Greetings fellow pilots! Is our thriving drone industry under threat?

[Robbie Sharma]

Firstly, a big, big thank you to the individuals who have created and are maintaining this community of commercial pilots. After reading a few discussions, my utmost admiration and respect for the talent, professionalism and knowledge being shared here to progress the industry.

Hailing from Alberta, Canada, my interests are in making drone operations safer, reliable and profitable. Bear with me a bit as I write a mini-blog/rant to communicate our pain when we know drone operations can bring tremendous benefit to our communities.

Here are a few articles that make me cringe:

More Air Force drones are crashing than ever as mysterious new problems emerge

Falling drone misses skier by inches - CNN Video

More Drones Are Flying Too Close To Comfort To Airplanes And Airports

The one below is REALLY JUICY because the US Postal Service did a user survey and 46% said that delivery drones that malfunction & crash were a huge concern.

Russia debuts postal drone, which immediately crashes into wall

Ironically, if you look, it smashed into a wall near a playground! Someone's kid could have been there!!!

In the article, the Russian postal service rep. said WiFi was to blame for the crash. As an engineer and drone pilot, I truly question if that was the root cause because a pre-flight check should have revealed SNR issues and you would have grounded yourself. Also why would it be controlled by WiFi or have influence on Autopilot control? Any experts care to comment?

However, drones can do some good things too:

Drone saves teen swimmers in world first

Just wanted to share thoughts and info to the community, and if you can please go to the link below to purchase a safety-first drone hoodie, I'd appreciate it...

Just kidding

Really though, I am serious about being part of a community that promotes drone operations focused on safety, reliability, maintenance and repair. For commercial operators, it takes time, effort and money to get/maintain our licenses, fleets and insurances.

For the operators that do it properly, stuff like the above threaten industry growth, the benefits drones can provide and a way of life we worked hard to build from scratch to provide for our families.

Cheers!

Robbie

 

[BigAl07]

Hello and welcome to the Commercial Drone Pilots forum. We are glad to have you on board. I'm confident you'll find lots of helpful and enlightening information throughout this forum.

If you haven't already done so, consider adding your LOCATION to your forum profile to help us know where you are when you post suggestions or ask for assistance. It helps a lot more than you might think especially because this is an international forum with members from all parts of the world. Here's a direct link to yours:

https://commercialdronepilots.com/account/personal-details

Allen

 

[dirkclod]

Welcome to our site Robbie .

 

[R.Perry]

Welcome Robbie, one thing we all are aware of is we humans aren't perfect, some are just more imperfect than others.

 

[LuvMyTJ]

Hello,
It is a pleasure to welcome you to the CommercialDronePilots forum.
I hope that you will be able to use the forum to further your safety knowledge, for the exchange of innovative ideas and as a resource for current developments in the commercial drone field.
Enjoy!

 

[Robbie Sharma]

Thanks everyone for the welcome!

R.Perry yes! The best thing to look forward to is finding the important imperfections then working to fix them!

 

[Rudder Bug]

Nice to meet you Robbie, I am near Mont-Tremblant, Quebec ("the other Canada"!)

I had the opportunity to enjoy your City Center airport, flying the oil patch a few moons ago. The good old days. I am retiring from flying full-time Manned aircraft this year and now trying to fly a Phantom 4 professionally and safely. Being a good Drone Ambassador in our country is my concern. We have a lot of work lined up, no doubtt!

Cheers

Gilles Graton

 

[Darren Gahan]

Firstly, a big, big thank you to the individuals who have created and are maintaining this community of commercial pilots. After reading a few discussions, my utmost admiration and respect for the talent, professionalism and knowledge being shared here to progress the industry.

Hailing from Alberta, Canada, my interests are in making drone operations safer, reliable and profitable. Bear with me a bit as I write a mini-blog/rant to communicate our pain when we know drone operations can bring tremendous benefit to our communities.

Here are a few articles that make me cringe:

More Air Force drones are crashing than ever as mysterious new problems emerge

Falling drone misses skier by inches - CNN Video

More Drones Are Flying Too Close To Comfort To Airplanes And Airports

The one below is REALLY JUICY because the US Postal Service did a user survey and 46% said that delivery drones that malfunction & crash were a huge concern.

Russia debuts postal drone, which immediately crashes into wall

Ironically, if you look, it smashed into a wall near a playground! Someone's kid could have been there!!!

In the article, the Russian postal service rep. said WiFi was to blame for the crash. As an engineer and drone pilot, I truly question if that was the root cause because a pre-flight check should have revealed SNR issues and you would have grounded yourself. Also why would it be controlled by WiFi or have influence on Autopilot control? Any experts care to comment?

