BBC is reporting that Amazon is suggesting a commercial airspace for delivery drones between 200 and 400 feet. Hobbyists would be required to stay below 200 ft. While this would be a great thing for commercial drones, which I support, it would really take a lot of the fun out of the hobby. Thoughts?
I wouldn't be bothered much...as I typically don't exceed 100 feet as it is. 400 feet is great for aerial panoramas, but it gets boring after awhile. Not to mention, you end up spending most of your battery trying to descend safely from that height. Looking back on most of my flights, I usually range between 20 and 80 feet as I like adding more ground details to videos.
It won't happen in Wales as the RAF have already started their delivery service. Here's a video of then delivering packed lunches to mountain ramblers. The bigger planes also carry pies and have a better selection of sandwiches.
Hell no. That's a path to keeping all UAVs down at the city park level. 200-400 ft. is a huge window to grab away from small commercial video operators. Big business trying to screw the little guys again.
Amazon deliver millions of parcels every day, not all could be carried by a drone. This would cost Amazon billions $ and the sky's would darken with all the sky traffic. Ridiculous idea
Amazon are not going to put up with military jets in their air space. Not that Amazon have got a hope in hell of having unmaned aerial delivery vehicles in the UK. Hell, they don't even pay any taxes here and I very much doubt the CAA are going to reduce the VLOS requirement, which would require Amazon to have a distribution centre on every street corner. That is regardless of the number of trained operators they would need. The delivery cost would be far too great.
Anyway, those jets were training and the only restrictions that I was aware of on training runs is the maximum speed.
500kts at or below 150ft
550kts above 150ft
Hell no. That's a path to keeping all UAVs down at the city park level. 200-400 ft. is a huge window to grab away from small commercial video operators. Big business trying to screw the little guys again.
Sorry, Zerone. Max speed in the UK Low Flying System is 420 kts sustained and I think 480 kts for short periods. Intercepting fighter can go up to 540 kts. Min height throughout the system is 250 ft msd except for certain tactical training areas (A limited area in Scotland for instance) which allow training down to 100 ft msd under very strictly controlled conditions. The only place in UK where jets can fly at the speeds/heights you mention are on the coastal bombing ranges. The F15 picture in the Mac loop above is in a 250ft area. How do I know... 2500 hours of my life flying in the UK low flying system!
Wow!!! I bow to your obvious knowledge. However, it should still help to limit Amazon and the like trying to take ownership of that airspace, along with all the flight plans they would need to submit to the CAA just to deliver a parcel, with a month long wait for the customer to receive his goods. It really is a rediculous idea.
I think I got my info from a book I read belonging to a neighbour of my daughters. He (Andy ?) was in the Red Arrows team and now flies a microlight and a model heli, but my P3 would obviously be too complicated for him.
Its rubbish, its a publicity stunt, we're all talking about something that is so clearly rubbish and is never going to happen in any of our lifetimes......still talking about Amazon though aren't we
There is no way that exclusive corridors like those will be created. First, there is the obvious problem that other aircraft would have to pass through those altitudes to take off and land. Second, there are many recreational users of the airspace from kids launching model rockets to adventurers in ultralights that would be adversely affected.
True, but that issue already exists today, which is why there's a five-mile no-fly radius around airports. The Amazon drones could stay out of the airspace as well.
Amazon deliver millions of parcels every day, not all could be carried by a drone. This would cost Amazon billions $ and the sky's would darken with all the sky traffic. Ridiculous idea
Amazon Air will be very expensive. It is going to be for people who have to get product the same day. I don't see delivery to homes working. Not for a very long time. The scenario that I predict is that Amazon will set up satellite distribution centers around cities that already have an Amazon distribution hub. Packages needing same day delivery will be flown by drone from the hub to the rooftop of the distribution center where the brown truck will make the last few miles delivery (or the customer can be there waiting for the drone). The distribution center will load the drones they collected during the day and be trucked back to the hub at the end of the day. Eventually, the distribution center will swap batteries and send the drone back to the hub.
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