[omegant]

Well think again, as a commercial pilot with 16 years of experience I can tell you that sometimes you can even see what type of bird you crossed. And it has to be quite close to be a problem to you, so pilots are reporting drones that could be ingested in to the engine and create a fire in short final. Not all reports are accurate, that's true. But most of us don't go reporting ufos these days...

[Encosia]

With all due respect to your experience, digging into the details of the FAA's data on these supposed drone encounters is telling: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/drones-are-the-new-ufos

For example, this is a report from this year that the FAA categorized as a drone encounter here in my hometown of Atlanta:

> A VFR aircraft receiving ATC service reported passing an object approx 500ft below him at 095. The pilot described the object as round circular, red in color, and reported it could have been a drone or a balloon. A80 ATC did not observe any targets on radar in the vicinity of N7745.

A drone or a balloon? Might as well just chalk it up to swamp gas at that point.

Having been in aircraft looking out and having watched from the ground as my own quadcopter disappeared into the sky significantly closer than 500ft away, I find it extremely challenging to see most reports like that as credible. Yet, the FAA has no qualms with aggregating this junk data into a scary story to sway public opinion. Disappointing.

I'm curious. Have you personally, definitively witnessed a consumer drone in restricted airspace during approach?

[omegant]

Well fair enough, I was talking about commercial pilots reports in final approach or take off. I guess that VFR flights are going to be less precise, also VFR flights are more probable to flight themselves in to a zone where drones can be flown legally. They are going to be sharing airspace much more than drones and airliners.

I haven't seen a drone yet, I do have like 12 or so laser reports under my belt. They are annoying (mostly kids being "funny") but not that dangerous, it's impossible for a person to track perfectly the cockpit at the speed and distance we are traveling for them, so you only get to see a short red or green flash and the laser beam moving around.

I eventually expect to have some air-miss with drones from dumb plane spotters or a guy that's taking some video from above without realizing that he is in a final approach zone. Not a big worry right now for me, my friends or other pilots I fly with.

But take into account that just a drone strike in an engine can cost more than 1 million dollars in repairs, or up to 5 or 6 of an entire engine depending on the damage. Plus the losses and delays caused by the plane being grounded for some days. Also although much more unprovable, it can lead to a crash or at least a runway excursion while landing, or total hull loss once stopped on the ground and with passengers evacuated, due to an unextinguished engine fire.

[Encosia]

Don't get me wrong. I don't in any way condone people flying drones in restricted airspace. There are so many other (safe) places to fly that it makes no sense to endanger people and/or property by flying in dangerous areas.

I don't even question that these encounters are happening occasionally, because there are always reckless morons out there to ruin things like this for everyone, but I do question the credibility of this recent hysteria around drones.

Speaking of the laser pointers, I got zapped in the eye with a green laser pointer at night once while sitting in the passenger seat. I happened to be leaning over and looking down at the ground right when they were targeting us. The intensity was much greater than I would have expected a few thousand feet up. It wasn't quite blinding, but super disorienting for a few seconds. Hard to believe that anyone would think it's okay to do that.