Incident Report 20210613-00001
Incident Type: Operational

Filer of Report: Joshua Bauer
Date Filed: 06/13/2021
Date of Incident: 06/13/2021
Location of Incident: Case Rd, Interlaken, NY
Persons Invoved in Incident: Joshua Bauer (operator)
Devices Contributing to Incident: DJI 2 Air Clone Drone, ID#DR007g; Swagtron T6 Hoverboard, ID#HV001c
Factors Contributing to Incident: Increased Windspeed, sound of which decreased operator's ability to hear oncoming traffic
Damages: None


Description of Incident:

Operator was flying drone while riding hoverboard in center of the street.

Operator noticed after the ideal time that there was oncoming traffic, whose lane he was inhabiting.

Operator first moved out of that lane, followed by piloting the drone out of that lane, to a position of being behind the operator, while vehicle was approching from the front.

After both operator, hoverboard, and drone were in their proper lane, operator took further action with the controller with the intention of piloting the drone out of the road conompletely and off to the right-most side of the road (from directional perspective of the operator). Car had not yet passed operator and drone.

Operator looked over right shoulder and saw his actions made with the controller were having the opposite effect, resulting in the drone moving directly toward the lane of the approching vehicle, at a height of approximately 4 feet.

Opporator immediately applied opposite feedback to the controller, casuing the drone to reduce its leftward speed and avoid impact with the oncoming vehicle by a distance of about 2 feet.


Determined Causes of Incident:

1. Operator was not adequetly aware of his surroundings, and therefore had limited time to prepare hiself and the drone so to ensure their safe avoidance of the oncoming vehicle.

2. Operator did not pilot drone to a location where it could be seen in the same scope of view as the oncoming vehicle, requiring pivoting of the operator in order to accurately pilot the drone.

3. Operator momentarily failed to accurately pilot the drone with the remote, and used the opposite feedback required to obtain the desired result.


Imposed Regualtions Resulting from Incident:

None


Imposed Recommendations Resulting from Incident:

1. Operator should be continuously aware of surroundings, to allow reasonabe time for a defensive response.

2. Operator should pilot drone in a location where he is able to adequetly control it, preferably in his frontward line of sight.

3. Operator should be fluent in piloting the drone, including the ability to input the correct feedback into the remote in order to obtain a desired result.


Additional Information:

None