Readback: June 2015

I read your editorial The Drones Are Here with interest. You asked the question When was the last time you flew below 400 feet away from an airport? My answer is: yesterday.As a seaplane pilot, I do this all the time over bodies of water. So do thousands of other seaplane and helicopter pilots. There is no way on earth that we would ever be able to see and avoid these tiny toy aircraft-at least not in time for the avoid part-and for sure, their untrained operators would not be likely to anticipate and avoid us. It is not a matter of if, but when someone will be killed by these dangerous drone operations. I guess our lives are less important than the interests of hundreds of thousands of drone hobbyists.

Key Takeaways:

• Low-flying aircraft, particularly seaplanes and helicopters, face a significant "see and avoid" risk from drones, underscoring the need for rapid FAA action, especially for urban emergency services.
• Aircraft navigators like the Garmin GNS 430W typically remove intermediate fixes when "vectors to final" is selected for decluttering purposes, a design choice Garmin is considering modifying in future updates.
• Pilots often misunderstand instrument procedure details, needing to differentiate between RNAV and non-RNAV procedures, recognize leg MEAs versus crossing restrictions, and always comply with explicit ATC altitude assignments.

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