DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

To Be, Or Not To Be (a snitch)...That Is The Question

What do you do?


  • Total voters
    20
  • Poll closed .

DoO

Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2016
Messages
9
Reactions
2
Location
Ontario, Canada
Scenario - You see a video on YouTube shot in your hometown. There is no dispute that the person who shot the video, published the video. While watching the video you realize the person broke several major rules concerning drones. This person is not a commercial pilot, and does not have the requisite permission to fly where and when they did. They are a regular drone enthusiast and regularly post drone videos (they are not a famous, former, daily vlogger).
 
Last edited:
It's almost impossible not to break rules near home unless you live in the middle of nowhere.
The answer might be different if they were deliberately doing something risky rather than breaching some arbitrarily chosen threshold decided on when the technology was much more unreliable.
 
Would you want someone doing the same to you?
 
People need to relax wrt drones.

Compare it with anything else "illegal" that someone does in the neighbourhood.

Example - speeding with their car:
- my neighbour drives too fast. Do I report him? (NO!)
- my neighbour drove WAY too fast this afternoon. Do I report him? (NO!).
- my neighbour drives WAY too fast ALL THE TIME. Do I report him? (NO!) but if I feel threatened by his behaviour I will address it with him in person
- he keeps doing it nevertheless and I feel threatened by this. Do I report him? I will AT THIS POINT definitely think about it
 
I'm curious what "rules" are broken. As far as I've read... most items concerning hobbyist are just "guidelines" and "Dos & Don'ts" for flying expensive toys. If I was out and about and saw someone flying recklessly, I may just try to educate them on what they may be doing to endanger the hobby, but then again I'm not a very confrontational person, so I'll probably just go about my business. As mentioned in many other threads, the FAA doesn't have the manning to go around chasing YouTube pilots so I feel I would just be wasting my energy in trying to report them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: stealle and Frits
Do what everyone else does, apparently- ignore the problem and stigmatize the people who care about flying legally by calling them "snitches". Then, get pissed off later and complain here on the forums when the laws get stricter and enforcement increases because they f'd it up for everyone else.
 
Spot on Frits, exactly the way to approach this. We all "tolerate" behaviors everyday that may not be strictly within the rules but we accept "a live and let live" approach, but hopefully we have the courage to step in when we need to, face to face, and not through a remote platform. How many cries of wolf do we hear from people worrying about loss of privacy from UAV,s as a reason to stop them flying, don't think we need to eat our own!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Frits
Depends on what they were doing. I apply this to everything. I saw two dogs loose last week. One was a 2 pound mutt that was peeing on curbs and sniffing garbage. The second was a 80 pound boxer that was charging at the kids playing basketball. I called the police on the boxer.

Same principle applies here. Did it appear that the pilot was endangering people? Likely to result in property damage? If the answer is yes to either of those questions then call it in. Otherwise... don't waste the time.


Sent from my iPad using MavicPilots
 
Last edited:
Speeding with a car: depends on how fast and where. Speeding through a school zone, probably report ya. Speeding on the highway, otherwise smooth driving, just let me get out of your way. Driving after drinking: no question, report. Guy leaves a bar and hops in the driver's seat? Hello, 911. Hopefully I get the chance to convince him or his buddies to take a cab first, but if he gets in that car, I'm dialing that phone.

Now, back on topic about drones... there are a lot of different situations. Today I walked through a public park that actually had a "no drones or r/c helicopters" rule printed on a sign staked into the ground. Not 100 meters later, a family was observing their little daughter with one of those underpowered mini-drones that would barely hurt a passing toddler. Of course I wouldn't bother them. I also would not fly my Mavic there as the parks department has made the rule clear. Would I report/caution another Mavic pilot there? Probably not unless they were flying recklessly close to other people. Would I report/caution a pilot of a larger aircraft? Probably; I find the Mavic is right on that "deceptively powerful for its size" boundary. Would I report/caution a pilot that I saw on YouTube? I might comment on their video but I would not report the video to authorities.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AKflyer and m0j0
Until innocent people get hurt...propagate drone use as much as possible. I'll keep my drone away from airports and below 400 feet, you keep your Cessna above 500 feet...no problems.
 
Last year over 20,000 people were killed in car accidents.
Last year 0 people were killed by Mavics, Phantoms, or Yuneecs. (Not sure about Karmas)
Rather snitch on cars. Every time you see one driving near a school... report it to the AA because it *might* hit someone. :p
 
  • Like
Reactions: thecool32
I agree with everyone... Why tell now unless he caused something to happen, like a death etc... then ignore it. Just the other day there was a guy around my neighborhood flying at night. I kinda got pissed off until he crashed into one of those power lines.. A smirk was planted on my face as I walked away. Like somebody said above its hard not to break the rules.
 
Last year over 20,000 people were killed in car accidents.
Last year 0 people were killed by Mavics, Phantoms, or Yuneecs. (Not sure about Karmas)
Rather snitch on cars. Every time you see one driving near a school... report it to the AA because it *might* hit someone. :p

Lmaoo that's funny!!


Sent from my iPhone using MavicPilots
 
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,589
Messages
1,554,143
Members
159,592
Latest member
MaxRichu