The mayor of the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality in British Columbia says drones are endangering helicopters being used to fight wildfires near Fort Nelson, which was ordered evacuated earlier this month.
In a video posted on Facebook, Rob Fraser says drones can be an excellent tool, but under the circumstances where 20 helicopters are flying around, he says drones are “nothing but hazards.”
Fraser says helicopter pilots fighting wildfires are under an immense amount of stress, and says they cannot be looking out for drones, warning “they will cause these guys to crash.”
Fraser says he would take out a drone with a 12-gauge shotgun if he could, but he’s not allowed, so he says people caught using drones in the wildfire evacuation areas will be prosecuted “to the biggest limit” possible.
He says people in the evacuation zone have also caused damage to structural protection hoses by driving over them, and have been speeding through areas and catching fire crews off guard.
Fraser says they’ve begun preliminary work on getting Fort Nelson back up and running by focusing on “essential businesses,” pleading with evacuees to be patient as the fire fight continues.
How do they endanger helicopters? The rotor wash alone will blow them away.
Because the multi-meter wide propeller assembly faces in whatever direction the helicopter is going sucking in air (and drones) as it moves. A drone, especially one carrying larger camera cargo, could do fatal damage to the blades or even strike the cockpit canopy.
What kind of drone could damage rotor blades?
Aircraft maintenance here, even a tiny drone can cause a lot of damage and potentially cause the aircraft to be down for maintenance for a long time. The rotor blades are tough and would probably be ok to get back to the ground with a tiny 250g drone strike but would require inspections and could possibly damage the rotor beyond continued service and require replacement, which may not be on hand. Anything larger and it could be catastrophic
One of the most popular consumer drones, the DJI Phantom, weighs around 1.3kg from what I could see on their website. That would do some serious damage to any aircraft.