Vodaphone mast

[RINKER]

Have permission to land near friends house in farmers field.lots of room no problems except there is a Vodaphone mast in the corner of the field within it's own enclosure.Site is in UK; aircraft r44 raven 1.Silly question apart from not hitting mast! is there any reason to keep a specific distance from the mast?
R

[rudestuff]

I'm sure cell towers are not too good for one's health with prolonged exposure, so i wouldn't build a house there, but I dont think you'll be in too much danger just landing next to one. If your testicles start to feel warm, i'd back away a bit. Just keep the rotor tips from hitting the thing and you should be ok.

[frostbite]

Only if it de-senses the receive capability of your radio (unlikely).

Also, if you're that close to it, you probably wouldn't be using the radio at that point anyway.

[Mikeb]

Was warned by an instructor that intense radio transmissions can interfere with the governor on Robinsons. Just be aware of this and should be no problem.

[Bladecrack]

Masts

I have landed next to them in a Jet Ranger loads of times with no problems, but thats not to say more advanced helis with Fadec etc. wont be affected.

Good luck,

BC

[Greaney]

Worry About the Handset (and the SUV)

Transmit power falls off rapidly with distance. In the
free-space model, doubling the range decreases the
delivered power by a factor of four (square law). Yes,
the base station is transmitting more power, but it is
also much farther away than the handset.

In this
(http://cpk.auc.dk/antennas/pub/ExposureWCDMA.pdf)
study of W-CDMA hazards, they estimate of 1/8 of 1W for
the handset and 20W per user for the base station. If you
assume an average of 100 users, that would be 16,000
times more power at the base, but the handset is only
10cm from your face! 10cm * sqrt(16,000) = 12.6m.
So, if you are more than 12.6m from the tower antenna
the field from the handset is worse. In the paper, they
cite a safety distance of 3 to 4.5m (Sec 3.2.1). They also
point out at the end of section 2 that the allowed
downlink field for W-CDMA is greater than for GSM.

Worry about your own handset before the tower. Worry
most about the person piloting the truck / SUV while
talking on their handset.

--Shaun

[HeliEng]

bladecrack,

I did have a bit of a chuckle at your reply!

but thats not to say more advanced helis with Fadec etc. wont be affected.

We are talking about an R44 here! Have they done the FADEC mod. yet?

Tee hee!

[crop duster]

I'm learning to read between the lines. When I first saw this post figured it had to be the old two coffee cans and a piece of string stretched between the two. Growing up in south La. that was what we used as a walkie-talkie. We was kind of poor and that's all we had.

I'll have to throw that Vodaphone mast thing at some of my buddies and see if they've ever heard of one. More than likely, they'll think of the two coffee cans and a string.

barryb

[The Nr Fairy]

Vodafone is a UK cellphone company - www.vodafone.com

[RINKER]

Thanks for replies,the humorous and serious.Much as I thought but thanks for the info once again
R

[Bladecrack]

Masts

Heli-eng,

If you read my reply I didnt imply anywhere that an R44 has FADEC I merely made a statement that more advanced helis (with FADEC) may possibly be affected.

As I have just converted onto a FADEC equipped machine this would now be a consideration for me when choosing landing sites, I understand some HEMS operators have also reported problems when landing at some hospitals (equipped with high power scanners etc) and in the vicinity of HIRTA's.

Regards,

BC.

[Hangar3]

Sorry to be anal but is it 500ft away? CAP 393.

Rule 5

(b) The 500 feet rule
Except with the permission in writing of the CAA, an aircraft shall not be flown
closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle or structure.

[VeeAny]

Sorry to be anal but

Rule 5 (3)(a)(ii) Any aircraft shall be exempt from the 500 feet rule when landing and taking off in accordance with normal aviation practice.

So he can land within 500 ft of it if he so wishes.

V.

[Grainger]

Indeed... it would be a bit of a bummer, having built yourself a nice hangar, to have to land the other side of the field and push the damn helicopter the last 500 feet.

[Pandalet]

Doesn't the 'exempt from the 500ft rule while landing or taking off' thing only apply to licensed landing sites? Or am I mis-reading stuff?

And I'm not anal at all, just curious

[Helinut]

Pandalet,

No.

I think you may be confusing it with the congested area (1,000 ft) rule. The standard exemption for that one is only to licensed/government airfields.

Helinut

[Pandalet]

aah, that'd be it, then - thanks!

[ppheli]

Alternatively, you can do what Prodrive did at Banbury, and build a hangar approx 150m from HT cables (and thus pylons), facing the cables, ie the pad is between the hangar and the cables (and a small river, to boot).

Check this map. The pad is due west of where the northern sliproads of Junction 11 join the M40 motorway proper, and right by the little "S bend" in the river. The building facing NW out to the countryside from that little bunch of buildings is the hangar, I believe.

On a slightly similar track, and more one for plank-wingers, the strip at Scotland Farm, Hook (adjacent to the M3 and just the London side of the Odiham junction 5) has HT cables none too far from each end of the runway.
Link to that map is here - the grass strip runs roughly parallel with the motorway.

[HeliEng]

Bladecrack,

I did read your reply, but thank you for the suggestion.

It would appear a slight sense of humour failure has occured.

I appreciate what you are saying, and yes, you have a very valid point, but when I read it in the context of the thread, ie:- An R44 landing in a field with a Vodaphone mast in it, it made me chuckle.

Sorry for any offence, just enjoying the moment!