"Rob,
I grabbed the first image I saw of many. The crow was very real and spend any time on an pilot's forum and you'll see plenty of birdstrike examples or just google it for images. I can dig further and find every example if you like but I'm not…"

"Technicus I realize your typing skills are texting challenged but apparently your reading skills are as well. There are no web pictures of the crow hit because it was in early 2000 in a Metroliner out of Concord (CCR). It was 24K to fix then.…"

"Do something stupid with a manned aircraft and the results can be brutal and final for you. Do something stupid with a drone and chances are somebody else pays the price. There are a lot more barriers to entry as well. Especially with the DJ swarm…"

"Single crow twelve inches from the right wing root about 300 ft off the ground on takeoff. You're going 80 mph or faster with limited lower forward visibility due to the climb and things you have to pay attention to. You don't even see it most of…"

"Does just getting hurt count or does somebody have to get killed? A friend hit a crow taking off out of Concord and the repair was $24K. There are numerous instances of hawks going through the Plexiglas windshields of airplanes and the fragments…"

"Charles is correct. There's a reason that the average time to complete a PPL is going up and it's due to the bookwork, understanding the regs and what is expected from you and other aircraft. There's also a learning curve to talking on the radio…"

"John, aviation charts are in nautical miles so the 4nm distance translates to about 4.6 statute miles. You can try to use the big sky theory of collision avoidance but that has proved to be problematic and actually caused the formation of the FAA in…"

"John,
Look at this approach plate KSCK and tell me what altitude I should be at just past the VOR which is 4 NM out? The answer is on a real or practice approach I have to cross the VOR at or above 1300 and right after that I'm dumping altitude as…"

"John, a lot of these answers are assuming a precision approach like and ILS. Do a VOR or ADF approach and you get down to minimum altitude a lot farther out. Spent a lot of time flying at 200 agl doing practice non-precision approaches. The first…"

"5 miles is a typical class D ring around a towered airport. That's where they're getting that rule. The tower controls the airspace from the ground up to 2500 feet AGL.
You'd better believe there are some individuals at the FAA waiting for an excuse…"

"The FAA has just about always been a series of fiefdoms sometimes issuing contradictory memos. Until they cracked down on it the game was getting field approvals on certified aircraft in more lax areas. They're also known to issue formal…"

"Gary, 
Since you have your private cert you know then that a huge amount of the work is not flying the plane. It's understanding airspace, the regs and expectations. That's the part that is too often missing with UAVs. Watched a guy flying a phantom…"