Annoying neighbors.

[jaswalt]

Hello! Wondering if anyone else’s neighbors have done this… I live in a small non hoa neighborhood. I usually fly my mini 1 at least 200ft above the ground when flying above houses just to avoid stuff like this. I was flying around mid day and I didn’t realize I was flying over my neighbors house down the street and once I was on a walk later that day they shouted out to me to stop trespassing, that I was spying on them, and they were super toxic in general. I try to ignore people like this and I don’t care if they call the cops or not because I have the flight logs to show that I was just passing over (not above people). They have told other neighbors and the same thing has happened over and over. Any thoughts?

Whenever I fly, I always send a text to my neighbors to let them know what I'll be doing. We are not close friends, but by nature of living near each other we keep an eye out for sketchy things in the neighborhood and watch out when neighbors leave on a trip. They always respond right away with a "thank you," and that's the end of it. Wouldn't hurt to try.
While I do fully agree with keeping neighbors happy, or at least not being a major annoyance, I know that I have as much right to not break the law as they do and refuse to limit myself because of somebody else's ignorance or paranoia. That's why I don't ask my neighbors if I can fly, I tell them I am going to. To put their mind at ease, the first text I ever sent regarding drone flights included a line about why I was flying, where I'd be in relation to their property, and reassured them that I am not spying on them. I also included an offer to demonstrate the drone's abilities if they ever desired. No friction at all.

 

[lookout]

I need to go to the trouble of getting a quad to annoy the neighbors with? I can do that without all of that. There are much simpler and less costly methods in doing that.

 

[BethanyFerrell]

I need to go to the trouble of getting a quad to annoy the neighbors with? I can do that without all of that. There are much simpler and less costly methods in doing that.

I think it was the old-time radio comedians Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding who did a little fragment as follows:

This is a Bob and Ray Public Service Announcement. If you play music very loud, it will annoy your neighbors.

Another good way to annoy them is…

 

[Super Dave O]

It is all about exercising our freedoms without pain in the butt neighbors telling us we can’t.

If a neighbor is jerk enough to complain about that youbaren’t going to make them happy no matter what you do so enjoy your hobby legally and tell them to go pound salt. Then explain to other neighbors that are friendly what the situation is so they know who is right.

I am not a person that is going to stand by and let some jackass tell me I can’t do what I am legally allowed to do. They can listen and learn the rules quietly or things can get loud and cops can come drag them off for harrassment.

Mike

100% agree

 

[TG3K]

I just can’t work out the desire to fly from a home in an urban environment / suburb.
It must be just for fun, or testing, not taking cinematic video or taking awesome landscape photos etc...

I'm in a suburban (non-HOA) neighborhood near the base of a mountain in a city of over half a million people. If I go straight up from my back yard I can get great sunset and mountain shots. Sometimes I fly around the neighborhood a bit but it's typically so high that you can't even hear the drone. (I have a Mavic Mini.) The only neighbor who's ever raised an eyebrow was the Karen next door who came out one afternoon when I was in front of my house flying the Mini. She saw me in my driveway with the controller, looked up, and said "Oh, that's you." She knows better than to complain to me because she knows I'll just shrug my shoulders and go on about my business. She complains about everything to everybody. She complained about my wife feeding birds in our back yard because she found peanut shells in her yard. (There are no peanuts in the food that my wife puts out for the birds.) Nowadays she pretty much won't talk to me anymore ever since she accidentally drove into the back of my parked pickup truck at about 30 MPH and wadded up the front of her little SUV. Her RAV 4 was no match for the heavy steel lift gate on the back of my truck, lol.

I also agree with the other posters who are reluctant to stop doing a perfectly legal activity just because someone gets their knickers in a twist. Too many complainers and nosy people in this world...I'm not willing to succumb to them.

 

[MAVE (Little bird)]

I'll bet at 400 ft AGL that they would not even hear the drone, let alone see it.

I find it hard to believe to hear it at 200' let alone see a mini .

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

I'm in a suburban (non-HOA) neighborhood near the base of a mountain in a city of over half a million people. If I go straight up from my back yard I can get great sunset and mountain shots. Sometimes I fly around the neighborhood a bit but it's typically so high that you can't even hear the drone. (I have a Mavic Mini.) The only neighbor who's ever raised an eyebrow was the Karen next door who came out one afternoon when I was in front of my house flying the Mini. She saw me in my driveway with the controller, looked up, and said "Oh, that's you." She knows better than to complain to me because she knows I'll just shrug my shoulders and go on about my business. She complains about everything to everybody. She complained about my wife feeding birds in our back yard because she found peanut shells in her yard. (There are no peanuts in the food that my wife puts out for the birds.) Nowadays she pretty much won't talk to me anymore ever since she accidentally drove into the back of my parked pickup truck at about 30 MPH and wadded up the front of her little SUV. Her RAV 4 was no match for the heavy steel lift gate on the back of my truck, lol.

I also agree with the other posters who are reluctant to stop doing a perfectly legal activity just because someone gets their knickers in a twist. Too many complainers and nosy people in this world...I'm not willing to succumb to them.

Great you can take some nice sunset shots from home, I've done that in suburbia flying from other peoples homes if it's really nice, you can expose so the foreground (suburbs) is almost black, and still get a nice shot.

