In light of discussion earlier today on another thread, I think we, as a community, need to come to an agreement of rules to follow for flight. I'm not looking to RADICALLY come up with stuff; most of what I see is things that a lot of us take for granted, or expect others to know when it comes to flying; I guess I take a lot of these things as common sense, which many of you may take the same way. So, I figured I'd write up some things that I think we can all agree on, and a few things that, maybe they don't need to be out and out RULES, but guidelines to follow:
1) If you're flying line of sight and you can't see your aircraft, you're too far away/too high up. In this same train of thought, if you're flying FPV and your spotter can't see your aircraft, you're too far away/too high up.
2) DON'T FLY NEAR ACTIVE RUNWAYS/FULL SIZE AIRCRAFT! I think most of us understand why this is a bad thing, and it shouldn't HAVE to be said, but there's always someone out there who says, "Well, you didn't say..." Put yourself in this situation - you're on the full size aircraft/helicopter where an RC aircraft is flying around, and might potentially hit the blades or get sucked into the engine. How do you feel about the potential for things to go drastically wrong?
3) If you're like me and you can't judge how high 400' is, don't fly higher than the trees/hills immediately around you. Odds are, if there's full size aircraft flying overhead, they're going to have to be higher than that or else they're going to have a really bad day. Now, this also should take into account things like an active runway or helipad; I found a nice little field a while back out in Escondido, and thought, "Hey, this would be a really fun place to fly! Looks like I'm not having to worry about planes flying overhead from any airports, because they're 7-8 miles away from where I'm at!"
And then I saw a Medivac helicopter come flying in, and touch down right on the other side of the building I was behind, and I realized that I was right by Palomar Medical Center's helipad. That REALLY killed any sort of wanting to fly there for me.
4) USE COMMON SENSE. If you see a bunch of planes that are taking off from a runway 2 blocks away and they circle back over the field you're thinking of flying at, it's probably in your best interest not to fly there. If the field is private property, and you haven't gotten permission to fly there, again, not in your best interest to fly there as the owners might get upset for you trespassing. If you're flying near a busy street with a bunch of homes, cars, etc. that you can smack into should you go out of control, don't. Go find a cleared out area where you're not going to get in trouble.
5) DON'T FLY OVER PEOPLE. I apply my thoughts on this mostly to quadcopters, because you have 4 motors spinning vertically and as I look at it, "4 whirling blenders of death", but this still applies to fixed wing, motorized aircraft as well as gliders, helicopters, etc. My logic for this is that if you lose control or have equipment failure, you now have an object falling out of the sky. If the motor is turning that blade, you also have something that can make chop suey out of human flesh very quickly. If it's a large glider? It could hit someone and hurt them if it were to fall out of the sky. Sure, it may be flying on an air current, but when it ain't and gravity takes over...
If you ever go to an AMA sanctioned field, you'll see where they have a pit area, and a pilot line for the pilots to stand at and fly from, and it's not done to be spiteful and keep people back, it's done for safety. And that's what we need to take into consideration.
6) If you fly FPV, fly with a spotter. The FAA says this, the AMA says this for safety reasons, I'm going to say pretty much the same AND more. If you have a spotter watching, the spotter can say, "Hey, you've got some kids coming up at the end of the field, be careful of them," or "Hey, John just put his P-51 up in the air behind you, so maybe keep low and away from the runway - he's going to do low passes as he likes to do." Your field of vision is only what the fish eye lens can see, which doesn't cover what's immediately behind you, above you, or below you; having a spotter is invaluable in that respect. In addition, if you crash, your spotter can say, "Ok, look at 3 o'clock go out about 30 feet, and it should be right there," or "See the bush straight out from you? It's about 5 feet to the left."
If there's anything else anyone thinks of anything else we should add for rules everyone should fly by, please, feel free to add them. I think these rules are things that we can all agree on and follow, as I think they're pretty common sense, but maybe people haven't had it spelled out and can't think of good reasons to follow them.
1) If you're flying line of sight and you can't see your aircraft, you're too far away/too high up. In this same train of thought, if you're flying FPV and your spotter can't see your aircraft, you're too far away/too high up.
2) DON'T FLY NEAR ACTIVE RUNWAYS/FULL SIZE AIRCRAFT! I think most of us understand why this is a bad thing, and it shouldn't HAVE to be said, but there's always someone out there who says, "Well, you didn't say..." Put yourself in this situation - you're on the full size aircraft/helicopter where an RC aircraft is flying around, and might potentially hit the blades or get sucked into the engine. How do you feel about the potential for things to go drastically wrong?
3) If you're like me and you can't judge how high 400' is, don't fly higher than the trees/hills immediately around you. Odds are, if there's full size aircraft flying overhead, they're going to have to be higher than that or else they're going to have a really bad day. Now, this also should take into account things like an active runway or helipad; I found a nice little field a while back out in Escondido, and thought, "Hey, this would be a really fun place to fly! Looks like I'm not having to worry about planes flying overhead from any airports, because they're 7-8 miles away from where I'm at!"
And then I saw a Medivac helicopter come flying in, and touch down right on the other side of the building I was behind, and I realized that I was right by Palomar Medical Center's helipad. That REALLY killed any sort of wanting to fly there for me.
4) USE COMMON SENSE. If you see a bunch of planes that are taking off from a runway 2 blocks away and they circle back over the field you're thinking of flying at, it's probably in your best interest not to fly there. If the field is private property, and you haven't gotten permission to fly there, again, not in your best interest to fly there as the owners might get upset for you trespassing. If you're flying near a busy street with a bunch of homes, cars, etc. that you can smack into should you go out of control, don't. Go find a cleared out area where you're not going to get in trouble.
5) DON'T FLY OVER PEOPLE. I apply my thoughts on this mostly to quadcopters, because you have 4 motors spinning vertically and as I look at it, "4 whirling blenders of death", but this still applies to fixed wing, motorized aircraft as well as gliders, helicopters, etc. My logic for this is that if you lose control or have equipment failure, you now have an object falling out of the sky. If the motor is turning that blade, you also have something that can make chop suey out of human flesh very quickly. If it's a large glider? It could hit someone and hurt them if it were to fall out of the sky. Sure, it may be flying on an air current, but when it ain't and gravity takes over...
If you ever go to an AMA sanctioned field, you'll see where they have a pit area, and a pilot line for the pilots to stand at and fly from, and it's not done to be spiteful and keep people back, it's done for safety. And that's what we need to take into consideration.
6) If you fly FPV, fly with a spotter. The FAA says this, the AMA says this for safety reasons, I'm going to say pretty much the same AND more. If you have a spotter watching, the spotter can say, "Hey, you've got some kids coming up at the end of the field, be careful of them," or "Hey, John just put his P-51 up in the air behind you, so maybe keep low and away from the runway - he's going to do low passes as he likes to do." Your field of vision is only what the fish eye lens can see, which doesn't cover what's immediately behind you, above you, or below you; having a spotter is invaluable in that respect. In addition, if you crash, your spotter can say, "Ok, look at 3 o'clock go out about 30 feet, and it should be right there," or "See the bush straight out from you? It's about 5 feet to the left."
If there's anything else anyone thinks of anything else we should add for rules everyone should fly by, please, feel free to add them. I think these rules are things that we can all agree on and follow, as I think they're pretty common sense, but maybe people haven't had it spelled out and can't think of good reasons to follow them.