Dangerous Drone

Way Too Close to Residents

Why are RC flying clubs established close to residents?  What is a close distance? Who controls this?  Are they aware of the dangers?  This is a dangerous activity to conduct close to people; there have been injuries and fatalities but not just to adults, children who had nothing to do with the activity.  Where are the government regulations preventing this dangerous activity from establishing close to where people live?  Why does MAAC approve and renew sanctioning of locations in close proximity to people especially when the activity is known to be dangerous?

What if you bought a beautiful home that happens to have some farm land or a park, or a field in close proximity and an RC flying club rents there?  What if loud awful noise is heard hour after hour, the smell of exhaust permeates the air inside your home from their aircraft with frequent flying over your property?  All of this is in the name of fun for members of flying clubs who may show no concern for your safety or for the other residents close by.  When these clubs establish, people come from other cities just to fly their aircraft in a circle at your expense.  Why is this allowed to happen?  When an RC Flying Club makes your life hell, what can you do? 

When the activity is dangerous it does not matter if the club is established before or after a neighbouring house is built.  The irony is that one could move then have a club establish beside them.  If one wants to live in a rural setting there is little to stop these RC flying clubs from establishing there.  Since when has an activity or a hobby for fun become acceptable when it endangers the neighbouring residents? 

In the case of the Phelan RC Flying Club, they established a site placing the runway less than 150 meters from an existing century old home; a home so old it predates the Wright brothers!  Is one to think that the club was established with the consent of the neighbouring senior couple?  Is one to think that a senior couple wanted to be exposed to this?  Logically proper urban planning would prevent this through zoning.  However, in the City of Ottawa RC aircraft clubs continue to establish new locations beside existing residents.  Logically with the dangers that the residents are exposed to, one would think that the city would step in and find a more suitable location but not the City of Ottawa.  The City of Ottawa refuses to enforce the noise by-law and has been informed of the dangers to the residents but has chosen to protect RC flying club members, many of whom do not even live in the City of Ottawa.  In the case of the Phelan RC Flying Club, this inaction comes at the expense of a family with a baby.  Why is city council not protecting its citizens against this dangerous recreational activity and not prioritizing the safety of local citizens over the recreational pursuits of outsider hobbyists?

Why do the two pictures used to show the Phelan RC Flying Club site on their website, show the neighbouring property? Is it that the club sees the neighbouring property as part of the area that they can exploit?  Is it just so close that they could not take a picture without including the neighbouring house?  Why do the pictures show the neighbouring house but only part of the clubs flying zone?  Doesn’t it show a perspective that lets the people know, this club site has been placed way to close to residents?

RC flying club sites are sanctioned by MAAC and are submitted for renewal each year.  Logically this renewal contains distance information.  The Phelan RC Flying Club flies jets, giant scale and turbine helicopters at this location.  There are guidelines in the AMA documentation on the MAAC website that show that these dangerous aircraft need a safe distance, so why does MAAC continue to sanction sites close to residents?

• “Basic RC Facilities:  The basic requirements are: a properly oriented (with respect to prevailing wind) takeoff and landing strip of sufficient size to accommodate the largest models… If RC aerobatic (Pattern models) are to be flown, the flight area should be a minimum of 1,000 feet by 4,000 feet, oriented so that the longest dimension parallels and is centered on the landing strip. The high speeds of Pattern aircraft can easily carry them to a distance of 1,500 feet from the runway center as they make their turns.
• AMA files clearly show that the majority of claims for auto damage by model aircraft are due to parking areas being too close to the flying areas. A minimum of 300 feet should be established between the landing strip and the car park.”

