Dealing with spectators.....

[Will Vardy]

I was in a new development and decided to fly near the clubhouse. I lifted off and went up to about 90ft. A couple women were walking their dogs by me and saw the drone up in the sky. One of them asked if I was filming. I had forgottwn to hit the record button as i usually do and answered her NO. She immediately said "good. We had a problem before with some guy with a drone filming the kids in the playground around here." Needless to say I was a little taken back by that and told her that I was just practicing flying and learning the controls since my drone was fairly new to me. I offered to bring it down and discontinue my practice.

Other than that, most people here either ignore that you are flying a drone, or the kids will be excited and tell their parents "Look! A drone!"

Its guys like that perv, that will ruin it for the rest of us if indeed that is what he was doing.

On a local FB page, some lady complained that someone has been flying a drone over their house and "spying on them". Her post got quite a few replies. Half of them were saying to shoot it down. The other half were using their common sense saying "its illegal to shoot it down" or "what proof do u have that the drone was "spying"?

It alot of people are paranoid about drones being used to eavesdrop, or take surveillance video/photos. One guy was saying to shoot it down with a bbgun. I replied that at an altitude of 150', good luck with ur bbgun.

sent from my Galaxy Note4

I'll put money on that poor guy not being a perv. Probably just enjoying his hobby like you when someone saw him, the kids playing nearby and put 2 and 2 together coming up with 5. Think you dodged a bullet by forgetting that record button my friend!

 

[J Milender]

My current strategy:

A huge takeoff/landing pad, four hi-vis cones, some bright yellow caution tape around the cones, hi-vis vests with "DRONE PILOT" printed on them over a pair of green or orange overalls (but not near a prison!), drone safety signs, anemometer on a tripod stand (forget you have to move it from time to time, it looks good), a small folding table, a laptop, an official looking flight log, an official looking flight plan with lots of detail (you can use the same one each time), a map of the flight plan with red and yellow and green overlays, a compass, and a laminated 25,000:1 ordnance survey map.

Then stand with your legs apart, nipples thrust out as far as you can without falling over backwards (you know, the Marvell Super Hero pose), and make sure to say "Keep Back. We'll Handle This!" in a commanding voice when people approach.

If all that fails, invite them to look at the screen but not crowd your arms ;-)

Oh hell yeah!!! [emoji106]

 

[J Milender]

Oh **** yeah!!! [emoji106]

That is h e l l. Lol

 

[Lapeer20m]

I live in the middle of nowhere on 60 acres and generally fly nearby. Today, I went down to the city to fly. The location i was shooting happened to not be in a good part of town. I was amused by the people stopping their cars in the road to get out and look at the drone. Not on the shoulder, but just stopping in a lane and exiting their vehicle so they could look up at the sky. In this situation, i felt a bit uncomfortable. My spidey sense began to kick in and i was wishing i had brought a friend with me just to provide security. It is not practical to have good situational awareness of the events unfolding on the ground while being a dedicated drone pilot.

 

[AnzacJack]

If im flying in public place with the inspire, i have a huge hdmi screen i run off a portable power supply. Anyone that comes up has a great view of what im doing and more importantly, they can see im not zooming in and spying on people. I do a lot of work for local parks in SE Queensland and this is always effective. Ive only ever had 2 bad eggs in the last 3 years that started complaining. I politly explained the rules and show that i am acting legally. I also have a printout of both CASA regs and the legal requirements of public photography (state government resource). When they were still not happy i invite them to call police. In fact the second time this happened, i called police as the bloke threatened to smash my equipment and accused me of filming his breastfeeding wife (who was a dot somewhere in the park) and calling me a paedophile. He dissappeared as police arrived but i had a heap of bystanders came up in my defence.
But 99.9% of the time, people are just curious.
Another thing i do occasionally, if i have time, is let them have a fly of my phantom i keep on had just for this purpose.
Hearts and minds. Win them and we are ahead

 

[AnzacJack]

This is the video where i was filming the breast feeding mother.....

 

[Ivanovic82]

Until now I have seen people looking but from a distance, almost hiding And they go away when they notice I've seen them. It gives a strange feeling, like I'm doing something bad.

 

[DSGDSG]

I get people wanting to talk all the time and I do find it distracting but I will indulge their questions and hope I can accomplish what I wanted with one of the spare batteries I brought. Many times I get people who inject their head right in my way to see what I see on the screen. I don't like that. But, for whatever reason, what drives me nuts is when people ask me how much I spent on it. For me that's just a rude question because 1) I do not pry into other peoples financial business an appreciate the same courtesy back and 2) it's almost always followed up with some obnoxious comment about the price. So, what I do now whenever I am questioned is respond asking what they make a year and I'll express the cost as a percentage of their salary.

 

[Ivanovic82]

So finally it happened to me. Someone saw me flying my Mavic and started talking to me. Until now I had only "distance spectators" but this curious man walked up to me while the Mavic was above 100 meters up in the sky and..... guess what his first question was after saying 'hi' and asking if that was a drone (which obviously is not a question).

A) At what height is it now?
B) What's the price of one of those?
C) What are you filming?
D) How are you doing?

