This morning, I was walking my dogs in a park I usually fly in and a Mavic owner stepped up, walking across the street and down to the water. I thought he had some kind of film camera, at first, because his head was buried in it. When I got closer, I could see he had a Mavic controller in his hand. His craft was no where in sight, which I guess didn't matter to him because he never looked up. I didn't say a word to him, but there is no doubt in my mind that he was way beyond VLOS...one of the problems with flying something so small with such a huge range. This is another thing I like about the H. I can see it out to well over 1/4 mile, though I rarely ever go that far.
Just came back from the park- VLOS no longer a thing?
- Thread starter robport
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To my continuing surprise, a lot of UAV pilots still consider VLoS 'none of their business', and based on the sheer number of ridiculous range tests available on Youtube there are huge numbers of people just ignoring that requirement altogether. Some of them do that dangerously, whilst breaking a whole ton of other laws as well as to what they overfly, and some do it *more* safely, ie over suitable terrain, but not a single one of them seems remotely (no pun intended) concerned that they are flying way beyond LoS ! These are the same people that also try and fly to, and beyond the absolute limit of their batteries, making it even more sketchy on the way back !
I remain slightly conflicted about this. I can't condone it, and I never fly out of VLoS myself, and most responsible pilots I know don't either, but on the other hand, I'm sort of glad there are some people doing it and making videos about it for the purposes of testing, and because they do make for interesting video, and we should be able to see our machines put properly through their paces so we are properly aware of their capabilities and limits.. And yet they can't be doing the law-abiding UAV community any favours in terms of making us look responsible, and heaven knows the media don't need any more excuses to paint us as reckless, law-breaking voyeurs !
I remain slightly conflicted about this. I can't condone it, and I never fly out of VLoS myself, and most responsible pilots I know don't either, but on the other hand, I'm sort of glad there are some people doing it and making videos about it for the purposes of testing, and because they do make for interesting video, and we should be able to see our machines put properly through their paces so we are properly aware of their capabilities and limits.. And yet they can't be doing the law-abiding UAV community any favours in terms of making us look responsible, and heaven knows the media don't need any more excuses to paint us as reckless, law-breaking voyeurs !
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I would have approached and explain the seriousness of what he is doing. If he didn't care, then I would take pics with my cell phone, expressing that the FAA might frown on this.
Bill from the Local FAA mentioned to me, if you see and incident that is not safe, take photos or videos, turn it in. It's the only way we can pursue a case.
Bill from the Local FAA mentioned to me, if you see and incident that is not safe, take photos or videos, turn it in. It's the only way we can pursue a case.
CraigCam
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How about no LOS at a national park? Always a Mavic too. Plus sending all those videos of our infrastructure back to China. My back up plan is Mexico for piloting as it’s inevitable that our airspace in the states is going to change dramatically soon if this stuff continues unabated.
PatR
Premium Pilot
Without enforcement there will be no compliance. Without forcing manufacturers to limit range they will use extended range as an advertising point. DJI knows exactly what they’re doing and until they are forced to limit functional range through legislative and civil court actions they will continue to promote BLOS ops through their design and advertising practices. Unfortunately other makers are now releasing longer range equipment. They got tired of losing sales because they complied with the law.
Having Google return shopping results like the one below do not help... I looked around B&H's page and nowhere do they make such a distance claim... in their own ad, they push reality enough by claiming a mile.
