A drone is a flying machine with no pilots inside to operate. The first drone was used for military purposes and now has expanded through delivery, sight seeing and has even helped police departments with sting operations. Drones can also help with farming by giving them an aerial survey of the entire field. However there has been controversy over the past few months with drones including flying close to airports.
At the Stratford Airport just outside of London, Andy Woodman is Manager and Chief Flying instructor. “I think people when they buy these drones they don’t realize that they have a conflict with airplanes because people go out and buy them as a toy – they think and then they start flying them around. For the most part people are unaware of what they can do and what kind of damage it could cause with an aircraft.”
Over the past year the FAA has announced that there has been nearly 600 drone incidents. Woodman shares a story recently that had happened at the airport.
“It could hit an aircraft in the air and break the windshield or if it was a jet airplane get into the engine. Last Fall we had one of our trainers travelling to the west of here and he was almost 3000 feet of a drone that went by him, so it was 200 feet of the aircraft. When he came back down we filed a report with Transport Canada.”
Woodman expresses the importance of Transport Canada.
The market is flooded with different drones so don’t buy the first one you see. Instead research different brands and pick the one that best suits your needs.
Drones have been used to study wildlife, and for marketing videos with different agriculture.
They also are involved with racing. It’s a new high-speed competitive sport. Pilots will fly their drones at different courses around different platforms. Racers will build and design their own drone focusing on the speed elements competing in various races around the world.