A "CODE" question.

[LeeW1974]

Hi ALL.

Had some superb weather today so took the family out for a picnic to an area Ive not been for at least 20 years. A lovely Recreational Field in the middle of nowhere.

Set my AIR2 up and off I went. Now, this is my 1st ever drone and im still practicing but getting pretty confident. Ive completed the CAA online competency test and happy with all that jargon.

However, whilst flying out across open farmland and back again I noticed a few other people had arrived to enjoy the location and weather. Now as Im still getting to grips with distance I would say they were a good 40-50 meters away from me. But then a Search & Rescue fella appeared walking straight at me saying " You do know your NOT allowed to fly within 50m of other people" blah blah blah. I replied with "yes, I know that and im keeping away and out in open farmland", he's then said "yeah but I'm stood right here and that thing must only be 10m away from me".... I then said "but you've walked toward me and the drone putting yourself within the 50m!!!". His response, "Doesn't matter, you cant fly here".

So, I landed, packed up and went home.

So where do I stand with this? If Im already flying and keeping within the code guidelines and people walk within that 50m area or decide to take a seat 20m away from my landing spot where do I stand legally?

Thanks in advance with this.

Lee

 

[brett8883]

Hi ALL.

Had some superb weather today so took the family out for a picnic to an area Ive not been for at least 20 years. A lovely Recreational Field in the middle of nowhere.

Set my AIR2 up and off I went. Now, this is my 1st ever drone and im still practicing but getting pretty confident. Ive completed the CAA online competency test and happy with all that jargon.

However, whilst flying out across open farmland and back again I noticed a few other people had arrived to enjoy the location and weather. Now as Im still getting to grips with distance I would say they were a good 40-50 meters away from me. But then a Search & Rescue fella appeared walking straight at me saying " You do know your NOT allowed to fly within 50m of other people" blah blah blah. I replied with "yes, I know that and im keeping away and out in open farmland", he's then said "yeah but I'm stood right here and that thing must only be 10m away from me".... I then said "but you've walked toward me and the drone putting yourself within the 50m!!!". His response, "Doesn't matter, you cant fly here".

So, I landed, packed up and went home.

So where do I stand with this? If Im already flying and keeping within the code guidelines and people walk within that 50m area or decide to take a seat 20m away from my landing spot where do I stand legally?

Thanks in advance with this.

Lee

View attachment 102505

Dang I thought we had it bad here. I can’t repeat what I would tell that guy to go do to himself

 

[old man mavic]

Hi ALL.

Had some superb weather today so took the family out for a picnic to an area Ive not been for at least 20 years. A lovely Recreational Field in the middle of nowhere.

Set my AIR2 up and off I went. Now, this is my 1st ever drone and im still practicing but getting pretty confident. Ive completed the CAA online competency test and happy with all that jargon.

However, whilst flying out across open farmland and back again I noticed a few other people had arrived to enjoy the location and weather. Now as Im still getting to grips with distance I would say they were a good 40-50 meters away from me. But then a Search & Rescue fella appeared walking straight at me saying " You do know your NOT allowed to fly within 50m of other people" blah blah blah. I replied with "yes, I know that and im keeping away and out in open farmland", he's then said "yeah but I'm stood right here and that thing must only be 10m away from me".... I then said "but you've walked toward me and the drone putting yourself within the 50m!!!". His response, "Doesn't matter, you cant fly here".

So, I landed, packed up and went home.

So where do I stand with this? If Im already flying and keeping within the code guidelines and people walk within that 50m area or decide to take a seat 20m away from my landing spot where do I stand legally?

Thanks in advance with this.

