Rules apply when you fly in the big blue sky

It seems that many people in the Mudgee region are unaware of the risks when it came to soaring drones around in the air whether it be for commercial use or just for fun.

Pilot Glenn Hurrell from Commercial Helicopters, said he has seen a lot of people around town who have flown drones in the wrong areas.

“They’re flying near the airport, it’s dangerous and they can’t be doing it.”

According to Mr Hurrell, it became difficult to see a drone when flying a helicopter because they blended in with the rest of the environment.

“We can’t see, it’s the same with power lines, I’m looking for power poles when I’m flying because you can’t see the lines.”

For these pilots to try and see everything out of their aircraft can be quite difficult even to the point where they were unable to locate another helicopter hovering near them. 

“You know how big helicopters are, and when there’s a fellow one flying in the same area as me I can’t even see that so how am I expected to see a drone,” Mr Hurrell said.

According to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority [CASA] website, navigators are not allowed to fly their drones above 400 ft, with helicopters flying above 500 ft.

“It is so difficult with drones, even with the large ones, you can’t see it until its right underneath you,” Mr Hurrell said.

Mr Hurrell described the risks of what would happen if he or a fellow pilot were to crash into a drone and how it would be too late for intervention.

- Drones: Can I fly there?

“If we hit a drone, it could break the glass of the helicopter, hit the pilot and well, the rest is history”

“If the tail radar was to get hit, the helicopter would be impossible to control and smaller drones could also hit the engine causing failure,”

He was adamant that drone flyers needed to be more cautious as they were putting lives at risk.

“At the end of the day there is a high potential for a loss of life from a drone because we can’t see them and there is no one on board to control it.”

It was crucial that people were reminded to never fly a drone anywhere near an aircraft and if your drone weighed more than 100 g you were required to stay 5.5 km away from airports

Mr Hurrell states that his company, Commercial Helicopters were all qualified drone pilots with operation manuals and Air Operator Certificates.

They still needed different licenses to carry out different things and everything they applied for had to go through the CASA website.

“Just because I did the course and got the certificates, that still doesn’t give me the right to go fly a drone near an airport,” Mr Hurrell said. 

Mr Hurrell urged anyone who was thinking of purchasing a drone or already has one, to get on to the CASA website and learn and follow the rules. 

“It could be the difference between life and death.”