[OLD PRAIRIE RED NECK]

Originally Posted by Mustang1993

I'm not a crop duster pilot but wouldn't they have to do a flyby first just to make sure the field is clear ? Landing at an airport without a control tower is a flyby to check the runway for debris damage required also ?.

I suspect most do on the first pass of the day but after that it would be a waste of time and fuel.

The Provost model club had their flying field right on the town airport and quickly found out there was one local pilot the never did a fly over. He always just came straight in.

Originally Posted by Mustang1993

I'm surprised they are using manned aircraft for crop dusting still. There are many drones that can do this now for less money and it's safer also.

Not even on the radar for practical! A full sized crop duster would cover more land in one pass than that thing could do in a week!

Picture a custom crop spraying guy with one plane, 10 customers at 3000 to 10,000 acres each, a 2 week window do get it done in and he can only spray when the wind is close to calm. That leaves him with only early mornings and late evenings to spray - weather permitting. Might even get lucky and have one of those very rare calm days where he can spray from dawn till dark!

Get the picture? That is why they don't waste time and fuel with extra passes and fly all day at tree top level.

[my1stflight]

Let me put it into perspective on who has the right away no matter what.


You are a passenger in "Jim's Cessna". Jim forgot to do his proper landing pattern for the runway and was on approach. Sam and Mike are having a nice day flying their models at their field and all of a sudden they see a Plane coming in. If Jim's Cessna crash's there is loss of life, if a RC model crashes loss of money only. Yes Jim should have followed proper procedure, but for a full size to crash you risk loss of life.

So when you ask yourself that this JackA-- should have followed procedure, yes but remember the human factor of loss of life.

[williame3590]

Not sure why we are still debating common sense. If there is a full size in your area put the model on the ground.

Bill

[Eye Can Fly]

Well Bill there isn't much common is common sense.

Was weird reading some of the responses in what to do when a real plane enters the airspace your in.

Thursday morning at ~9:55AM in heavy wet snow (limiting visibility to less than 1/2 mile) my wife and I heard the engine of a plane. We were both sitting in the living room and I was less than six feet from our large picture window. I got up to see if I could see where it was as it was extremely loud. I figured someone might be flying parallel to the highway because they got themselves into a visibility situation.

Nope, wrong. It flew straight over our house, no more than 25' above the peak. The floor even vibrated while it was above the house. When my eye caught it I could see the rivets in the horizontal stabilizer. When it got out to ~ the 1/8th mile mark I could not see the bottom of the wing. It's path was heading towards a town 2 1/4 miles away, with two grain elevators still in use.

Some will say I am exaggerating, but I've flown RC from my yard for several years. I have logged many flights with my telemetry. I am a pretty good judge of scale of distance. This airplane was either in trouble or the pilot was operating dangerously IMO.

It took about 10 minutes for my brain to get rapped around how bad the situation could have been IF he was any lower. I called a couple buddies and explained the event, one suggested calling the RCMP. the other suggested calling TC.

I pondered what to do for several hours. I called the manager of the largest airport in our area that can accommodate instrument landings. He was shocked and told me he knows the TC rep for this area and would have him call me.

No calls yet.

My RC flying days are over. Now all I have to worry about are the real ones buzzing my farm yard. This wasn't the first time, but it was a first foe a plane doing it in adverse weather.

[OLD PRAIRIE RED NECK]

A few years back a representative from the safety department was at our shop introducing his new safety rules. Someone pointed out that they weren't new, just common sense. He yelled "There is no such thing as common sense!!"

In today's "helicopter parenting", "nanny state", "no zeros allowed for missed assignment" society and school system - he just could be right!

Unfortunately.

Which brings the discussion right back to the mess we are in with drones...

[deaconFlyer]

Let's look at things properly ... the more we plan for the rare, once-only-exceptions, the more likely it is that no one will ever be able to fly a model airplane, uav or whatever anywhere.

In 1930 a baseball diamond and softball diamond was erected on a vacant lot outside of town. In 1960 a hospital was built up the road. In 1980 a heli-pad was added to the hospital lot. I umpired at that diamond for thirty years and at the first sign of the helicopter we would suspend play, watch it land in the distance about a block away, continue play, suspend again as the heli reved up, restart when it was gone.

Maybe twice during a season this would happen. The kids loved watching the helicopter do its thing. Secretly they hoped one would land during their game.

In 2010 suddenly it became a "safety issue" for a very-vocal small group (probably the same ones who were concerned about the "safety" of gum chewing by players) and all games had to be stopped. They sent in ploughs and tore up the fields literally overnight: ploughing piles of dirt and putting up fences to stop all children from even playing on that unsafe lot.

Today, where generations had played baseball there is a four storey municipal building, taller then 99.99% of any of the baseballs ever hit on that field. It is complete with communication towers, flashing lights and it sits right on the same line the helicopter still flies, now coming over the building, as it comes in to land.

So lets all over-react. Let's all tell horror stories of potential deaths as a result of my Nano-QX falling uncontrolled from the sky. Let's share pictures and videos of the once-ever event with no explanation. Many have seen the videos of real planes practising touch-and-go's on closed airfields or buzzing crowds ... the blame going to the car group or kid flying the racing drone ... the pilots? ... like those who land their plane on the taxi-way instead of the runway well, "you shouldn't do that again ... next case!"

I worry when I have to find a way to fly my 300g 3D foamie legally but a guy in a low-flying Cessena taking overhead pictures and waving at the crowd ... he is OK ... he is cool. Cessna=good, safe <-> DJI Phantom=bad, dangerous!

Sanity has to return.

[Tigron]

I feel that the roots of this crackdown are somewhere higher. Even higher than a national governments.
Look, most major companies such as Thunder Tiger, Hirobo, even JR completely left the market. They all did it almost at the same time and exactly before all the countries start imposing new model aircraft regulations. First was US, then Russia, now Canada, EU is already in the line for 2017-2019.
Doesn't it look strange that all such movement started at the same time in completely different parts of the world? Putting models into reservations doesn't look like aircraft safety measure. Parkflyers took the market much sooner. But more likely it is against unwanted "eyes in the sky".

[Terry Gauvin]

Hilarious!!!

[Trumpetman]

Dmitry, you've got to increase the reflective strength of your tin foil hat! There is no worldwide conspiracy going on here and by the way JR has not "left the market".

[grump]

He He ;^)