Drones in controlled airspace
Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2021 3:40 pm
I love pilotEdge! I only fly VFR and GA at the moment and I think it would be great to have a few drones in the pattern at controlled airports so that we can practice things like extending the downwind, looking for traffic, keeping a safe distance, waiting before taking off...
Sure we won't hear them talking to ATC so it would not be completely realistic but it would be better than always being the only one landing at a controlled airport. Even during focus fields events there is usually never enough real pilot in the system to have multiple planes in the pattern at the same time.
If there is a concern that it would add too much workload to the ATC controller, perhaps this could be constrained to less busy times, and/or only select airports?
I would love to hear thoughts from pilotEdge and other pilots on this suggestion.
Sure we won't hear them talking to ATC so it would not be completely realistic but it would be better than always being the only one landing at a controlled airport. Even during focus fields events there is usually never enough real pilot in the system to have multiple planes in the pattern at the same time.
If there is a concern that it would add too much workload to the ATC controller, perhaps this could be constrained to less busy times, and/or only select airports?
I would love to hear thoughts from pilotEdge and other pilots on this suggestion.