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I am not sure which craft you are talking about flying. Hitting a drone is your worst nightmare while piloting small aircraft? Or hitting a plane is your wors

I am not sure which craft you are talking about flying. Hitting a drone is your worst nightmare while piloting small aircraft? Or hitting a plane is your worst nightmare when flying a drone?

Alupis 4y ago
> Hitting a drone is your worst nightmare while piloting small aircraft A small GA aircraft hitting a drone has a very high fatality chance, particularly in the stages of flight most likely to encounter amateur drone operators (ie. takeoff and landing).
- thrill 4y ago
  No, it likely wouldn't have a large effect on the GA aircraft.
  - bobkazamakis 4y ago
    ? Either you don't know what GA aircraft entails, or you've got a real misconception of the size of a drone compared to a bird.
    - thrill 4y ago
      Well, I've hit birds with wingspans around a dozen feet (didn't go measure). They make a mess, and have killed people I knew, but that was mostly because of their size and the penetration of the windscreen. Hitting a smaller object could certainly cause some damage but it wouldn't likely be immediate and catastrophic unless it was in a critical spot.
      - Alupis 4y ago
        > unless it was in a critical spot Which is where most strikes occur. Low speed (relative for an aircraft) and low altitude. A bird hitting the prop, sucked into an engine, tail strike, windscreen, etc... all can be devastating for any aircraft, be it GA or commercial. A drone strike isn't somehow going to be better for the aircraft...
        thrill 4y ago
        Well, sure you don't want to hit anything unless you want to hit it, but doing so is unlikely to be the mushroom cloud event that seems to be believed occurs when hitting a drone.
      - SamBam 4y ago
        > birds with wingspans around a dozen feet Albatross or pelican? I think 12.1 feet is the world record.
        thrill 4y ago
        Spanish condors - they look bigger when they suddenly appear in your way.
- ClumsyPilot 4y ago
  A swan can weigh 8 kilos, a goose can weigh 6, and DJi phantom weighs 1.2 kilos. Multiple planes crashed with fatalities vecause of birds, as far as I am aware none have done so because of a drone. The fear of drones had led to pilots reporting drone sightings at 10,000 feet in the middle of the Ocean, thousands of miles from shore. "Several commenters noted that the AMA analyzed those reported ‘incidents’ and found that out of the 764 reported records, only 27 (or 3.5%) were identified as a near mid-air collision, with nearly all of those involving government-authorized military drones"
  - Alupis 4y ago
    What's the point you're trying to make? Just because we don't yet have a confirmed kill from a DJI Phantom means it's impossible? We do have confirmed strikes from drones, and the damage has been devastating. We do have confirmed strikes with fatalities from birds. There is not much difference between a bird and a drone when an aircraft strikes it at speed... These drones are often operated by folks with zero training and zero deference for the law or aviation safety (highlighted by the fact they're operating near an airport). It's just a matter of time... if it hasn't already happened right here in this Dallas incident.
    - ClumsyPilot 4y ago
      > What's the point you're trying to make? Just because we don't yet have a confirmed kill from a DJI Phantom means it's impossible? Anything is possible, there is a guy that was killed by his beard, shot by a dog and every year several people die from being tangled on bedsheets. Lets keep things in proportion. I, for one, am unclear why we immediately jumped to regulating drones, but when Tespa autopilot kills people, nobody seems to care? The real point is that people in this thread are too quick to blame drones, when geese outnumbet them 1000 to one. I live near an airport and a huge flock of geese is constantly here. When I see people with real drones, they tend to know whay they are doing. The only people I see fooling around are people who buy a tiny drone for $50 on Amazon and the worst those drones can do is get aruck in your hair while filming nudes.
      - 4y ago
- jandrese 4y ago
  This seems surprising. Most drones weigh no more than a medium sized bird and are made out of flimsy materials that shatter readily. Sure there might be a bit of fire from the destruction of the battery pack, but nothing that should be a major problem for a GA aircraft. Unless by drone you are talking about a Global Hawk? I would count that as a high fatality risk.
- salamandars 4y ago
  Can you source this? I can't find any information on fatalities due to aircraft-drone collisions, topic of this article notwithstanding.
  - Alupis 4y ago
    You don't need a source. An object striking an aircraft in flight is devastating, and can be very fatal. Just because the object was made in China vs. hatched out of an egg doesn't really matter... the results will be the same.
    - salamandars 4y ago
      Well, according to wikipedia, only between 11-15% of bird strikes result in damage to the aircraft. Apparently large birds like geese are the main danger. I imagine a similar distribution with drone strikes, as most drones do not weigh as much as a goose, at least of those in the hands of a typical idiot (who would fly in the path of a plane). That's why 'very high fatality chance' doesn't seem right to me, but I can't find any statistics on it.
  - caconym_ 4y ago
    > I can't find any information on fatalities due to aircraft-drone collisions, topic of this article notwithstanding. That's because there have not been any: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unmanned_aerial_vehicles-related_incidents#Verified_aircraft_collision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unmanned_aerial_vehicl...
- heliodor 4y ago
  > very high fatality chance Really? Very high? My uneducated guess is that there's a very high chance of damage to the airplane, but not of crash landing, and certainly not of death.

