Dutch Harbor by Air
Like any other medium, drone flying has brought new awareness to my surroundings. I'm very aware of my proximity to airports nowadays with the new drone. I'm supposed to stay 5 miles from an airport or 2 miles from a heliport within 400ft altitude. Any closer and I need to call the airport to clear a flight. This means I have to go south of the Jamestown Bridge for shooting, and while one afternoon I was down at Dutch Harbor I was still nervous whenever I heard planes somewhere overhead. It's instances like this when you just drop altitude and look around until you spot that plane, be sure to watch their progress before continuing on. In the event of a collision I might be out a couple thousand dollars but someone else might lose a life.
This evening in particular I limited my altitude after hearing two planes, and didn't go above 200ft. Occasionally sightseeing planes, well outside of the 5 mile radius from airports, seem to be flying below their minimum safe altitude level. Maybe it's my inaccurate depth perception when looking into the sky, but unless I'm mistaken the minimum altitude for pilots in manned aircraft is 500ft above ground level unless landing. I have my rules and you have yours. I know you have right of way but let's not do anything unnecessary when airspace will start to look more crowded as time goes on. Come on you guys, let's share the sky!
More aerial shots here
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