NTSB: Los Angeles Newscopter Hit Drone

Makes you wonder how many near misses there have been.

They need to bump up penalties and make them very public.

When I was driving a block from my home about a year ago, a news helicopter passed over my house at what had to be less than 400 ft and moving damn fast, too. Not much above the trees, which I have to clear to fly my UAS. I could have been operating my small UAS and been involved in an incident because of that pilot. I found it very frustrating that my dedicated airspace was being invaded or given very little margin. I have since flown at 300 ft and no higher.
Then, several months ago, I witnessed a small Airbus private helicopter performing hammerheads between 400 and 800 ft over a heavily populated area and taking passengers on and off the 100 ft top of a building to give these “rides.” Obviously the safety issue there is a loss of control and “death from above” for those in homes, businesses, and stores below. But I was also angered by the lack of respect for my section of airspace, too. And by the way, another 2000 ft up was the approach path to HOU.
I’ve since been studying the FAA rules and guidelines for UAS operations. There is no excuse for ignorance of the law, right? But what is the excuse for deliberate violations of FAA rules by licensed pilots? In this case it was a rich oil guy with more ego and money than sense or consideration of others. I was unable to read his tail number because it was in low contrast numbering (dark grey on dark blue) and near his rotor instead of his tail boom.
I reported to the FAA and got a very good response from them. I was impressed with the sincerity and professionalism of the investigator. Unfortunately, my witness alone was not enough to give them any more authority than to say, “hey, somebody saw your aircraft doing aerobatics at 600 feet over a densely populated area.” They needed camera footage or other witnesses. And Flightaware and similar apps don’t reliably pick up low flyers like these guys. In fact, his aircraft got mixed up in Flightaware with another helicopter flying past in normal operation just a few moments earlier. He was more frustrated than I was.
So, all this to say, there’s plenty of room for improvement all around. And if manned aircraft want to beef against UAS, then they need to give some on their behavior and on being identified, too. I respect that I need to be held accountable for my actions. I have friends who fly equipment 10x the price of mine at far beyond visual range because they can and think it’s cool. Some even do it in controlled airspace. I don’t agree with that. UAS systems are cheap and very capable compared to manned craft, so they will present plenty of problems until flown responsibly. I just want same or higher standards for other classes, too.
You old school hobby RC guys and gals have my sympathy, too. You’re getting the squeeze.

Sad that people who are using those quad copters are causing all these problems. Now those of us who have flown model aircraft for years are paying the price for those people actions. We have never cause a problem, flown off of or next to small airports for years in some places agin without any problems. Now those idiots are soon going to kill someone in an aircraft with there actions.

I wonder how many people in this thread remember this? https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/12/drone-collides-with-us-army-helicopter-puts-1-5-dent-in-rotor/ This was big here on FA.

Sad to say it was probably the news-copter operating too low. One would think that they had they had modern HD cameras and therefore had no need to close in on their story. Come to think of it - with commercial drones being so good WHY in this day and age are they using heli's at all. Cost to operate a heli for news $$$$$$. Cost of a drone (or fleet of drones) $$. The FAA needs to step in here and ban newscopters in built up areas.

I’ve had two close calls with drones in the last two years. One in the Class D at 2200’ at KRFD and one at 8000’ 20 nm south of KDBQ.

Both very near and very worrisome. Reported it to ATC each time but the operators were never found.

This is total speculation and not proof.