Just as a point of clarification, when you call the airport manager/control tower, it is advisory only at this point. They do not have the authority to give/not give permission to the RC flight. You are advising them of your location. What they do with that information I'm not sure - add it to a NOTAM temporarily?

As an aside, I worry WAY more about birds than *drones*. However I have met *drone* owners at our RC field who are far less intellectual than birds...

Chip-

Plastic bags - a serious threat.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04 ... have-been/

Drones are becoming more popular as many real estate brokers are using the technology to benefit there real estate ads. as well as the hobbyist. The FAA says no higher than 400M or 500 feet AGL shall a drone be allowed to exceed.
IMO the drone manufacturers should be required to set this limitation within their product.
As a helicopter pilot I am quite nervous.
My question is: Can drones be picked up on radar?

Interestingly enough, the FAA has cracked down on the real estate uses of drones citing that as "commercial" use. So those folks have to apply for and get FAA authorization to use the drones to take pictures of houses for real estate ads. This has dramatically reduced the use of drones in that capacity.

So the odd result is that hobbyists, non commercial drone flyers, typically not professionally trained or inclined, can run around your neighborhood all day, but the pros, who would operate carefully, can't.


I would expect the answer is generally no.

Mike C.

Apparently, the various radars around DC never spotted the gyro copter that landed landed downtown. I expect that a drone would have a smaller radar cross-section than a gyro copter.

According to AW&ST, various firms are developing drone counter-measures using very high-freq radar and lidar. And, FWIW, DARPA has their "Gremlins" program ... to use swarms of micro-UAS's to overwhelm fire-control and counter-measure systems.

Correct for (only) hobbyists. Unfortunate that the FAA's own B4UFLY app does not even attempt to list the contact info required for prior notification.

Commercial drone operators have different rules. From the FAA website/FAQ:

"Under the Section 333 exemption the civil UAS operator may not operate within 5 nautical miles of an airport reference point (ARP) as denoted in the current FAA Airport/Facility Directory (AFD) or for airports not denoted with an ARP, the center of the airport symbol as denoted on the current FAA-published aeronautical chart, unless a letter of agreement with that airport's management is obtained or otherwise permitted by a COA issued to the exemption holder. The letter of agreement with the airport management must be made available to FAA officials or any law enforcement official upon request."

Mark,

You were very lucky. I heard one of the more dangerous things from engine ingestion is the NiCad battery, since it can explode.

Just curious, whom did you report this too?

Larry

Of course, but that's not the problem. In order for radar to be useful you have to filter out the stuff it sees that you don't want to display. Such as the ground, trees, trains, cars, etc. ATC does that by the moving target indicator circuit(MTI). It's a user selectable setting to filter out non or slow moving targets. I think we had ours set to around 40 knots. Anything moving slower than that was simply filtered out. So if the drone is hovering in a spot or moving less than the filtered limit then the controller isn't going to see a primary target because the computer will remove it.

Drones are almost universally lithium batteries. They need high energy/weight ratio and NiCads don't have that.

Lithium batteries do not explode, they can burn. Subjected to a jet engine, the expected result is that they are dismembered to the point they would not even burn. The risk of damage is just the material going through the engine itself, not an additional explosion or fire.

It should be noted that weather balloons are released all the time into the air. Their are specific construction guidelines, however (FAR 101.1). They usually carry lithium batteries as well.

http://petapixel.com/2011/11/08/camera- ... flying-by/

Mike C.

A NiCd won't explode. A LiPo will burn like a blowtorch if compromised, but not explode. There is a lot of potential energy in LiPos, and for "drones" there is no use for a NiCd because it doesn't contain nearly the energy potential that a LiPo does, and the on-board systems are run from a BEC that siphons power from the main battery that powers the motors. Even in conventional R/C models, NiCds are seldom used anymore because of their weight and poor performance (even for servos and receivers) compared to other battery technologies like LiFe, which is a variation of a lithium chemistry that has a much lower current capacity than a LiPo, and has a lower nominal voltage as well.

I'm not trying to single you out, Larry, but if you are listening to someone that says that NiCds are dangerous because they can explode, and you are deducing your opinions regarding unmanned systems based on this, you need to stop listening to that person. Dayton is a hotbed of R/C activity, and if you are interested, I can put you in touch with some sharp people that can walk you through different R/C aircraft and give you a crash course on their design, construction, and operation. Most of these guys are also full-scale pilots as well, but they fly R/C as a hobby. Many of them also are familiar with drones proper, if you will, and can provide more information on them as well.

Fantastic explanation, Mike. I wish I had seen your post before submitting mine so as to not duplicate information. You're a sharp guy!

Whoa! Please hold off the lynching mob. I meant to say lithium instead of NiCad.

Actually I do have a great respect for the R/C group, but really not interested in being enlightened with all the intricacies of this science. I'm more concerned about very armature users that buy drones and fly them illegally.

Larry

Here is an excellent map for quadcopter guys. Shows airports, airspace, AND phone numbers.

https://app.airmap.io/index.html#

I have a Phantom 4 that just shipped today.

Here is an excellent map for quadcopter guys. Shows airports, airspace, AND phone numbers.

https://app.airmap.io/index.html#

I have a Phantom 4 that just shipped today.