Question re: drone near-misses

[captjack34]

I've been flying my cessna 172 for the better part of two decades. Recently been hearing a lot of discussion about near misses with drones. There's been some debate on this site on how easy it is to identify whether something is a bird or a drone at 500 knots. My question is have any of you reported your own drone sightings or near misses to the FAA and how certain do you need to be that it is actually a drone before reporting? Thank you!

[ChickenHouse]

Yes, I reported, about 1/2 of them. Nowadays too many to report them all. My rule is currently to report any in vicinity of traffic patterns.
You can tell from the shimmer of the rotors turning that is is a drone, birds don't rotate that fast (maybe a Colibri, but that may not cause a real threat).

[Fortissimo]

If you are in the UK, please report them all, otherwise the CAA and DfT will lack the evidence to tackle the problem. You should certainly be reporting anything near a traffic pattern or above 400 ft.

Of the drone 'encounters' with manned aircraft (mainly CAT), 92% were above 500 ft and 65% above 1500 ft. The highest recorded event so far is FL130, which was a confirmed sighting by 2 pilots.

The collision studies in the UK suggest that you are quite vulnerable in a light aircraft - a 1kg drone is likely to come through the windshield at normal GA cruising speeds.

[ATC Watcher]

you are quite vulnerable in a light aircraft - a 1kg drone is likely to come through the windshield at normal GA cruising speeds.
in a twin yes, in a SEP even a small 300gr one will probably cause enough damage to the propeller to put it out of balance and possibly cause disintegration ..
That could be on the ground as well. During an airshow I was participating last Summer a spectator behind the barriers was operating a small drone above the taxing line to take photos.it hovered besides and above my turning prop say 5 m away.. I reported it but not sure if they did something .. Not sure the guy doing it had any idea that these can be suck in the props , not to mention jet,s .it they come too close..
We are unfortunately going to see more of those...

[Jetscream 32]

in the USA take a look here (https://www.faa.gov/uas/resources/public_records/uas_sightings_report/) for the FAA Drone airprox reports