However, drones can do some good things too:

Drone saves teen swimmers in world first

Just wanted to share thoughts and info to the community, and if you can please go to the link below to purchase a safety-first drone hoodie, I'd appreciate it...

Just kidding

Really though, I am serious about being part of a community that promotes drone operations focused on safety, reliability, maintenance and repair. For commercial operators, it takes time, effort and money to get/maintain our licenses, fleets and insurances.

For the operators that do it properly, stuff like the above threaten industry growth, the benefits drones can provide and a way of life we worked hard to build from scratch to provide for our families.

Cheers!

Robbie

Welcome to the forum!

As you are in Canada, I would be focusing on Canadian stories. I do real estate photography, mostly outside Toronto and have talked with the head of Nav Canada in charge of the southern Ontario airspace and asked him late last year about commercial drone pilots (sUAS, sUAV, UAV or whatever you want to call something like a Phantom 4) and incidents affecting transportation and air safety. There were non that he was aware of.

This probably doesn't mean there weren't any minor UAV incidents. (Sorry for the double negative) There could have been situations where a commercial drone operator hit a tree branch and their drone crashed, and because it didn't affect Nav Canada operations was not reported.

I've had a few close encounters with trees, that if contact would have been made, would have only affected my drone, and not impacted public safety or security in any way. All drone accidents must be reported to Transport Canada. I'm betting that there are a large number of real estate drone flyers out there that are not flying with a SFOC or insurance and if they crash, just buy a new drone and continue on their way.

When I was applying for my Standing SFOC, I chastised TC for not having a database of any and all drone related incidents available to the public. If there is a problem with a particular make or model of drone, it would be good to know, and also if a particular problem was addressed and what the solution was to make a particular drone safe.

I'm not sure where TC is heading with respect to drones, and maybe will only allow certain makes and models for commercial use as has already been done with respect to an unrestricted standing SFOC. Don't have the link handy but got it from this forum a month ago.

I think the biggest risk to commercial drone operators is the general public and people who think they should be able to fly where, when and how they want. I have a friend who has a Phantom 4, and thinks nothing of taking off and flying well out of visual range in a populated area. He uses only his phone to see where his drone is going and has flown well outside of the 500 meter distance limit, and above the 300 foot AGL limit. Now where and when he is flying is probably not going to interfere with another aircraft... unless he is flying around an accident or fire scene, and there are media or other helicopters who are also flying in the area...then there could be a danger.

However, Transport Canada is actually endangering public safety and security by publicly putting out a flyer that says: "Don't fly where it could interfere with police or first responders". as is on their website:

Flying your drone safely and legally - Transport Canada

My friend would be correct in "assuming" that he could fly around the area of an accident as long as he "didn't interfere". And would probably feel safe in flying over the scene as long as he didn't interfere. The actual wording of the "regulation" or "interim order" says: "Don't fly over or within the perimeter of where first responders are operating." Also if he was flying at 80 meters, he would be ok as he wasn't exceeding the height regulation, and if there were any vehicles or people, he would be the required 75m away. However the actual wording in the regulation once again states 75m laterally away from people of vehicles.

I once again chastised Transport Canada for not making at least a 2km radius No Fly Zone for any and all aerial vehicles, manned or otherwise, because police or first responders may have or be using their own drone.

TC is also grouping "small" drones like a Phantom 4, (1.380 kg, just over 3 pounds) with drones that weigh as much as 25 kg or 55 pounds. As I said to Transport Canada, drop a 3 pound bag of potatoes on your friend and see what happens. Then drop a 55 pound bag of potatoes on your friend and if they are not on their way to the hospital, probably won't be your friend any more. Where is the scientific testing and documentation that sets a weight distinction? Transport Canada is discriminating against drones like the Phantom 4 to make it easier for them to make regulations.

For reasons like the above my friend says the rules are stupid and just ignores them. Having to write your name address and phone number on your drone as required by the regulation is an invasion of your privacy and if you are operation safely, and someone comes over to talk to you, they will know where you live, and if they don't like you could come to your house to cause you or your family harm. Yes I can see why people would ignore the "rules" and see them as stupid and do what they want.

As a commercial operator I have to jump through hoops to prove I am a safe operator. The new "education" requires drone operators to know the difference between "course" and 'track", which if you are flying as required would have no impact on your flight operation as you are supposed to be flying by visual line of sight and not relying on your electronic viewing device. They include topics like "parallax" when they should be using the more understood wording of "perception". Parallax is a term that includes understanding other terms like "nodal point". Perception is easy to understand as your perception of height when viewing something at an angle may make it appear lower than it actually is and you may hit the object, which would be the point of using terms like "parallax"

Link to the proposed changes in Canada:

Proposed rules for drones in Canada - Transport Canada