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Comment by sbradford26 | Hacker News Reader

The sheer amount of airplanes in the sky at anytime is incredible. Also designated no fly zones can change and users may be unaware. So to avoid this issue I think we need to do more than just depend on users knowing where they can fly and not.

Drone collides with helicopter in a temporary flight restrictions (TFR) zone: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/12/drone-collides-w...

Map of all airplanes currently flying: https://www.flightradar24.com/40.21,-88.24/6

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There is a lot of air up there. I fly drones in Australia (https://serio.com.au/) and it's easy to stay well out of the way of large aircraft (don't launch anywhere near airports, and restrict your maximum altitude) and helicopters (you can hear them from a long way away).

DJI's software enforces a survey with local regulations before you can fly. The default settings are all very restrictive too.

The authority here provides an app that quickly indicates the flight rules in a particular location - airports and approach paths, non-controlled aerodromes, etc. It's quick enough that it's easy to check as part of your setup procedure.

The riskier situations I think are cropdusters (fly very low and launch from rarely used airfields) or sightseeing planes/choppers (operating close to the ground despite launching from a fair distance away). I often fly at this location (https://serio.com.au/media/20180171.jpg) and on weekends there can be vintage sightseeing planes coming down the beach in that bay, definitely below the 120m (400') drone limit.

That's really an ADS-B map, which is not actually all planes flying, at least not yet. It's especially sparse for small private planes, which are probably the most likely to find themselves tangling with a drone.

Prediction: There will never be a time when all air traffic is ADS-B out equipped. It's certainly not a current mandate, and is only mandated for aircraft desiring access to some select airspace after Jan 1, 2020. I will equip, because I own a hangar inside the mode C veil of Boston, but if I were 6 miles farther out, I may very well choose to avoid class B/C airports and not equip. Lots and lots of traffic will certainly make that choice.

There are hundreds of bird strikes every year around the world and so far no drone strikes. Admittedly birds are a lot more numerous but I think drone fliers are also a lot more intelligent with where they place themselves to avoid damage.

There is obviously very real potential for danger but so far drones haven't been an actual danger to aviation.

Less than 3 seconds on google says otherwise. Ignoring the hundreds of near-misses, here's a handful of actual collisions.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-36067591

https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/investigation-report-i... international-airport-quebec-674056663.html

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-14/drone-ope...

https://petapixel.com/2018/02/16/drone-causes-aircraft-crash...

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