Airmiss @ London Heathrow, Airbus A320 & UAV

[Phil Perry]

The flight crew of an Airbus A320 on landing approach to LHR whilst descending through 700 feet, reported sighting a small UAV ( media reported a "Drone" ) very close to the path of the aircraft. One media reporter was "Astounded" that this intruder did not appear on the airport radar. . . .( ! )

 

CAA have commented that the offending object was not tracked to it's source so that no action could be taken against whoever was responsible for the vehicle. There have been an increasing number of incursions into airspace mentioned in the public press over the past 12 months, although there has been no official statement from the CAA regarding this apparent trend.

 

One person was convicted of flying a radio controlled aircraft ( mode of flight not reported ) into highly restricted airspace very close to a nuclear submarine repair base recently, the machine was either shot down, or otherwise disabled and it came down within the confines of the base. The owner was traced and convicted of allowing a remotely controlled private flying machine to enter the airspace above the base. The fine was £3,420 incl. costs, and confiscation of the equipment.

 

Maplins, a UK technical electronics store chain have reported the sales during 2014 of "thousands" of radio controlled UAV "Hobby Aircraft" ranging in price from a few pounds to £3,000.00 per aircraft, with thousands more on order for Christmas gifts. . . . . .

 

As I've no doubt these things are available to purchase anywhere in the Western world, the possibilty of a collision with an RPT or other commercial / private aircraft must be enhanced.

 

A you're probably aware, some of these toys are quite clever, carrying GPS and HD cameras, with many interesting features. Ideal for Kids, hobby flyers and quite a few commercial uses probably. . . . . . is there a "BUT" anywhere in the house I wonder, ?

 

Read on Daily Mail news today, . . . " New York Woman has nose sliced by drone whilst having coffee inside a Starbucks coffee bar" it seems the staff were using drones to deliver something to various tables - didn't say what, the Bill maybe ?. . . this lady was surprised by the helicopter trying to land on her table and flinched. The staff said, "well,. . .if she hadn't flinched it would have been OK . . . . She needed hospital treatment but was not seriously injured ( oooh imagine the lawsuit. . .)

 

In the UK, the Online shopping giant Amazon, have expressed an interest in home delivery trials using "medium sized" Drones . . . . . . ( what if I ordered a Fridge I wonder. . .) I really hope they are actually joking.

 

Phil

 

 

[facthunter]

Fridge delivered by a drone... COOL.. Nev

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Fridge delivered by a drone... COOL.. Nev

Hi Nev,. . . . . yeah, real cool man, . . . . hang on, . .just doing some calcs on the back of an amazon label, . . . . er, that's 276 Kg for the fridge,. . .hmm, er. carry the nine, . . divide by four little plastic rotor blades,. . .erm,. . .yes ! They would only need a plastic Chinook scaled down to around 8 metres long with a couple of Jabiru six cyl motors. . . . . be just the job. Phil

 

 

[Geoff13]

:amazon:Might be better putting Rotax Motors on there Phil. More chance of the delivery getting there.

 

 

[facthunter]

Do your fridges come FULL of beer?. That ones heavier than my Sportster. Nev

 

 

[Phil Perry]

QUOTE="Geoff13, post: 465505, member: 11655"]:amazon:Might be better putting Rotax Motors on there Phil. More chance of the delivery getting there.

 

Nah, . . . . too expensive Geoff

 

Phil

 

 

[fly_tornado]

Its only going to be a matter of time before a jet ingests a drone. The software to run these things is so sophisticated, even Real estate agents can use them

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Do your fridges come FULL of beer?. That ones heavier than my Sportster. Nev

Not when they're being delivered Nev,. . . . . . ANYWAY, . . I only drink Light beer. . .

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Its only going to be a matter of time before a jet ingests a drone. The software to run these things is so sophisticated, even Real estate agents can use them

Thanks for that snippet Fly_ . . . wasn't sure if the Aus authorities allowed them to be used for Aerial work . . . one Govt. minister here has suggested that all users of AWK machines should have a basic pilot license. . .! maybe the suppliers ought to include an annual subscription for all the aeronautical charts in the country of sale, . . .or would that be helping the jihadis a bit too much. . . . . .

