Originally Posted by
franklin_m
Mike, seeing things is actually not that difficult. It's relative. Sure, if we're nose to nose closing at a combined velocity of 1200 knots, it's tougher, but even then we can and do regularly note trends (like if your squadron buddy is trying to cheat a couple degrees of turn before the merge in an ACM practice engagement). I've flown hundreds of hours on low levels, never less than 360KIAS, mostly at 420 to 480, and it's not hard to see birds and such. And yet despite that, we can't always avoid them, and therein lies the risk to manned aircraft. While eye witness accounts of events are often the weakest part of criminal cases, the more trained the observer, the stronger they become. Some random stranger observing a criminal act in a store vs. say an off duty FBI agent. I would surmise that drone sightings by airline and military pilots are viewed with great credibility given the training and experience necessary to achieve those positions.
As for the zero comment, the reality is the US major carrier safety record has been zero for a number of years - despite millions of flights. I'm not going to quote exact numbers, but I do have them somewhere, as I researched the information for a presentation I give on operating discipline and safety. That's what leads me to say that the public rightfully should expect the encounters to be zero. Having been on both sides of the fence - military aviation / aviation safety programs and a hobby flier myself, I believe the number can and should be zero. There's really no valid excuse for an airline pilot to ever see a non-commercial sUAS anywhere, let alone in the airport traffic area.
I will take your word for being able to spot objects (whatever they may be) since I have no high speed flight experience.
I do agree that the expectation should be zero and that would be great if it could be achieved. The problem is that there is always going to be some idiot (include me if you want since I fly BLOS) that fliys in areas that are not safe. I think geo-fencing (at least from what I have read) is probably one of the better ideas at this point.
I know I ranted and stomped my feet in some of my posts, but I'm not against safety at all; I am against this kneejerk registration. I want to see the FAA implement something that will actually work, like maybe the geofencing idea. I'm pretty sure DJI now limits their MR's to 360 alt. Not sure if that can be hacked already. I can set all kind of limits on my Eagle Tree Vector flight controller. I would also have no problem adding some kind of small, lightweight transponder like device that can make any of my FPV craft visible to full scale craft. I would also welcome collision avoidance tech built into flight controllers used for FPV. It would just be new cool tech that can also make FPV safer. I love FPV and will continue to fly FPV no matter what the FAA decides, but at the same time I would just as willingly implement safety devices onto my FPV aircraft. I got a little long winded there, so hopefully I am making sense. lol.
Anyway, I am really only trying to argue against this FAA registration and not safety itself and to a smaller degree that BLOS can in fact be done safely, under certain circumstances and location.