Robinson R44
Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 100; Flight Crew Total 750; Flight Crew Type 80
Situational Awareness
Conflict NMAC
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Human Factors; Aircraft
While flying a scenic flight with 2 passengers on board at 550 MSL with the current altimeter setting over terrain surveyed at 15' MSL; putting our ship at approximately 535/AGL at time of incident. I spotted a drone while in straight and level flight at approximately 90 knots indicated airspeed at my altitude and directly at my 12 o'clock position. The drone being very small and right on the horizon line for my field of view was very hard to see until we were within about 60 feet. At which point I banked sharply to the right and applied a significant amount of left pedal to avoid the drone from contacting the tail rotor; which it surely would have if I had not seen the drone until another second later.As a flight instructor; I also teach a Part 107 course which emphasizes drone operators to avoid just this type of situation; and I am very familiar with the regulations of Part 107 which were violated by this operator and put myself and two passengers in unnecessary danger by flying too high in a busy airspace where many other aircraft were flying the same route. Our company has been doing these flights for the last few weeks under our commercial air tour LOA and purposely fly at an altitude of 500 AGL or more to avoid this exact situation. The drone was a black quad-copter located approximately 500 meters south of the [specific spot] at the time.
R44 helicopter pilot on a scenic flight reported a NMAC with a drone.