I am not sure which craft you are talking about flying. Hitting a drone is your worst nightmare while piloting small aircraft? Or hitting a plane is your worst nightmare when flying a drone?

Alupis 4y ago

> Hitting a drone is your worst nightmare while piloting small aircraft A small GA aircraft hitting a drone has a very high fatality chance, particularly in the stages of flight most likely to encounter amateur drone operators (ie. takeoff and landing).

thrill 4y ago
No, it likely wouldn't have a large effect on the GA aircraft.
- bobkazamakis 4y ago
  ? Either you don't know what GA aircraft entails, or you've got a real misconception of the size of a drone compared to a bird.
  - thrill 4y ago
    Well, I've hit birds with wingspans around a dozen feet (didn't go measure). They make a mess, and have killed people I knew, but that was mostly because of their size and the penetration of the windscreen. Hitting a smaller object could certainly cause some damage but it wouldn't likely be immediate and catastrophic unless it was in a critical spot.
    - Alupis 4y ago
      > unless it was in a critical spot Which is where most strikes occur. Low speed (relative for an aircraft) and low altitude. A bird hitting the prop, sucked into an engine, tail strike, windscreen, etc... all can be devastating for any aircraft, be it GA or commercial. A drone strike isn't somehow going to be better for the aircraft...
      - thrill 4y ago
        Well, sure you don't want to hit anything unless you want to hit it, but doing so is unlikely to be the mushroom cloud event that seems to be believed occurs when hitting a drone.
    - SamBam 4y ago
      > birds with wingspans around a dozen feet Albatross or pelican? I think 12.1 feet is the world record.
      - thrill 4y ago
        Spanish condors - they look bigger when they suddenly appear in your way.
ClumsyPilot 4y ago
A swan can weigh 8 kilos, a goose can weigh 6, and DJi phantom weighs 1.2 kilos. Multiple planes crashed with fatalities vecause of birds, as far as I am aware none have done so because of a drone. The fear of drones had led to pilots reporting drone sightings at 10,000 feet in the middle of the Ocean, thousands of miles from shore. "Several commenters noted that the AMA analyzed those reported ‘incidents’ and found that out of the 764 reported records, only 27 (or 3.5%) were identified as a near mid-air collision, with nearly all of those involving government-authorized military drones"
- Alupis 4y ago
  What's the point you're trying to make? Just because we don't yet have a confirmed kill from a DJI Phantom means it's impossible? We do have confirmed strikes from drones, and the damage has been devastating. We do have confirmed strikes with fatalities from birds. There is not much difference between a bird and a drone when an aircraft strikes it at speed... These drones are often operated by folks with zero training and zero deference for the law or aviation safety (highlighted by the fact they're operating near an airport). It's just a matter of time... if it hasn't already happened right here in this Dallas incident.
  - ClumsyPilot 4y ago
    > What's the point you're trying to make? Just because we don't yet have a confirmed kill from a DJI Phantom means it's impossible? Anything is possible, there is a guy that was killed by his beard, shot by a dog and every year several people die from being tangled on bedsheets. Lets keep things in proportion. I, for one, am unclear why we immediately jumped to regulating drones, but when Tespa autopilot kills people, nobody seems to care? The real point is that people in this thread are too quick to blame drones, when geese outnumbet them 1000 to one. I live near an airport and a huge flock of geese is constantly here. When I see people with real drones, they tend to know whay they are doing. The only people I see fooling around are people who buy a tiny drone for $50 on Amazon and the worst those drones can do is get aruck in your hair while filming nudes.
    - 4y ago
jandrese 4y ago
This seems surprising. Most drones weigh no more than a medium sized bird and are made out of flimsy materials that shatter readily. Sure there might be a bit of fire from the destruction of the battery pack, but nothing that should be a major problem for a GA aircraft. Unless by drone you are talking about a Global Hawk? I would count that as a high fatality risk.
salamandars 4y ago
Can you source this? I can't find any information on fatalities due to aircraft-drone collisions, topic of this article notwithstanding.
- Alupis 4y ago
  You don't need a source. An object striking an aircraft in flight is devastating, and can be very fatal. Just because the object was made in China vs. hatched out of an egg doesn't really matter... the results will be the same.
  - salamandars 4y ago
    Well, according to wikipedia, only between 11-15% of bird strikes result in damage to the aircraft. Apparently large birds like geese are the main danger. I imagine a similar distribution with drone strikes, as most drones do not weigh as much as a goose, at least of those in the hands of a typical idiot (who would fly in the path of a plane). That's why 'very high fatality chance' doesn't seem right to me, but I can't find any statistics on it.
- caconym_ 4y ago
  > I can't find any information on fatalities due to aircraft-drone collisions, topic of this article notwithstanding. That's because there have not been any: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unmanned_aerial_vehicles-related_incidents#Verified_aircraft_collision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unmanned_aerial_vehicl...
heliodor 4y ago
> very high fatality chance Really? Very high? My uneducated guess is that there's a very high chance of damage to the airplane, but not of crash landing, and certainly not of death.