 

[IShouldBeWorking]

So finally it happened to me. Someone saw me flying my Mavic and started talking to me. Until now I had only "distance spectators" but this curious man walked up to me while the Mavic was above 100 meters up in the sky and..... guess what his first question was after saying 'hi' and asking if that was a drone (which obviously is not a question).

A) At what height is it now?
B) What's the price of one of those?
C) What are you filming?
D) How are you doing?

I'm going to guess B. I always get the price question if I have spectators.

 

[btucker]

I find my drone is a kid magnet. When I fly kids seem to come from everywhere.

 

[Ivanovic82]

I'm going to guess B. I always get the price question if I have spectators.

Aaaand you're right, you only needed 1 attempt

 

[DSGDSG]

Aaaand you're right, you only needed 1 attempt

This is why now whenever I am asked I respond by asking them what they make a year and tell them I'll express the cost of my item as a percentage of their salary. Most people get it then.

 

[Uzbeckin]

I find most people who talk to me are on the verge of buying a Mavic and are just looking for the thumbs up. Most other people who do chat are curious and have a question they want to answer and I usually just answer politely. Some are simply talkative or somewhat lonely. Most people are generally cool and are getting better as they see more drones. I have enjoyed teaching my kids to fly on tripod mode with me reaching around them also holding the controller and teaching them techniques and photo/film methods... my kids know quite a bit about exposure, about cinematic methods such as reveals, crane shots, etc... and the reactions I hear are often a lot are kids going by telling their parents they want to learn.

 

[erkme73]

Since I don't fly for professional or artistic purposes, and nearly 100% of my flights are over my neighborhood and clubhouse field, I actually look forward to interacting with residents/neighbors. It's an opportunity to show off the equipment, and the flight capabilities. That said, I don't hover over/near people (unless they are engaged in discussing it with me). I have flown near our basketball and tennis courts, but as soon as the people below notice the MP, I move along. I don't want to annoy or cause concern. I'm sure if I didn't, soon there would be "no drones" signs popping up at the clubhouse field.

 

[Uzbeckin]

Since I don't fly for professional or artistic purposes, and nearly 100% of my flights are over my neighborhood and clubhouse field, I actually look forward to interacting with residents/neighbors .

Wow, I would never fly it near my house. I've had several drones and lots of bad experiences. There is just so much bad vibes of flying over people's yards. I would never fly it over kids near my house and never over a playground - I have kids and I can understand their feelings. People need privacy and often feel a drone is invasive. People believe every camera can zoom even though until recently there wasn't much of any zoom and that every drone camera is in record mode. (Some people feel it is their right to fly wherever they like- I'm just trying to enjoy my hobby without bothering people) I have a rule that I have for myself which isn't one everyone has to follow - I just don't film people (unless it's my family in a secluded beach or something). That being said - at a public park I do fly it around people but just as you I never hover and 99% of the time I'm off over the ocean and not over crowds. People who come up are generally very interested in a positive way because it is hard to see me as a nuisance. I find that the things I'm flying off to see are things people wish they could get a better shot of...

 

[erkme73]

Well, to be fair, my house faces the clubhouse field, so I can depart from my backyard, and circle the fields/woods/clubhouse without ever crossing anyone else's property. I still consider it my neighborhood, since the areas described are all part of the community property. I've not had any negative experiences (knock on wood) while flying or interacting with others.

 

[draxler_17]

I am flying in China and most of the time they are curious on my drone and where I came from. Most of the time it is fine but some can't resist to ask for the remote and want to touch the buttons on it and it pisses me off so I normally land and go somewhere else. Hell no! they can't touch my stuff! I am nice in every way possible.

 

[quick_dry]

I've had the A,B,C,D and then a different one. I'd taken my little niece down for her netball training (my nieces team on a nearby court), it was a bit dark for the Mavic to see anything well, so I was running a test flight on the Solo with a couple of LumeCube's at full power strapped to the belly. At this point it's basically a flying floodlight that sounds like an angry lawnmower, and I've "covertly" flown it about 30 feet from my position (horizontal displacement, it was a way up, and about 35m away from the kid's court), over saunters some dad. great.

"What're you doing? They're little girls, you're spying on them"

"I saw you sitting by the court, are you doing that too?" is what I wanted to say, but "that's my niece's team" did the trick and eventually off he went. Now, if I was a dodgy character up to no good, isn't that what they'd say? Or are they scrupulously truthful, and like Bond villains they'll explain their whole nefarious plot in detail?

(later found out from sister, that he's "that guy" in the parents group associated with the team)

That's the first negative person, everyone else is super keen to just find out more about them, to see what you can see, etc.

 

[geigy]

The park I usually fly in is a drone and RC Mecca, so there are usually other flyers there, very little interference and questions because people have been seeing them for years.

I did have one experience, videoing a church in a small town in California, very picturesque, with a little league field next to it. I stayed high, 300 to 400 feet so as not to attract any attention. A father was consoling his son, whose team had lost, in the car next to where I took off from, and said, "Hey, cheer up! Check out the drone up there". Good eyesight.