Small UAS; Multi Rotor
Flight Crew Remote Pilot (UAS)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days (UAS) 0; Flight Crew Total (UAS) 0; Flight Crew Type (UAS) 0
Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Unauthorized Flight Operations (UAS); Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors
I am a university student who is taking some drone classes; but am not an aviation student. I was walking by [a] school building (275 ft) and saw a two person UAS crew operating a small UAS below. As a licensed Remote Pilot; I stopped to look for the drone out of interest; and only saw it for a brief moment before it disappeared. I am far sighted an was concerned that the drone was being flown out of the pilot's VLOS. I assumed that they were a UAS instructor and student and did not say anything to the crew. While I have my Remote Pilot's License; I have yet to fly any missions and was not sure how high the legal limit of 400 ft. actually looks like. I brought up the occurrence to some aviation major friends and was immediately concerned to find out that the building they were flying near was 275 ft. This put things into perspective for me and I now believe they were flying well over 400 ft. AGL.I talked to my UAS professor who informed me that because our campus is in the landing pattern for ZZZ airport; the ceiling for drones is actually 100 ft. He also said that permission from the tower only grants you to fly up to 300 ft. I am reporting this because the pilot was flying the UAV at what I believe to be an illegal height in the traffic pattern for an airport that has a lot of traffic due to University's flight training.
There was an eyewitness of a UAS operating at a University. The eyewitness believed the UAS was flying at an unsafe altitude due to the proximity of a nearby airport.