• C. Flight Sector: (Covering an 1,800-foot sweep on the flying side of the reference line.) Flight area clear of potential hazards (such as individuals working, playing, or traveling outdoors; buildings having glass surfaces facing the flying area; or a storage facility containing volatile products or compressed gases) at least 1,000 feet left and right and 500 feet in front of the pilot. Most flying is contained within 1,000 feet either end from field center reference point and 500 feet in front of reference point. Distances referenced may be increased or decreased according to site usage.
• Safety Zone: An additional 250-foot safety zone, added to the OVERFLY AREA, is desirable if any major roads, buildings, or outdoor personnel activities are in the general area or if high-speed or high-performance aircraft are flown.
• The suggested specifications are not mandatory requirements, and compliance with these suggestions does not, in the following guarantee that no accident will occur. The AMA recommends that individual clubs design their flying sites based not only on geographic area available, but also on sound sensitivity, obstructions, proximity of neighbours, etc., while incorporating the recommendations presented here. The types of aircraft the site is anticipated to accommodate, such as Giant Scale or small electrics, may affect an increase or decrease of the overfly area.

This group is flying dangerous high speed machines and they boast about it on Facebook inviting people from all around to a location where none of them live to subject the neighbours to noise and danger.

The Phelan RC Flying club does not have enough room to operate these machines according to the documentation available on the MAAC website.  According to the AMA (MAAC describes as “The AMA is the MAAC equivalent in the United States, although almost 17 times larger” in their 2019 Annual Operating Plan p.4 https://secure.maac.ca/get_document.php?document_id=463) their flying site should be much bigger.  As aircraft fly in a circle, AMA documentation states that, “The high speeds of Pattern aircraft can easily carry them to a distance of 1,500 feet from the runway center as they make their turns,” the attached image titled “AMA Distance from Center of Runway” shows the distance reflected on the map.  Looking at the map, it becomes clear why aircraft from the Phelan RC Flying Club crosses the road and flying over neighbouring property.  The club’s runway is located only 64 meters (210 feet) from Phelan road which is just not enough distance.  These AMA guidelines should be used as minimum distances. If the AMA distance information does not apply, then why would MAAC provide this documentation on their website?

The Phelan RC Flying Club runway is less than 150 meters from the neighbouring house (143 meters) and 70 meters from the neighbouring property line.  Instead of flying within the clubs own flying zone, the members often fly over the neighbouring property.  Flying over the neighbour’s property to the south means that they would fly over their own no-flying zone, cross Phelan road before flying over neighbouring property to the south.  This is three areas that they fly over where they do not have permission.  Flying over the no fly zone and Phelan road is in violation of their own the club rules and MAAC rules (According to the exemption from Part IX of the Canadian Aviation Regulation, it is in the conditions they need to follow).

The club announced the Phelan Aero-tow event in August 2019 on their Facebook page stating, “Come out and experience our 600 x 60 ft grass field with plenty of surrounding bailout area.”, “The field and the local tugs easily handle 5-6 m sailplanes.”  The term, “Bail out” is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as, “To jump out of an aircraft with a parachute because the aircraft is going to have an accident: The plane engine failed and the pilot was forced to bail out.”  With the club’s runway less than 150 meters from the neighbour’s house and 70 meters from the neighbouring properly line, it certainly looks like the club considers the neighbouring property as part of that “plenty of surrounding bailout area.”  Where is this bailout area exactly?

On November 2^nd, 2019 a woman was killed by a remote controlled plane 500 meters away from the flying site, the house neighbouring the Phelan RC Flying Club is less than 150 meters away from the runway.  This accident was noticed by the Phelan RC flying club as they posted the link to the article stating, “A grim reminder how seriously we need to treat some of our ‘flying toys.’”  This strongly suggests the Phelan RC Flying Club membership know that their activities are dangerous.  The heavier and faster the aircraft are, the higher the risks of seriously injuring or killing someone and the increased likelihood of causing damage to property.  If a glider; an aircraft without a motor weighting about 5 kg can instantly kill someone what can an aircraft up to 35 kg (77.2 pounds) with a powerful engine do?  Logic suggests that the potential damage even greater. The following pictures and description are from the Taiwan English News.  The neighbours of the Phelan RC Flying Club also have a young child so seeing an accident like this really demonstrate the danger.    

It is not enough to say that if club members followed the rules (of which there is ample evidence to the contrary) that the activity would be safer, the distance is just too close and is too dangerous.  Wouldn’t it be responsible for MAAC to immediately close all RC flying clubs flying giant scale aircraft that are within a 500 meter radius of residents?