an aircraft will be traveling at 6000'......

Literally the first thought that came to mind when first reading this......

Ty Pilot · May 22, 2019

I have seen clips of private pilots making a video where they are flying to a given location and upon seeing something flash past them, the first thing out of their mouth is; 'was that a drone'? In one, you could actually stop the video and see it was an Eagle. He too was around several thousand feet.

AH-1G · May 22, 2019

There is so much vortices coming off the wings, the drone would have spiraled out of control and crashed.
Hmmmm,
watch video starting at 2 minutes 33 seconds
better yet watch the whole thing, it's cool

Mrgs1 · May 22, 2019

Grumpy said:
I'm thinkin' it's the one on the bottom.

There's no bull on there!

Graham · May 22, 2019

This report has a drone at 9000'. I wonder what they saw?

Drone flown 'within 150ft' of passenger jet off Essex coast

The jet's pilots spotted the drone flying directly above them at high speed, a report said.

www.bbc.com

AeroJ · May 23, 2019

There have been so many erroneous reports of 'drones' from pilots where what they saw has later been proved to be something else entirely that I now treat any report by these people as being suspect out of the gate. I am consistently appalled by the level of credence given to such unconfirmed sightings by both the authorities involved, who seem to to just accept a pilot's word as fact, and the media who often report it as such with zero evidence.

Mrgs1 · May 23, 2019

FlushVision said:
The drone the pilots probably saw (if they saw anything at all)
View attachment 16696

Did it have "Duty Free" written on it?

TurboDad81 · May 23, 2019

I think the FAA or NTSB should do some controlled testing. Maybe take a few popular drones out to Area 51, and give them full left stick until it dies and crashes to the ground. Maybe that would debunk these claims right away.

Chris F · May 23, 2019

I would think if someone is flying a drone that close to the airport and at that altitude that battery life and landing it is not a consurn.

AH-1G · May 23, 2019

Just as TurboDad81 mentioned in around about way.
It can be calculated.
All you have to do is fly up 400', how many minutes does it take?
lets say 2 minutes to achieve 400'
10 minutes just to go 2,200'
40 minutes to 8,800'
Not including colder temperature, wind and then thinner air.
Yep I think someone has a vendetta for drones?

Mrgs1 · May 23, 2019

I

AH-1G said:
Just as TurboDad81 mentioned in around about way.
It can be calculated.
All you have to do is fly up 400', how many minutes does it take?
lets say 2 minutes to achieve 400'
10 minutes just to go 2,200'
40 minutes to 8,800'
Not including colder temperature, wind and then thinner air.
Yep I think someone has a vendetta for drones?

What's the next headline. Drone near miss with a Satellite!
I think anyone with a little knowledge could work that out. Problem is the Authorities are brain dead. Regulate it out of existence and into the hands of the so called professional, the end of the hobbyist? What it needs is someone to tell the establishment, it's all BS!

AH-1G · May 23, 2019

Mrgs1 said:
I
What's the next headline. Drone near miss with a Satellite!
I think anyone with a little knowledge could work that out. Problem is the Authorities are brain dead. Regulate it out of existence and into the hands of the so called professional, the end of the hobbyist? What it needs is someone to tell the establishment, it's all BS!

Establishment won't listen, they like fake news, or should I say they believe fake news. Brainless society.