Think the FAA got it right this time

cowman said:
Is there some point at which the government just has to give up trying to get blood from a turnip?
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Have you ever met the government? They live for this stuff.

He will probably get a lawyer, who will negotiate some kind of settlement in the end. Either way, the FAA has made their point to this guy, and made a public example out of him.
 
midwestpa24 said:
Have you ever met the government? They live for this stuff.

He will probably get a lawyer, who will negotiate some kind of settlement in the end. Either way, the FAA has made their point to this guy, and made a public example out of him.
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So far they haven't "made their point to this guy", as he's still posting new videos.
 
If the drone community wants to rally around this guy, they do so at their own peril. The technicalities of 107 and youtube are a red herring and will be the ultimate basis for a renegotiation of the fine. It will not go away until he cries uncle, as he's in wrong and self documented it. The clear point is a drone operator that was beyond the operating limits. There is not a single drone operator that misunderstands the 400ft ceiling and line of sight rules, for example. Please.

I could only watch the first 10 mins of his explanation video, it made my eyes and ears bleed. I grew up in NYC metro and know "this guy". There were a lot of them. Street smart by their own assessment, but simply trying to beat the system. It doesn't work, with anyone beyond other self-proclaimed street smart people. The original echo chamber. They are collectively lost, when outside their bubble, and this guy recorded his trip.

I passed a drone on climb out in Class C airspace. The FAA clearly understands its a problem that is far beyond a vlogger.
 
By the way, something I've been wondering about is how consumer-drone operators determine the height of the drone above the ground. Does the equipment provide a readout of that?
 
Palmpilot said:
By the way, something I've been wondering about is how consumer-drone operators determine the height of the drone above the ground. Does the equipment provide a readout of that?
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Col. Chappie uses a screwdriver to adjust the mixture so they can’t fly that high.
 
Palmpilot said:
By the way, something I've been wondering about is how consumer-drone operators determine the height of the drone above the ground. Does the equipment provide a readout of that?
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The DJI Mavic 2/Phantom 4/most other DJI products have a barometer onboard that records initial takeoff pressure for "0" and measures height based on that. Flying below the initial takeoff point will give you negative numbers on the display.

The Phantom 4 Pro has sonar underneath the aircraft that measures distance to objects below the aircraft up to 10m underneath it. The Mavic 2 Pro uses combination visual/IR sensors to do the same thing.

The general idea is that pressure isn't going to change rapidly enough over the course of a 30 minute max flight to give you too many issues with your altitude, and if it DOES change that fast you probably shouldn't be out flying anyway.

Knowing your takeoff area height relative to the ground level of the buildings around you is important if you're trying to operate 400 feet above them. Recently, I did a project in downtown Fort Worth where I had to operate from a pretty high rooftop with a 300 ft LAANC approval zone in a Class D. If I took off of the roof and flew up to "300 feet", I would be at 300 feet plus the building height which would be breaking the regs.

To figure it out properly, I found a place with relatively level ground near the base of the building, flew up to the same height of the part of the roof I'd be taking off from and recorded the altitude readout on the screen. From there, you subtract that number from the 300ft AGL max I was applying for, subtracted a further 15ft for safety buffer and set the result as my max flight altitude for that one building.
 
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cowman said:
Is there some point at which the government just has to give up trying to get blood from a turnip?
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No ... when blood cannot be gotten from a turnip the hide gets ripped off of it!
 
I should also mention from my previous comment that you're allowed to fly up to 400 ft above a building or structure if you're within 400 ft of it horizontally. The exception is that the LAANC approval altitudes (in controlled airspace) are absolute and not in relation to the building height. If it says 300 AGL, you only get 300 AGL, not 300 ft above the building you're inspecting.

If I was outside of controlled airspace, I could just use 400 ft on the screen as my max altitude if I was taking off from the top of the building and set up the flight app to never get more than 400ft away from the edge of the building. You could get that radius from either flying the aircraft 400ft away with the distance reading in the app and marking it there, or by using Google Maps and referencing landmarks on the satellite view that are 400ft away.
 
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The 400/400 rule for structures doesn’t apply to recreational operators though, right? 400 AGL is the limit (assuming class G or LAANC approval up to 400’)

Anyway, now that I’ve watched a couple of this guy’s videos, YouTube has decided to push his stuff to my recommended feed. He has a new one he live-streamed today chasing trains across the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Not the choice I’d make, but it’ll be interesting to see how all this turns out.
 
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