This site seeks to inform the public of the dangers and abuses related to the use of drones, model aircraft and RPAS for recreation. It contains research gathered from multiple sources and asks important questions as well as exploring possible solutions to a challenging public safety issue.
Time to Impact
Having enough distance from residents is a key to ensuring safe operations at MAAC flying clubs. How much distance is required to operate RC aircraft safely relies on many factors but these aircraft need to be contained within the MAAC club flying sites. Simply put, if one argues that is not possible to contain aircraft in the flying site, then that flying club should not be there. No one should have their safety at risk so someone can have fun with an RC plane. In close proximity to residents, it’s a no brainer; the risks are known, the danger is real. A very simple time=distance/speed calculation can be done showing that the activity at Phelan RC Flying Club is way too close to residents. Using the Speed Distance Time Calculator available at https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/math/speed-distance-time-calculator.php shows that taking the 290kph radar gun recording from Mike Anderson’s Facebook posting and the 143 meter measurement from Google Maps to the neighbouring house shows that it would take one of club’s airborne RC aircraft just 1.775 seconds to hit the house from the runway. Less than 2 seconds!
How can one avoid an object moving this quickly? This means that life on the neighbouring property is very dangerous as one of these aircraft may come out of the sky uncontrollably at any time. Also 1.775 seconds includes the time that the aircraft files over the club’s site and would likely not be visible from the neighbouring property, meaning that the neighbouring resident would have less than 1.775 seconds to move out of the way if it flew at him while standing in front of his house. How does allowing an RC flying club this close to residents make any sense at all?
An even more extreme example would be if the neighbour was standing at the end of his driveway when an airborne aircraft flew in his direction; how long would it take for it to get from the runway of the Phelan RC Flying Club to the neighbours property line? Using the same 290 kph radar gun speed measurement from Mike Anderson’s Facebook posting and the 70 meter measurement from Google Maps showing the distance to the neighbouring property line, the Speed Distance Time Calculator shows it will only take 0.868 seconds.
Now, what if there were people driving down the road in front of the club or more specifically, what if it was a school bus full of children from the community as shown in the Vimeo video titled, “Followyou” (https://vimeo.com/user833912)? How long would it take for an airborne aircraft to get from the runway of the Phelan RC Flying club to hit a school bus passing on the road? Using the same 290 kph radar gun speed measurement from Mike Anderson’s Facebook posting and the 64 meter measurement from Google Maps showing the distance to Phelan road, the Speed Distance Time Calculator shows it will only take 0.794 seconds to collide with the school bus.
If a school bus were to be hit by one of the club’s turbine powered aircraft one would think the result could be devastating. When looking at the distance, why are these RC flying clubs allowed to be so close to residents? Elsewhere, innocent people have died and have been injured from these kinds of aircraft. Who cares if this hobby has any entertainment value when it causes suffering? Why is this pastime allowed to be so close to people and why do club members participate at locations that are obviously dangerous?
