Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Total 100
Situational Awareness
Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR
Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Airport; Human Factors
I discovered yesterday that I have been flying model aircraft 4.02 miles from Shenandoah Regional airport without first notifying them. I had previously measured the distance as over five miles but while listening to my scanner heard an aircraft on approach to runway five report four miles out while abeam my location. I then used GPS on my phone to precisely determine my location relative to the airport and found I had made a measuring error in my initial location check. At no time have I flown models above 400 feet AGL and at no time have I ever flown while full scale aircraft were visible in the area; but I take regulations seriously and consider this a serious breach of etiquette in addition to a regulatory error. I will visit the airport and determine the best way to notify them of my intention to fly models at any time in the future. There was never a real safety issue here; but this incident certainly points out the need for more readily available fly/don't fly information for model aircraft operators. I understand the FAA has a system that provides the necessary information in beta test now and very much look forward to seeing it go live.
Model aircraft pilot; who is also a private pilot; discovered that he has been operating his model aircraft 4 SM from SHD airport while believing he was outside 5 SM previously.