 

Lite Fridge Phil.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

The problem is you can buy these things over the internet in parts and build them without any real skills apart from soldering.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

phil have a look at http://ardupilot.com/ impressive bit of kit and its 100% free

 

 

[facthunter]

Well.. SOLDER ON.. ft

 

 

[Phil Perry]

phil have a look at http://ardupilot.com/ impressive bit of kit and its 100% free

Thanks Fly_ . . . I've seen that, one of our flying club blokes ( Holds a PPL - H ) has a Quadcopter and he's messing about with the Ardu stuff at the moment, to make some improvements to it's sstems. ( The basic unit carries a really good HD cam and he knows some property developers who use them for spotting bits of empty land for building on ! ) that one is able to sense the remaining battery energy available and return itself to point of origin using it's gps log when the power is getting low. . . he's had the current quad unit for more than a year, so in that time there have no doubt been more extravagant designs released. . .

 

Reading online news re drones, I was interested to read that a couple of them have been configured to carry wifi by hackers and have been using them to snoop around collecting info, one was shown to have downloaded a large number of "Linked In" and many other types of personal internet passwords, leading to other confidential info being siphoned up. . . that is a little bit worrying, . . .of couse, US fellers have got nothing to hide have we, ? nor any funds left in our online banking accounts, all of which has been spent on xmas presents, aviation fuel and in some cases,. . . engine repairs . . . . so it isn't a problem ( ! )

 

Phil

 

 

[bexrbetter]

In the UK, the Online shopping giant Amazon, have expressed an interest in home delivery trials using "medium sized" Drones . . . . . . ( what if I ordered a Fridge I wonder. . .) I really hope they are actually joking.

Phil

Very real, look up the most recent (there's a few of them) Jeff Bezos/Amazon 60 Minutes interview.

 

 

[shags_j]

As an RC pilot who had to do a check, pays an annual membership to a club and follows strict rules; I think these UAV's or drones or whatever you want to call them are going to screw it up for the rest of us. Just saying.

 

 

[Marty_d]

Its only going to be a matter of time before a jet ingests a drone. The software to run these things is so sophisticated, even Real estate agents can use them

And they do. My deceased father-in-law's property is on the market and I was surprised to see a lovely aerial shot on the website, looks like it was taken from the road but about 300ft up. Guessing no real estate photographer would be without one these days as the customers want those shots.

 

 

[fly_tornado]

you can just see the scenario where the busy RE agent decides to fly his UAV over to the property to do the photography by taking a short cut through town.

 

 

[Teckair]

The flight crew of an Airbus A320 on landing approach to LHR whilst descending through 700 feet, reported sighting a small UAV

That sounds hard to believe to me, small drones have to be close before you can see them, I would have thought the chances of spotting one from the cockpit of a passenger jet on final at 700 feet at approach speed would be extremely remote.

 

 

[SDQDI]

Extremely remote

 

Oh Teck you should be PUNished for that one:oh yeah:

 

 

[ozbear]

The dji phantoms have a auto land system that activates when they get within a certain distance of airports which means they have an onboard database

 

 

[Teckair]

As an RC pilot who had to do a check, pays an annual membership to a club and follows strict rules; I think these UAV's or drones or whatever you want to call them are going to screw it up for the rest of us. Just saying.

I was talking to a RC pilot yesterday who was proud to tell me his 1/4 scale glider soars at 1000 ft, yeah someone will screw it up for you but it might just be one of your own mob. Just saying.

 

 

[shags_j]

Not saying it won't be (though my mob is licensed and flies at a field in an insured club so it won't be one of us). As with everything there are idiots (look at some RA pilots antics).

 

Just the quads are so accessible now and able to be flown by anyone that I am worried there will be increased legislation for the rest of us.

 

 

[Teckair]

Yes I understand your concern it is only a matter of time before something goes wrong.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

That sounds hard to believe to me, small drones have to be close before you can see them, I would have thought the chances of spotting one from the cockpit of a passenger jet on final at 700 feet at approach speed would be extremely remote.

Hey, Don't shoot the messenger Teck . . . .

 

I got that from the UK DAily Mail newspaper, and it was also reported through their online news site. . . . .HOWEVER. . . I don't know, if the "Crew member" who actually reported the sighting was cabin, or Cockpit crew. . . . the report didn't expand on that bit, but an incident report was filed, so there will always be a follow up report a few months down the line. . . .

 

I've just received a copy of the CAA flight safety magazine "Clued Up" which has an article on Drones, and some plans regarding regulation of same. I'll have to rip it out of it's plastic bag and have a read of that. . . . . and report back ! Just a little scared of seeing the Bride again today, as I was ordered to carry out some flatpack furniture assembly . . . . . . . .

 

Phil

 

 

[Marty_d]

Just tell her the instructions were confusing... you had absolutely no Ikea.