I was over 6 Miles from the airport and thought I was OK to fly 18’ AGL
As a Part 107 operation you should know that distance from the airport matters NOT! You fly according to the airspace your aircraft is operating in (
airspace starts the moment your sUAS leaves Terra Firma). Only
hobby rules (
and possibly only those for a short period of time more) even mention distance from an airport. You're legally required to follow Part 107 rules for commercial operations and those do no include any distance references so in essence it's possible you busted the FARs even though "only a little bit". Keep in mind if there had been an incident and NTSB/FAA intervention it's not "only a little bit" when they issue the fines. You are either following the rules or you're not.
With that being said, it's possible that your altitude was not actually IN Class BRAVO airspace unless it was BRAVO to the surface. You and a sectional map will have to spend some time together to determine that but that's something you need to know how to find/determine going forward.
In regards to "
ok to fly 18' AGL" that's not going to cut it as an aviator and even less so as a professional aviator. Aviation rules aren't based on gut feelings etc but on hard numbers. While I can see where "flying only at 18' AGL" would seems safe keep in mind you're flying in (
presumably by your own statement) class BRAVO ( i
ts only the Busiest airspace on the planet) airspace, What happens if you have an equipment/procedure malfunction (
Loss of Signal, GPS Error etc) and the aircraft suddenly flies in an attitude, altitude, or direction you are not planning/prepared for? What if RTH kicks in and the aircraft ascends to the pre-programmed RTH height. Do you know what your RTH height is? Is this new altitude going to pose any problems for aircraft that are operating
(and have no idea you're there) in Class BRAVO airspace?
In aviation we follows rules etc that have long been established and anytime we are not sure of our situation we default to the most extreme case of operating with caution. If we aren't all following the same rules we are all in danger across the board. We should always be flying with the thought/preparations for that "
What if XYZ happened right now?" in mind. Assuming that your flight at "just 18' AGL" seems logical but from a Risk standpoint not so much.
I don't mean to be a hard butt or mean but we all need to operate with an elevated level of safety and awareness if we are going to be operating our sUAS in the National Airspace System.