Here is my question: you have low clouds base about 200ft or low fog visibility about 1/4 mile (this might be 2 questions in 1) as a hobbyist I say you CANNOT fly thru the clouds and rise above them as you lose sight of the drone as you continue the climb. the same for fog, lose sight cant do it gotta come back into visual range. I mentioned this to a guy in my face book he says it only applies to part 107 not hobbyist. part 107 says You fly 500 feet below cloud base and 2000 feet horizontally. Which one of is right?
Low clouds perhaps ground fog
- Thread starter drvrbobob
- Start date
Your FB friend is walking a very dangerous line. Here's my take on it... my opinion and nothing more.
As a 336/hobbyist you are pretty much exempt from Part 107 Rules as long as you abide by the "Guidelines" set forth for you. If everything you do stays within the "Hobby/336" box you're golden and inside a protective bubble from Part 107 Law. But the first thing you do that does NOT fit into that box you have now pierced the 336 protective bubble and are now subject to Part 107 Law.
Part 336 requires you to operate in a safe manner as to not endanger the National Airspace System. One very key components to maintains this safety in the NAS is See &Avoid. The moment you lose sight of your aircraft you are no longer able to See & Avoid and you are creating a potential safety issue for the NAS. IMHO this takes you out of the protective 336 bubble and places you subject to all Part 107 regulations regardless if you intended to operate as a Part 107 operation or not.
To add to this... why would it be OK for anyone to knowingly go through the clouds and jeopardize others who are in the air? There was a time when this wasn't a big deal because the # of RC aircraft (before the media called them drones) was so small and they couldn't fly autonomously and weren't GPS stabilized that it was a very minuscule possibility to interact with manned aviation. Today this is 1,000,000% different and even just a few doing this add a LOT of risk to our industry.
Also it's important to note that it's 400' AGL not 500' AGL. I don't know if that was a simple typo or if your FB guru does indeed think 500' AGL is the rule.
If you want the "official" word on the topic don't trust FB or any online source unless it's the FAA. Better yet call your local FSDO and run the scenario by them. That's your best bet by far.
IMHO this "debate" will wage on and on until it's tried and proven in court. Honestly even then some will say, "That's not the INTENT of the rule...... (insert eye roll smiley here)".
