Amazing Coincidence

[theDRONEranger]

On Sept 4, driving north lanes of Academy Blvd in Colorado Springs, CO, I spotted a small drone hovering about 25 feet above the north bound traffic. Found a safe place to pull over and called the Springs PD non-911 to report. As soon as I informed the dispatcher of a drone hovering over moving traffic, she immediately began asking questions to narrow down, as much as possible, the approximate size and features. Her questions led me to ask her if she was familiar. Turns out, not only does she own a Phantom and Mavic, she also is 107 licensed. How cool! Any way, I was unable to pull over in the vicinity and could not track the drone myself. It was smaller in size, about same size as Spark, which led me to believe battery life would be short. She said she’ll forward to FSDO and let them investigate.

 

[BD0G]

I would have asked her if we could meet up and fly sometime. <wink>
After speaking to people when flying there are a certain percentage of them that do own thier own drones and feel compelled to speak to other flyers. I almost did this myself the other day.
I was out at the beach in Lake Tahoe (Sand Harbor) which is part of a National Park and I made the mistake of flying there in the past and was reprimanded (landed immediately) .

I saw a group of 2 couples flying on the beach just like I had in the past. I almost went up to them to tell them that drone flights were off limits in this area. I figured the local beach patrol would handle the situation. Never happened.

They were flying on a Tuesday with very few people on the beach so they were not turned in. I was flying on a Friday with lots more people so I can see where I was "caught" and they were not. I must say that they took some great video of thier girls frolicking in the waves and water though. They were doing splashes and hair flips and taunting the straps on thier bikini tops. Oh to be young and reckless...


I now never assume that anyone I come into contact is not drone savvy.

 

[ZX14-R]

Just wondering what you hoped to achieve by doing what you did ?

If it was a Spark as you suggested the operator would have been reasonably close by and flight time would mean he would have been way gone by the time anything would/could have been done about it?

 

[superstarpup]

So you saw a drone and called the cops?

 

[BigAl07]

So you saw a drone and called the cops?

To be accurate :

On Sept 4, driving north lanes of Academy Blvd in Colorado Springs, CO, I spotted a small drone hovering about 25 feet above the north bound traffic.

Why wouldn't you report a sUAS hovering directly over traffic?

 

[AMann]

We have a rogue older model Phantom that flies over the neighborhood at night sometimes. I haven't tried triangulating where it lands but it’s annoyingly loud and messes up my astrophotography on occasion when I’m shooting a long exposure. He sees our red lights and comes over us like a moth, and when we go dark he leaves. Wish I could go chase it with my M2P, but no... not worth it. Just waiting for the day it flies away or crashes, or he gets caught flying it to come sometime soon.

 

[deleted member 877]

Just wondering what you hoped to achieve by doing what you did ?

If it was a Spark as you suggested the operator would have been reasonably close by and flight time would mean he would have been way gone by the time anything would/could have been done about it?

Well worth a try. There might have been a squad car close by that could have responded to a radio call even before the moron drone operator had landed.

The O.P. did exactly the right thing - anything to help expose the numb-nuts who blatantly flout the regulations can only be a good thing.

 

[Gizmo6257]

Unreal that a Drone enthusiast would call the police on another Drone pilot. Maybe if he was causing damage or hurting someone. But flying a Spark over a road, sure isn't a reason to call police. No wonder we can't fly anywhere anymore. Grow up and. Mind your own business, unless you are in danger. If he was doing something wrong, he will get caught. Just like my neighbors called police on me for flying my Drone in my backyard. The police officer that came said, some people just don't have a life or anything else to do. Just like when cell phone cameras came out, everyone was whinging about privacy. Worry about seroius issues and quit ruining the Drone community and where we can fly. Geez

 

[DroningOn]

Worry about seroius issues and quit ruining the Drone community and where we can fly. Geez

Welcome to mavicpilots.com

 

[AMann]