Lee

View attachment 102505

sounds like a smart ( Mod Removed)to me ,he was trying to see how you responded to him,actually at the point of take off or landing its 30m distance ,but if you look all around your position before take off or landing ,and announce to any person who may be close by that it is your intention to take off or land and would they stay a safe distance from you during the process ,then they are deemed to be under your control ,and you can then proceed ,i myself have always worn a high vis vest with drone pilot on the back of it ,and have found that most people will keep their distance ,and it acts like an ice breaker as they can see what you are doing ,if you have your OP ID number displayed on your drone and your Fly ID with you then you are complying with the legalities ,only other thing i would recommend is some form of third party cover in case of damage to persons or objects in the event of the drone crashing

 

[THE CYBORG]

All you can do when you encounter a jobsworth is politely state your case but if that doesn't work it’s usually best to go along with them apologies and land.
Legally I would say in this sort of instance you would be OK as no one was close when you took off and if someone approaches you when your drone is already airborne the situation is out of your control, if you fly to an appropriate distance or land as soon as possible there is nothing more you could do.

 

[Johnmcl7]

All you can do when you encounter a jobsworth is politely state your case but if that doesn't work it’s usually best to go along with them apologies and land.
Legally I would say in this sort of instance you would be OK as no one was close when you took off and if someone approaches you when your drone is already airborne the situation is out of your control, if you fly to an appropriate distance or land as soon as possible there is nothing more you could do.

Those are pretty much my thoughts as well. I have been in a similar situation to the OP where someone came up and complained about the drone as it was landing completely lying through their teeth claiming the drone has ruined their afternoon with the amount of noise it had made over the last half hour but the drone had only been up around five minutes (I decided it was too windy) and she'd only been aware of the drone as it came low to land. She carried on now blaming me for flying the drone beside her even though she'd walked right up to it so I calmly told her the flight had been legal, the drone had only been a very short amount of time and if she moved out the way (she was blocking it from landing) I would land it and power it off. I'm not good with confrontations like that and always worry someone is going to tell me off for flying the drone but to be fair it's rarely actually a problem. What bugged me about this flight was I'd made an effort to walk some distance away from anyone else and be compliant with the rules so I couldn't quite get the shot I wanted but was criticised anyway.

In another case I was at the far end of a beach a good bit away from anyone but while the drone was up high a group of people came and set themselves up below the drone. I was worried they were then going to complain that I was flying the drone above them and I was a bit stuck because I was on the edge of a forest and going back along the beach would put me near other people. I decided to just bring it straight down as quickly as possible and explained to the group of people I was landing it but this time there was no problem, a couple of the kids were excited to see the drone coming down and one of the men asked me a few details about the drone.

It's not unique to drones and some people just seem to want to complain about anything and I've had similar negative experiences on my road bike, mountain bike, using a camera or COVID19 behaviour (I had someone kick off because I took pictures while out my daily exercise despite it being clearly allowed)

 

[jagraphics]

But then a Search & Rescue fella appeared walking straight at me saying " You do know your NOT allowed to fly within 50m of other people" blah blah blah.

Playing devils advocate:
Search and Rescue people don't tend to just wander round a "Recreational Field in the middle of nowhere". Was there a search on and it is possible they would be calling in search or rescue helicopters?
In these sort of emergency situations they don't have time to set up a NFZ
That's the only reason I can think of that might be a problem

 

[hiflyer201]

It's just best to make yourself as inconspicuous as possible.....and your drone

 

[SkyeHigh]

Interesting situation - he was putting himself in a ‘dangerous’ position approaching so close. He should know better as at least he is aware of a 50-metre flight distance. If there was a genuine reason for not flying there he should have stated it to you after you have had the opportunity to land safely.

At the end of the day he’s distracting you while inflight.

 

[Johnmcl7]

Playing devils advocate:
Search and Rescue people don't tend to just wander round a "Recreational Field in the middle of nowhere". Was there a search on and it is possible they would be calling in search or rescue helicopters?
In these sort of emergency situations they don't have time to set up a NFZ
That's the only reason I can think of that might be a problem

If that was the case then why would this person not mention it given it's a very important piece of information? If someone came up to me explaining a legitimate reason to get the drone down then I'd do so without hesitation and I think most people are going to respond well to that but if someone comes and complains without any legitimate reason for a legal drone flight then that's going to get people's backs up and much less likely to co-operate so doesn't make sense.