First Lesson Test Prep For UAS Operators by SweatpantsDroner

SweatpantsDroner · Jun 25, 2016

Hello all,
I have set up a google hangout for Sunday at 7:00pm MST to help UAS/UAV pilots understand basic aviation weather reporting systems, decoding weather reports, and basic weather theory. I anticipate this lecture to last approximately 45min - 1 hour. If you are interested in attending, I will be hosting this personally and will do a brief introduction with the course. The link for the google hangout is listed below and is free to anyone and is free of charge. I have also enabled a Q&A section that will give views the ability to ask questions through the lecture. This lecture should help with the understanding of the Remote Pilot Certificate requirement of reading aviation weather reports and understand weather theory. Thanks for your interest.

-SD

Here is the direct link:
Weather & Weather Reporting Equipment for UAS Operators - Google+

SweatpantsDroner · Jun 26, 2016

Staring lecture in a few mins Feel free to join!

SkyPixel · Jun 26, 2016

Thanks Much SweatpantsDroner, missed the first 32 minutes or so... i'm on PST. Hope to catch the next one in full. Very nice of you to be doing these! Keep it up.

SweatpantsDroner · Jun 26, 2016

SkyPixel said:
Thanks Much SweatpantsDroner, missed the first 32 minutes or so... i'm on PST. Hope to catch the next one in full. Very nice of you to be doing these! Keep it up.

Thank you, If you'd like I can email the PowerPoint.

Mike Savino · Jun 26, 2016

Is there going to be a repeat? Maybe Facebook live or something like that?

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

RodC · Jun 26, 2016

@SweatpantsDroner - Thank you for the Weather Reporting webinar today, it was excellent! Very informative lesson at just the right level for quadcopter users.

For those who didn't catch the live version, you missed out. I encourage you to sign up for his Twitter feed @AerialColorado to learn when his future webinars will be held.

Thanks and I will be there for the next one.

Rod

SweatpantsDroner · Jun 26, 2016

RodC said:
@SweatpantsDroner - Thank you for the Weather Reporting webinar today, it was excellent! Very informative lesson at just the right level for quadcopter users.

For those who didn't catch the live version, you missed out. I encourage you to sign up for his Twitter feed @AerialColorado to learn when his future webinars will be held.

Thanks and I will be there for the next one.

Rod

Mike Savino said:
Is there going to be a repeat? Maybe Facebook live or something like that?

Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

Here is the youtube of the presentation. The lecture starts about 12 min in! Enjoy

SweatpantsDroner · Jun 26, 2016

RodC said:
@SweatpantsDroner - Thank you for the Weather Reporting webinar today, it was excellent! Very informative lesson at just the right level for quadcopter users.

For those who didn't catch the live version, you missed out. I encourage you to sign up for his Twitter feed @AerialColorado to learn when his future webinars will be held.

Thanks and I will be there for the next one.

Rod

Thanks for the kind words Rod. Stay tuned... I plane on doing these weekly (Maybe twice a week) for everyone.

SweatpantsDroner · Jun 26, 2016

My apologies, for some reason the screen share didn't work for the Section 2 portion. If you'd like, here is the .zip file of the powerpoint...

SkyPixel · Jun 28, 2016

Have a question, may be it could be answered in the next session... Sorry if it's a bit off topic, just thinking SweatpantsDroner would know the answer, or if anyone else does? Assuming once licensed to fly a UAV commercially, what's the best practice for contacting a tower about a planned operation within their airspace? Do you call the towers landline phone number or use an air band transceiver and the towers frequency? How do you Identify yourself without a standard tail number? Is contacting the tower enough, or do additional airport personnel need notified? I'm assuming a response for permission to be granted could depend on the situation of planned operation. What if the UAV flight plan is simple, i.e.; stay under 400 AGL to photograph a house, however you're within say Class D airspace and a few miles from the airport, and not near final approach or anything? Could you just call and get a near immediate approval?

SweatpantsDroner · Jun 28, 2016

SkyPixel said:
Have a question, may be it could be answered in the next session... Sorry if it's a bit off topic, just thinking SweatpantsDroner would know the answer, or if anyone else does? Assuming once licensed to fly a UAV commercially, what's the best practice for contacting a tower about a planned operation within their airspace? Do you call the towers landline phone number or use an air band transceiver and the towers frequency? How do you Identify yourself without a standard tail number? Is contacting the tower enough, or do additional airport personnel need notified? I'm assuming a response for permission to be granted could depend on the situation of planned operation. What if the UAV flight plan is simple, i.e.; stay under 400 AGL to photograph a house, however you're within say Class D airspace and a few miles from the airport, and not near final approach or anything? Could you just call and get a near immediate approval?

In short, there are a couple of ways to do this. I would not recommend calling their land line, as you will probably have a small chance to get a reply. The best, most effective way will be to file an official Notice To Airmen (NOTAM) for you operation in their airspace. I will be covering this topic in the next webinar. By filing a NOTAM you are doing more than just informing the tower/FAA, you are informing all pilots of manned aircraft who plan to enter that airspace. It's just too inefficient for the tower to notify every pilot of a manned aircraft each time they fly in that airspace. When a NOTAM is filed, it is the PILOTs responsibility to do the looking (more on this later) for the data. If he smashes into you and you were within your operational specs as outlined in the NOTAM, the liability is on the pilot or the most maneuverable aircraft in terms of right-away rules outlined in the FARs. If the NOTAM is there, the pilot will read it when they look at the briefing for their flight. TRUST ME... That private pilot 101.

SkyPixel · Jun 28, 2016

SweatpantsDroner, thanks for your quick reply and answer, that makes sense now that you've mentioned it. I thought the tower wrote up the NOTAM upon us contacting them. Didn't realize there was a filing process for NOTAM's. I'll stay tuned to learn more about this from your session. Also as a hobbyist, in a couple months I'll be flying somewhere that has an altitude of just over 6k MSL, with a Class G airport 3 miles away and a Class C about 20 miles further north. Very sparse area in Northern, AZ. I'm thinking not much, if anything is needed on my behalf to fly the drone safely, except for realizing the thin air, as I'm accustom to sea level flying, and of course to stay below 400 AGL and line of site -- would you agree?

BigAl07 · Jun 28, 2016

SweatpantsDroner said:
Here is the youtube of the presentation. The lecture starts about 12 min in! Enjoy

Did you mention a PowerPoint for the presentation? If so can we get that? I'll drop you a PM.

In regards to filing a NOTAM I think that's an excellent point for the next session. NOTAMs are vital to manned aircraft operations, or at least SAFE operations and UAS operators need to understand what they are, how to file them and know WHEN to file one.

SweatpantsDroner · Jun 28, 2016

BigAl07 said:
Did you mention a PowerPoint for the presentation? If so can we get that? I'll drop you a PM.

In regards to filing a NOTAM I think that's an excellent point for the next session. NOTAMs are vital to manned aircraft operations, or at least SAFE operations and UAS operators need to understand what they are, how to file them and know WHEN to file one.

Yes, there is a PowerPoint... It's attached to post #9 in this thread.