A helicopter pilot conducting a pipeline survey had a near miss with a uas at 650 ft and about 10 NM...

Attributes
ACN	1381776
Time
Date	201608
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Helicopter
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	VFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	UAV - Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle
Flight Phase	Cruise
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Events
Anomaly	Airspace Violation All Types Conflict NMAC Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Miss Distance	Horizontal 40 Vertical 40

Narrative:

We experienced a near miss with a uav/drone while on part 91 survey mission; the drone was identified as a bird like object; flying with a flock of birds in our flight path. We diverted to avoid the uav/drone; to discover it was being operated by a person in a van on the right of way below. Ground equipment/survey equipment were observed near the right of way as well. We have photographs of the uav/drone as well as the van and operator. We immediately contacted the local airport ATC; they confirmed no NOTAM for drone activity within the vicinity of the airport were posted. We contacted our FSDO as well; they stated they would wait to perform an investigation until the report was sent to them by ATC. We contacted ATC again and spoke with the controller whom we contacted during this event. He stated he was completing a mor (mandatory occurrence report).drone activity is becoming more and more prevalent. How do we as commercial operators avoid issues like this in the future?

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A helicopter pilot conducting a pipeline survey had a near miss with a UAS at 650 ft and about 10 NM from an airport. ATC had no listed activity for that time period.

Narrative: We experienced a near miss with a UAV/Drone while on Part 91 Survey Mission; the drone was identified as a bird like object; flying with a flock of birds in our flight path. We diverted to avoid the UAV/Drone; to discover it was being operated by a person in a van on the right of way below. Ground equipment/survey equipment were observed near the right of way as well. We have photographs of the UAV/Drone as well as the van and operator. We immediately contacted the local airport ATC; they confirmed no NOTAM for drone activity within the vicinity of the airport were posted. We contacted our FSDO as well; they stated they would wait to perform an investigation until the report was sent to them by ATC. We contacted ATC again and spoke with the Controller whom we contacted during this event. He stated he was completing a MOR (Mandatory Occurrence Report).Drone activity is becoming more and more prevalent. How do we as Commercial Operators avoid issues like this in the future?

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

A helicopter pilot conducting a pipeline survey had a near miss with a uas at 650 ft and about 10 NM from an airport. ATC had no listed activity for that time period.