Ray, please do not do this. You’re flying Beyond Visual Line Of Sight (BVLOS) and this is not allowed. By doing this you are contributing to the bad press and irresponsible practices that give all of us a black eye and encourage more restrictive legislation. It’s probably not a good idea to post about this openly in a public forum as it is an open admission of guilt. Nobody is anonymous and when transgressions are investigated, often posts like this lead the authorities to the guilty party.
You must keep your aircraft within sight at all times, and see it well enough to determine heading and control. You can use a Visual Observer (VO) to assist you for momentary loss of sight as long as you both are in reliable communication. For example, you are imaging a property and momentarily the aircraft will go out of sight on the other side of the building. The VO, placed on the other side of the property and in communication with a radio, can act “momentarily” to satisfy the Line of Sight rule. This is also how drone racers that fly FPV can legally do this, as multiple VO’s are positioned around the racecourse.
You cannot use multiple VO’s, daisy chained, in order to fly BVLOS. Also, by flying like you stated that you do, you will not win any points or sympathies from your fellow pilots here. In fact most will be dismissive of your claims, have little respect for you, and some will challenge you openly on this practice. Please do all of us, the drone pilot community, a favor and fly responsibly, obey the rules, and set a good example. Unless you’ve been issued a BVLOS Wavier from the FAA, keep your aircraft in sight, no matter what it is capable of.
Just a thought....are you sure the aircraft was 7 miles away from you? The distance from the controller showed 35,000+ feet? Or, are you looking at distance traveled....meaning that during the entire flight you traveled 7 miles.
