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A bird strike can take down a GA aircraft. AFAIK UAVs weigh more than birds. And yes it does fly very close to the ground, but so do rotorcraft. I disagree with
by ianstallings 13y ago
A bird strike can take down a GA aircraft. AFAIK UAVs weigh more than birds. And yes it does fly very close to the ground, but so do rotorcraft. I disagree with the zero risk statement.
- sliverstorm 13y ago^ rotorcraft are the key units operating right now.
- toomuchtodo 13y agoI'm a GA pilot who is instrument rated, with several hundred hours logged as pilot in command. I did not make my comment in an uninformed manner.
- ianstallings 13y agoI never said you were uniformed. Would you like to hit a UAV while flying in IFR conditions? Do you really think that hitting a solid object at 100+ kts will have zero impact on your aircraft? What if it goes right up the engine nacelle? Or through the windscreen? Or hits the control wire on your elevator? Do you see my point? Not everyone with concerns about UAVs flying in close quarters with manned aircraft are fools. I'm not saying they can't coexist, I know they can. But we don't know the situation here. This is a one-sided argument from the UAV manufacturer.
- mkopinsky 13y agoIs the UAV flying in IFR conditions? (Serious question.) If the goal is photography, I don't imagine it would be very useful if so.
- ianstallings 13y agoLooking at the craft in the pictures I doubt it. It looks like a fairly tiny UAV with visible spectrum imaging capabilities. But it may pass through IFR conditions in between the takeoff and target locations. It may also have sensors that can see through cloud layers, such as a small radar. Again, I doubt it based on the size but I might be wrong.
- phaemon 13y ago> I never said you were uniformed. "Uninformed" and "uniformed" are (allegedly) different.
- ianstallings 13y agoOh man, another coffee out of nose moment. Touché sir.