Unreal that a Drone enthusiast would call the police on another Drone pilot. Maybe if he was causing damage or hurting someone. But flying a Spark over a road, sure isn't a reason to call police. No wonder we can't fly anywhere anymore. Grow up and. Mind your own business, unless you are in danger. If he was doing something wrong, he will get caught. Just like my neighbors called police on me for flying my Drone in my backyard. The police officer that came said, some people just don't have a life or anything else to do. Just like when cell phone cameras came out, everyone was whinging about privacy. Worry about seroius issues and quit ruining the Drone community and where we can fly. Geez

His case was a bit different than yours, the drone pilot was doing something wrong and you weren’t. It’s people that break the laws that will ruin it for the drone community, and it is our business.

 

[theDRONEranger]

On Sept 4, driving north lanes of Academy Blvd in Colorado Springs, CO, I spotted a small drone hovering about 25 feet above the north bound traffic. Found a safe place to pull over and called the Springs PD non-911 to report. As soon as I informed the dispatcher of a drone hovering over moving traffic, she immediately began asking questions to narrow down, as much as possible, the approximate size and features. Her questions led me to ask her if she was familiar. Turns out, not only does she own a Phantom and Mavic, she also is 107 licensed. How cool! Any way, I was unable to pull over in the vicinity and could not track the drone myself. It was smaller in size, about same size as Spark, which led me to believe battery life would be short. She said she’ll forward to FSDO and let them investigate.

Ok, I apoligize to those whose feelings were hurt by the fact I did report this particular incident. This particular area is still within the 5 mile base radius of a Class C. (Maybe a LAANC or Unlock record, just maybe!) It is a three lane road in each direction and quite busy at times, especially during the daylight hours. I spotted it and went right back to concentrating on driving. Some drivers would possibly be mesmerized by it and tune to it rather than concentrate on the road (just sayin’, ya know!). I am quite happy no one was injured by this rogue pilot. Maybe next time, he can come lower and play dodgeball with the traffic! Again, I apoligize to those whose feelings were hurt by my reporting of this incident. I thought it was the right thing to do!

 

[BigAl07]

Unreal that a Drone enthusiast would call the police on another Drone pilot. Maybe if he was causing damage or hurting someone. But flying a Spark over a road, sure isn't a reason to call police. No wonder we can't fly anywhere anymore. Grow up and. Mind your own business, unless you are in danger. If he was doing something wrong, he will get caught. Just like my neighbors called police on me for flying my Drone in my backyard. The police officer that came said, some people just don't have a life or anything else to do. Just like when cell phone cameras came out, everyone was whinging about privacy. Worry about seroius issues and quit ruining the Drone community and where we can fly. Geez

You've got this 100% backwards. Someone hovering OVER A HIGHWAY is why the regulations are stricter... you're placing your CART in front of your HORSE!!

What I find "unreal" is that we haven't reached the level of maturity yet to where we can POLICE ourselves! The FAA has even asked us to help POLICE ourselves. If idiots keep doing stupid things ALL OF US are going to have to deal with tighter and tighter restrictions.

You may only have a little skin in this game but some of us are ALL IN and stricter regulations could very well take food off my table.

 

[BigAl07]

I thought it was the right thing to do!

You did EXACTLY the right thing! Well done and thanks for sharing it.

 

[Skywatcher2001]

The excuse: "I was minding my own business" or "it wasn't my responsibility" have been used to justify how many tragedies in our history? HOW MANY!! theDRONEranger did the right thing. If a tragedy would have happened, he did the right thing and would sleep at night. If nothing at all happened, he did the right thing and would sleep at night.

 

[PoonDog]

Well,Im not going to disagree with Big Al As this would constititute a safty hazard. I would be supprised if this went any further than Drone Ranger's phone call because I dont know what LE could or would be able to do about it. I do know that flying over traffic is a violation of FAA regulations and we have beat this dead horse quite a bit. I will throw in that the responsibility of LE is to investigate crimes and if you really streched it may be reckless endangerment witch is a class c misdomeano in Washington.
and as stated before, this dude was probably long gone by the time Ranger got off the phone.I might add that cities can make ordanances that can prohibit flying drones , cutting your grass on sunday's, or letting your dog running loose and I believe that ordanance's are enforceable. I have been retired for a long time and I really dont pay that much attention any more.

