drone vs. passing powered paraglider

[ribjig]

pulled into public beach parking lot, intending to take couple beach aerials;
no horizon views from lot due trees surrounding lot, but open sky overhead;
at moment of me exiting vehicle a "quiet" powered paraglider whooshed by
partly hidden by tree tops...

several minutes later drone took off from shaded empty end of lot as I also
stood in shade to better see P4P+ monitor, went up 100m, took photo
each direction, landed;

question: if I had arrived several minutes earlier & drone had
collided with powered paraglider (~50m high), it would have been
legally my fault due to no horizon view & being last to go aerial...?

see SE corner of this parking lot:

South Beach Park · 1702 Ocean Dr, Vero Beach, FL 32963

★★★★★ · Park

www.google.com

 

[Deleted member 62848]

Unfortunate predicament to be in,gota give way to all manned craft but they do come out of nowhere and your probably in the wrong launching half blind as you mentioned
Glad you were seven minutes late,,its like crossing the road looking left and right,not looking left could mean splat,even up there panning around with the cam might not have seen this thing coming, it's up 2 our eyes and ears

 

[Martin Healy]

Hi ribjig, Yes, I am afraid that from your description of these events I have to conclude that you were at fault. I have experienced line of sight issues when flying too close to tall trees. It is frustrating but if we take a moment to think through the issue and the possible consequences then moving to a launch site that offers unimpeded views over the whole planned route makes good sense. Thanks for sharing - you have probably helped a lot of other flyers by giving them pause for thought.
All the best, Martin

 

[Andy9]

The first rule of drone flying is - carefully choose the launch point. Look around (360 deg) for potentially existing obstacles and of course for the possible traffic.
In your situation, there is no need to go up instantly to 50 or 100 m. At first, you can go just to the height of treetops and turn the drone around to see in all directions. I don't believe that any flying subject will fly low to touch the trees.

 

[GFields]

ianzone is spot on. Maned aircraft always have the right of way​

 

[JeffreyS]

Probably wouldn't matter who was at fault after the collision resulted in the powered paraglider tumbling from the sky, landing on you, and killing both you and the pilot.

 

[DoomMeister]

pulled into public beach parking lot, intending to take couple beach aerials;
no horizon views from lot due trees surrounding lot, but open sky overhead;
at moment of me exiting vehicle a "quiet" powered paraglider whooshed by
partly hidden by tree tops...

several minutes later drone took off from shaded empty end of lot as I also
stood in shade to better see P4P+ monitor, went up 100m, took photo
each direction, landed;

question: if I had arrived several minutes earlier & drone had
collided with powered paraglider (~50m high), it would have been
legally my fault due to no horizon view & being last to go aerial...?

see SE corner of this parking lot:

South Beach Park · 1702 Ocean Dr, Vero Beach, FL 32963

★★★★★ · Park

www.google.com

It makes absolutely no difference who is airborne first, sUAS always yield right of way to manned aircraft. Paragliders, ultralights, hot air balloons, parachutists, helicopters, planes, gliders, etc. if a human is aboard we are responsible to avoid them even if they are not flying legally.

 

[mdurbanek]

This is the situation that causes me the most angst while flying. Not long ago I was doing a job walk at a winery in a popular tourist area with a non-towered airport one mile away. I was talking to the general manager on the back side of the two story building when a tour helicopter flew directly over us from the front of the building at perhaps 75 feet. We didn't hear a thing until it was right on top of us. I jumped out of my shoes, but the GM didn't even flinch - she said it happens all the time.

 

[Melvoid]

Hi ribjig, Yes, I am afraid that from your description of these events I have to conclude that you were at fault. I have experienced line of sight issues when flying too close to tall trees. It is frustrating but if we take a moment to think through the issue and the possible consequences then moving to a launch site that offers unimpeded views over the whole planned route makes good sense. Thanks for sharing - you have probably helped a lot of other flyers by giving them pause for thought.
All the best, Martin

Careful with wording. He wasn't at fault... he would have been at fault, had he launched before the ultralight got there.

 

[Harleydude]

pulled into public beach parking lot, intending to take couple beach aerials;
no horizon views from lot due trees surrounding lot, but open sky overhead;
at moment of me exiting vehicle a "quiet" powered paraglider whooshed by
partly hidden by tree tops...

several minutes later drone took off from shaded empty end of lot as I also
stood in shade to better see P4P+ monitor, went up 100m, took photo
each direction, landed;

question: if I had arrived several minutes earlier & drone had
collided with powered paraglider (~50m high), it would have been
legally my fault due to no horizon view & being last to go aerial...?

see SE corner of this parking lot:

South Beach Park · 1702 Ocean Dr, Vero Beach, FL 32963

★★★★★ · Park

www.google.com

I experienced essentially the same thing, but with an F-16.

One of my first jobs was taking video for a large ranch out in the middle of Nowhere, N.M. No towns or airports for well over 50 miles. It took an hour of driving a dirt road to get to the thing. This was 5 or 6 years ago, so I was still using my Phantom 1. I was met by a nice lady and her husband. We chatted for a bit and then I got down to business. She wanted to tag along. Sure. No problem.

Throughout the day she pointed out features she thought would be nice in the video. A barn over here, a windmill over there, etc. I was happy to comply. She was having fun, which = a happy customer.

So we get to the main compound, which was roughly 10 acres I would guess all walled in with a 10' adobe wall. I launch the P1 and do a wide POI shot...just a big circle around the whole thing. The footage looked great. I decided I wanted to do some strafe shots, so I landed to change out the battery. While I'm changing the battery, out of nowhere these 2 F-16's fly almost directly over the compound, I swear no more than 200' off the deck. The walls had acted as an acoustic barrier. So I didn't hear them until they were almost directly overhead! I yelled, "What the hell was that?!?!" Like we were talking about a bread recipe she says, "Oh they fly over all the time. I think they use our ranch as some kind of marker."

Had they flown by 60 seconds earlier, the chances of hitting them were very possible. I was flying about 150' - 200' AGL (my guestimate, as there is no telemetry data on the P1). And I know from vast experience that full scale aviation flies much higher than they look. I once estimated a single engine @ 400' and a professional pilot told me, "Naw...that guy's at least 1,000' off the deck." So what do I know, right?

I just remember how mortified I was and how matter-of-fact the lady was.

I believe that that job was my first 4-figure invoice. Good times.

D

P.S. Could the error message be more vague???