The golden canola fields across southern Australia are drawing drone photographers this spring — and agricultural pilots spraying those crops are reporting near misses that could kill. The Aerial Application Association of Australia, which represents aerial spraying pilots and crews, says the number of aircraft working over canola is at its peak at this time of year, when the crop blooms from mid-August through September.

Chief executive Matthew Harper said this year's bumper canola looked 'absolutely beautiful' from the air but that flying a drone over it could interfere with aircraft applying chemicals or fungicides at low level, as well as military training, firefighting and Royal Flying Doctor Service flights, all of which can be in the airspace under 500 feet.

In one recent case in Western Australia the pilot saw the drone only because the operator's car was parked beside the highway and had not been there on his last pass; he missed it by what the association estimates was less than 30 metres. When a wing strikes a drone, Mr Harper said, the drone does not necessarily break up — it can breach the front of the aircraft, travel through it, sever the control cables and leave a wing that no longer gives enough lift. Further near misses have been reported in South Australia and southern New South Wales, all apparently photographic drones looking down at the canola.

A pilot's chance of spotting a hovering drone is 'almost zero', he said, with spray aircraft travelling just under 200 km/h. Flowering canola is also highly susceptible to biosecurity risks, which is why farmers issue annual reminders not to enter paddocks without permission. The association asks drone operators to pause and look around before launching, to have a second person as lookout and to keep drones over the road so they never need to be brought down into the crop.

Agronomist Marty Colbert, who uses drones to check crop health and hail or chemical damage, said he washes his equipment down with disinfectant under a biosecurity plan and always checks with his farmer clients about aerial applications in the area — because low-flying spray aircraft often fly below the altitude at which flight-tracking apps can pick up their beacons.

Source: ABC Rural