 

[Thomas B]

If we as group, drone pilots, don’t police ourselves then regulation of drones will only get more onerous. ... and ownership more expensive. The technology is already for sale through DJI to track drones and ADSB will add to it.

 

[GFields]

You've got this 100% backwards. Someone hovering OVER A HIGHWAY is why the regulations are stricter... you're placing your CART in front of your HORSE!!

What I find "unreal" is that we haven't reached the level of maturity yet to where we can POLICE ourselves! The FAA has even asked us to help POLICE ourselves. If idiots keep doing stupid things ALL OF US are going to have to deal with tighter and tighter restrictions.

You may only have a little skin in this game but some of us are ALL IN and stricter regulations could very well take food off my table.

Exactly!

I am a full-time drone pilot and I assure you, if I find a drone pilot doing stupid things as the OP wrote about, I'd report them too. I have been hired to do traffic analysis before and my lowest altitude was 100' AGL. At 25 feet one is just asking to cause an accident.

 

[PoonDog]

Just to mention a personal experiance, I had been flying quite a bit in a city park and had no problems at all, but it dawned on me that I may be in violation of law or ordanance. I contacted the city park's department and asked if there was an ordanance that restricted drone flights in city parks and ,as of this time, there is nothing to prohibit flying in the parks . However there would be by this time next year and told to fly safe because drones are always falling out of the sky and injuring little girls.
This caused me to think that it is our(drone pilots) responsibility to educate the general public about our hobby/buisness.
And , if we see someone flying in a reckless manner we should, nicely, attempt to educate them also.

 

[superstarpup]

To be accurate :


Why wouldn't you report a sUAS hovering directly over traffic?

if someone bought a drone, then came across this-

Recreational Flyers & Modeler Community-Based Organizations

www.faa.gov

they’d have no reason to think they couldn’t fly over traffic. A reasonable person who has never been around anything aviation beyond a trip to Best Buy and a quick google search wouldn’t think hovering could be construed as careless and reckless. The FAA made mention of not flying over crowds of people or stadiums, they could have easily said don’t fly over highways, but they didn’t.

If i saw someone doing that I’d try to educate them, but someone doing that isn’t what local law enforcement resources should be aimed at.

We have a rogue older model Phantom that flies over the neighborhood at night sometimes. I haven't tried triangulating where it lands but it’s annoyingly loud and messes up my astrophotography on occasion when I’m shooting a long exposure. He sees our red lights and comes over us like a moth, and when we go dark he leaves. Wish I could go chase it with my M2P, but no... not worth it. Just waiting for the day it flies away or crashes, or he gets caught flying it to come sometime soon.

Why is it a “rogue” phantom? How do you know they are operating illegally?

 

[BigAl07]

if someone bought a drone, then came across this-

Recreational Flyers & Modeler Community-Based Organizations

www.faa.gov

While there is certainly some "lack of consistency" with the current sUAS regulations in terms of how it's worded on different "Official" sites... (some actually state moving vehicles etc) how would any even partially sane person rationalize that flying a sUAS directly over lanes of traffic is even remotely smart, legal, ethical in ANY WAY WHAT SO EVER? These sUAS have multiple Single Points of Failure and ZERO redundancies built in.

Here's a direct pull from the Know Before You Fly (.org) website:

Do not intentionally fly over unprotected persons or moving vehicles, and remain at least 25 feet away from individuals and vulnerable property.

If i saw someone doing that I’d try to educate them, but someone doing that isn’t what local law enforcement resources should be aimed at.

I would (and HAVE) as well but if I couldn't get to the operator to make that first contact and try to build a relationship etc I would also call the NON-Emergency # and let LEO know about the ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES.