Police drone fliers' wings clipped to prevent them bumping into real aircraft

British police drone pilots have had their wings slightly clipped – after the Civil Aviation Authority issued new rules tweaking previously reduced safety limits for the airborne surveillance gadgets. Although stories were doing the rounds last week that rules on drones had been relaxed for police drone fliers, in reality the …

[Dwarf]

I wish they would stop droning on and on about all this..

Presumably they could solve the problem like they do on other police vehicles - put on the flashing blues lights and two-tone horns. Why are these vehicles stealth compared to every other vehicle ?

[jospanner]

Because these things are for spying.

[RobThBay]

Mixed measurements

Why is altitude given in feet while horizontal distance is given in metres?

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: Mixed measurements

Feet are still widely used in aviation for altitude, up to 4000ft (from sea level), where "Flight Level", in 100ft units is used. So, an airliner at 30,000ft would at FL300

[Gene Cash]

Re: Mixed measurements

Using feet for altitude is enshrined in regulations from way, way back.

Also, flying a plane and flying a drone are two separate skills which don't really transfer that well. There are some small but important differences.

[Stu_The_Jock]

Re: Mixed measurements

So you're saying if you're on a plane (once they are flying again) and both the flight crew had the fish for dinner, don't rely on a man who flew a drone to get the plane down ?

[Chris G]

Re: Mixed measurements

"Don't rely on a man who flew a drone to get the plane down"

Better to inflate the autopilot, at least he won't have vertical landings as a normal occurrence in his program.

[Sgt_Oddball]

Re: Mixed measurements

Surely you can't be serious?

I thought the pilot and Co-pilot ate different meals to avoid just such an occurance?

[A.P. Veening]

Re: Mixed measurements

Whoosh!!!

And don't call me Shirley.

[H in The Hague]

Re: Mixed measurements

"Why is altitude given in feet while horizontal distance is given in metres?"

Welcome to the wonderful world of aviation. By now I've learned not to ask such questions anymore. At times it actually gets a lot weirder than this example. I've also learned to be grateful for the mental arithmetic I learned in primary school which I get to use again (and learned to regularly reach for a glass of something to relax overworked grey cells).

Have a safe flight,

H

[Version 1.0]

Re: Mixed measurements

Hopefully we will not see any problems when they try to land and the drone software determines that it's 10 metres above the ground and calculates the landing velocity in feet and inches.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: Mixed measurements

"and within 10 metres of people and vehicles"

For the benefit of the readership here, that is about 5 Osmans

[ricardian]

Re: Mixed measurements

https://scontent-arn2-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/93674891_10219782922476816_5507667615721455616_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&_nc_sid=ca434c&_nc_ohc=Zs9_DJ1xMSgAX_nHg1I&_nc_ht=scontent-arn2-2.xx&oh=af85a51a69b3c4ea55a7d11f50b3c56e&oe=5EC4F2B2

[-tim]

Re: Mixed measurements

In metric parts of the world, the Feet in aviation aren't a real vertical distance to the ground but an approximate distance based on air pressure which drives the altimeter which is adjusted to a nearby location and adjusted periodically during a flight. Above a point of about 10,000 feet, the altimeter will be adjusted to 29.92 inHg or 1013 mb. This result is in a low or high pressure system, the 500 ft separation of planes is slightly different than 500 ft, but they don't hit each other because they are all using the same reference. A pressure altimeter when calibrated is more accurate than a GPS altitude.

Feet aren't used for horizontal distances in metric countries. Places like Australia which mostly copied the US FAA's rule book down to the section numbers, rounded all the nice round feet to nice round meters (1000 ft became 300 meters, not 305m) but sometimes they rounded up, sometimes down.

[agurney]

Re: Mixed measurements

Why is altitude given in feet while horizontal distance is given in metres?

It's metres, because if the drones had a decent range they'd use the preferable nautical miles.

;)

[nojobhopes]

Give them an inch

Oh the beautiful agony of double standards.

Fruit and veg = procescuted

- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1010827.stm

- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7692483.stm

Precious metals = allowed

- https://bit.ly/2JzBdQ1

Clothing = allowed

- https://bit.ly/2wTWDoM

Weapons = allowed

- https://bit.ly/2KmFOpC

Height of politicians = allowed

- https://bit.ly/2KnnRra

Pints especially in icon form = swallowed

[Sgt_Oddball]

Re: Give them an inch

On the beer note, if it's in cans then they tend to be metric now (330, 440 and 500ml unless it's an American freedom beer or a traditional beer in a glass bottle).

[Bonzo_red]

COVID support flights

Over what timescale were these support flights operating? Evidence that it is a western plot after all?

[Anonymous Coward]

Line of ̶D̶u̶t̶y̶ Sight

Isnt the biggest change that the emrgency rules permit police to not be in line of sight of the Drones