Originally Posted by
The Banjo
So if the PA28 hit the drone who is at fault?
Not the drone operator.
Yeah, not sure who would be at fault. Would have to be sorted out by people a lot smarter and paid a lot more money then me I guess.
I ask the room.... opinions?
From what I have saw at the time the young bloke was complying with the rules according to CASA. He was not above 400ft (I saw his iPad height restriction set at 90 metres vertical and 1000 metres horizontal) and in my opinion was flying the drone in a manner that did not create a hazard to other aircraft (as in did not expect an aircraft to be flying that low over trees/water/campsites/waterbirds on the lake, hence would not assume to be flying the drone in a manner hazardous to other aircraft) and I dont believe he had enough warning to take appropriate action after becoming aware of the other aircraft entering the drones air space and area of operation - it happened that fast he had little time to do anything, the PA28 was over us with little warning... the engine noise masked behind the trees. He did land immediately after the event and came straight over.... he was visibly shaken up. He told me he would pack the thing away and not fly it again there.... I cant comment any further if he did or did not, we moved on that afternoon.
I have no idea on who would be at fault if there was a collision and the PA28 was taken out of the air.
Is this something we should now expect as the norm over siteseeing areas.... hard to see, slow to react drones.
Should not be a problem for most of us. Where we will run into issues would be those that are low level endorsed (and I would assume the PA28 driver would be out there) and drone operators that exceed their 400ft limit with little or no regard to others.
Sadly, I think we will find out sooner rather than later.