Halifax Electric Flyers Association

I am not sure who might be aware, but there was someone from the public flying his Inspire from the trunk of his car, parked in the main pathway. He was flying over the old PMQs which we have been asked to avoid as part of our agreement with Canada Lands. After a discussion, the person indicated that he had every right to do this and really that there was nothing that we could do to stop him.

This is a video, entitled "Illegal Drone Flight", captured by our visitor from Yarmouth.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_NU9AaE_K8

The CURRENT rules for flying drones are well documented on the Transport Canada website. I believe that he would still require permission from Canada Lands to fly and certainly needs to maintain a minimum distance from those not involved with his flight of at least 76 meters. I would suggest that he was less than 10 meters from our members and our cars.

In the end, all that we can do is to try and educate visitors of such rules, and to introduce them to the wonderful world of MAAC and HEFA. This is the first time that I have encountered such resistance and the far majority of the public want to do what is right.

Brian

Unbelievable. Not only does this guy knowingly violate Transport Canada regulations, he cleverly sits on his vehicle in such a way as to conceal his licence plate.

Many don't know the rules. Many don't care. We see it often on the commercial side.

Ultimately, we are all trying to have fun and to fly safely. I do not want to make this into more than it should be, but one of the other points of "concern" that we should all be aware of are heliports (SP is clear of these) with the TC regulations. Per the current rules, we cannot fly with 1.9km of such a site.

There is an interactive map from the National Research Council:
https://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/solution ... _tool.html
For UAV , this seems indicate a distance of ~4.5km from helipads which exceeds the current value of 1.9km in place for recreational models. But the tool distances change significantly when the "model aircraft (recreational drone)" is selected instead.

This depicts a heliport at the QEII hospital site as well as at the IWK. I knew about the IWK but also thought that it had been decommissioned for a short time as a result of recent regulatory limits (and that landings were taking place at Point Pleasant Park). I am not sure if this is operational again or not. I did not know about the helipad on the QEII but it is clearly present on the NE corner in Google Satellite view.

I am seeing that SP is outside of the 1.9km no-fly zone imposed around heliports and just outside of the range for SW (controlled / restricted airspace).

I hope that this helps!

Brian

The helipads are now in use with the new EHS helicopters. They were still active prior but EHS was not allowed to land on them due to the age of the prior aircraft.