Getting buzzed by helicopter when flying

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Tonight I was flying one of my toys, this time a Phantom.
Altitude: 120 feet, location: over my property. For the record, I live in a rural area, horse farms.

About 5 miles away a large helicopter was flying away from me. When it saw my Phantom it took a hard turn and sped right to me at high speed. It was on me in seconds. It didn't fly directly over me but took a large left turn around my property and watched what I was doing. I ignored the intimidation and continued what I was doing, and he left the area.

I'm curious if other RC pilots have this experience. Staring tomorrow, I will be wearing a GoPro on my head to document any further "incidents".
 
About 5 miles away a large helicopter was flying away from me. When it saw my Phantom it took a hard turn and sped right to me at high speed.
Wow... I have a hard time seeing my Phantom when it's 800 feet away but this pilot saw it behind him at 26,400 feet? That is some good eye sight!
 
He was using the Force.
 
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No way he saw it from that far away. It was probably just coincidence or he might have been headed your way when he spotted it when he got closer. I had one buzz mine once. I don't know if he saw it or not but my bird was at about 150 feet and I brought it down to around 50 feet to show my buddy how ground station works. Seconds later a large helicopter buzzed me and pretty much passed overhead exactly where I had been. Prop wash almost crashed my bird.
 
To the comedians which have posted, thanks, I laughed... 26,400 feets, that's a good one.

To the OP and ccase39, what constitutes a "large" helicopter? An S-58, or a Sky Crane? Or are we talking about a Chinook or a Jet Ranger?
Chinook.jpg JetRanger.jpg S-58.jpg skycrane.png



Hosebag... Welcome to the party, love the name
 
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To the comedians which have posted, thanks, I laughed... 26,400 feets, that's a good one.

To the OP and ccase39, what constitutes a "large" helicopter? An S-58, or a Sky Crane? Or are we talking about a Chinook or a Jet Ranger?
View attachment 16825 View attachment 16826 View attachment 16827 View attachment 16828



Hosebag... Welcome to the party, love the name
lol I meant large by laymens standards. Around here all we see are private helicopters, news helicopters, or ones from the National Guard in the area. Not as large as some you posted. Smaller than an apache but larger than the news helis.
 
5 miles away?
I'd be hard pressed seeing the full size chopper at that distance, he'd never see the phantom from that distance.
 
Tonight I was flying one of my toys, this time a Phantom.
Altitude: 120 feet, location: over my property. For the record, I live in a rural area, horse farms.

About 5 miles away a large helicopter was flying away from me. When it saw my Phantom it took a hard turn and sped right to me at high speed. It was on me in seconds. It didn't fly directly over me but took a large left turn around my property and watched what I was doing. I ignored the intimidation and continued what I was doing, and he left the area.

I'm curious if other RC pilots have this experience. Staring tomorrow, I will be wearing a GoPro on my head to document any further "incidents".

So not only was the helicopter 5 miles away, it was flying away from you, and you could tell all this with a pair of human eyes.

Either you have incredible eyesight...... or you are a troll :cool:
 
Hi Hosebag .. welcome to the forum. Don't take these guys too seriously.
C'mon guys - go easy on him on his first post.
He's probably gone a little long on the estimate of the helos distance away and he did say it was at night. You can see a Phantom or a full-size helo for a lot further at night than in daylight.
I haven't had helicopters come in close but I have to watch out when I fly near the beach where they also like to go sightseeing.
Not sure how useful a Gopro would be though .. with the fisheye lens, the helo will have to be scary close to see much.
 
To anyone interested, the helicopter was larger than a Dauphin, and was black. Not a private heli or local police, which I would have recognized (white with blue markings). When I said "tonight", I meant "this evening". It was still daylight. I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition to be analyzing everything I typed right down to the font, jesus. Next time I'll be sure and walk off the distance with 12 notarized witnesses. When I estimated 5 miles, he looked like he was over the water when I first saw him, which is 5 miles from my house. I stand by my estimate.

By the way guys, you can laugh all you want, but it's your hobby that's going to get taken away by the feds. This was not intended to be a troll. And you're not hurting me at all.
 
To anyone interested, the helicopter was larger than a Dauphin, and was black. Not a private heli or local police, which I would have recognized (white with blue markings). When I said "tonight", I meant "this evening". It was still daylight. I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition to be analyzing everything I typed right down to the font, jesus. Next time I'll be sure and walk off the distance with 12 notarized witnesses. When I estimated 5 miles, he looked like he was over the water when I first saw him, which is 5 miles from my house. I stand by my estimate.

By the way guys, you can laugh all you want, but it's your hobby that's going to get taken away by the feds. This was not intended to be a troll. And you're not hurting me at all.



There will be regulations in the interest of public safety but nothing is going to be 'taken away'.
 
There will be regulations in the interest of public safety but nothing is going to be 'taken away'.

In the past 40 years, I've seen virtually EVERY hobby I've ever enjoyed taken away in the name of safety. I used to be a great water skier, lived on the waterfront, had a Mastercraft skiboat, until they banned it everywhere around here. Just try water skiing at 6 mph. Then we rode dirt bikes out in the deep woods. Banned that. I can name a lot more. I see what's coming to this hobby too. It will regulated so you have stand in a concrete reinforced pen surrounded by metal fencing, and wait your turn for 60 seconds of flying, after proving you have a million dollar insurance policy and a commercial pilot's license.

I admire your positive attitude, but my experience says otherwise.
 
Hosebag. Don't be so touchy. And welcome to the forum.
 
Hosebag, best approach is to ignore those who defile your words! And...welcome!

While I've never been buzzed, by a chopper, there is an inordinate amount of low level air traffic in my area. I have to be very alert to keep appropriate separation. There is a channel adjacent to a park where I often fly, and yesterday a chopper flew down that channel at less than 200 feet, so I have to be very careful. At my other park, I've seen other choppers +- 400 feet so I am always listening...
 
Lol! I love the interweb! So many options and great stories!

I've had a big whirly bird buzz around my little whirly bird and give me the stink eye too while flying by my house. Just brought it in to about 200' distance and 80' altitude and did my thing. Even waved at him.
I do have to wonder what the future holds because I have seen the exact same things hosebag mentioned. Grew up riding dirt bikes and atv's. Now you'll go to jail if ya leave your yard on one. Same thing here on the rivers and lakes. Leave a wake and ya get a $80 ticket!
 
My horse's name was "Dogmeat" because she was a rescue from the glue factory.
 
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I just looked up the urban definition of 'hosebag'.

Hmmmm...
 
Perhaps the lady just has exceptional eyesight? And perhaps the helicopter pilot too. Maybe everybody in [location??] has super-vision. Perhaps the OP's unstated location is Krypton?

(All meant in fun Hosebag!)
 
Hosebag welcome to the forum !
Wearing another cam is a good idea because their are some Pilots that hate are hobbi and make things up about how a drone was causing a problem then they break the rules laws . Get it on film to protect yourself because if that pilot would have said you where buzzing him they would side with him unfortunately . They think they should be the only ones in the sky . Look for the video posted here of the news chopper bashing a guy for flying his "drone"
 

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