Yeah, I hear you regarding standing up to people that want to make life hard unnecessarily, while you are being totally legal.
Just I feel a little compromise is worth it, you have to live near these people for a very long time normally.

Ok, if someone is a total jerk, I'd certainly EVENTUALLY tell them to (as you folk so eloquently term it) . . . go pound salt !

 

[Remote Pilots Australia]

Well, firstly I have to say that if what I was doing was legal and reasonable I would not be brow beaten into stopping by an entitled neighbour and I’d be prepared to go as far as required to exercise my rights. As Chamberlain found out in 1938 and as we are about to get a refresher in Eastern Europe you do not deal with bullies by appeasement.

That said, I have never had to deal with that situation and I do fly from home. Perhaps that is due to my approach.

I live in a standard residential area, and let me say in accordance with Australian regulations I wouldn’t go flying over that area without the appropriate approvals in place but fortunately for me my street backs on to / runs parallel to several hundred acres of bushland and wetlands so I can fly from home out and over the wetlands for testing, self training or whatever reason I have in mind.

Of course I was quite aware considering the size and noise footprint of the aircraft I fly that it would be obvious to my neighbours what was going on so my approach when I got my commercial ticket was to door knock my street and explain to them all who I was, where I lived, what I do and that they would see drones flying in and out of my property for the rest of forever and if they had any concerns at any time to come on over and bring it up with me. Four years later .. still no knocks at the door or upset neighbours. I’ve had a few requests to overfly the wetlands looking for missing pets and kids though .

So, short answer. While I would be prepared to take the hard line if I had to to protect my rights that my experience is that with a little thought you can generally head off those situations with all but the most intractable of people who fortunately are few and far between.

Regards
Ari

Edited for spelling and grammar

 

[RScottH]

Hello! Wondering if anyone else’s neighbors have done this… I live in a small non hoa neighborhood. I usually fly my mini 1 at least 200ft above the ground when flying above houses just to avoid stuff like this. I was flying around mid day and I didn’t realize I was flying over my neighbors house down the street and once I was on a walk later that day they shouted out to me to stop trespassing, that I was spying on them, and they were super toxic in general. I try to ignore people like this and I don’t care if they call the cops or not because I have the flight logs to show that I was just passing over (not above people). They have told other neighbors and the same thing has happened over and over. Any thoughts?

I had this issue with my next door neighbour. They called the police and said I was hovering over their property spying on them. When the Police showed up, I gladly showed him my flight logs that showed me flying out over our lake and away from all property. Not sure what happened but he went next door and was there a long time before they left. I tend to leave my are to fly my drones now, mostly country side and un used beaches. Less hassle, no Karen's!

 

[W3bexec]

New recreational flyer. Here are my neighbors, husband and wife, taking "video evidence" of my second ever flight. These people have 5 kids, 3 Ram Cummins diesels all with modded exhausts and rev them daily. (Mod Removed Language) they just installed a train horn on one of them 2 weeks ago that they tested all day long.

But my 10 minute drone flight gone up to 150 ft... totally unacceptable and we're calling the cops. LOL

 

[slozukimc]

New recreational flyer. Here are my neighbors, husband and wife, taking "video evidence" of my second ever flight. These people have 5 kids, 3 Ram Cummins diesels all with modded exhausts and rev them daily. Hell, they just installed a train horn on one of them 2 weeks ago that they tested all day long.

But my 10 minute drone flight gone up to 150 ft... totally unacceptable and we're calling the cops. LOL

Don’t you know in redneck whoever calls the cops first is right?

Mike

 

[lookout]

New recreational flyer. Here are my neighbors, husband and wife, taking "video evidence" of my second ever flight. These people have 5 kids, 3 Ram Cummins diesels all with modded exhausts and rev them daily. Hell, they just installed a train horn on one of them 2 weeks ago that they tested all day long.

But my 10 minute drone flight gone up to 150 ft... totally unacceptable and we're calling the cops. LOL

View attachment 145955

Your toys versus their toys.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

New recreational flyer. Here are my neighbors, husband and wife, taking "video evidence" of my second ever flight. These people have 5 kids, 3 Ram Cummins diesels all with modded exhausts and rev them daily. Hell, they just installed a train horn on one of them 2 weeks ago that they tested all day long.

But my 10 minute drone flight gone up to 150 ft... totally unacceptable and we're calling the cops. LOL

View attachment 145955

Your toys versus their toys.

Laughable nearly isn’t it ?
Self centred people like that have no idea just how much the world doesn’t really revolve around them.

 

[MA2 317]

New recreational flyer. Here are my neighbors, husband and wife, taking "video evidence" of my second ever flight. These people have 5 kids, 3 Ram Cummins diesels all with modded exhausts and rev them daily. Hell, they just installed a train horn on one of them 2 weeks ago that they tested all day long.

But my 10 minute drone flight gone up to 150 ft... totally unacceptable and we're calling the cops. LOL

View attachment 145955

This photo needs to be a meme of some sorts.

" Call the cops."
" I can't. Too busy filming."
"Me too."



Just keep zig zagging in the sky and fly a bit to the left as the sun will get in their faces as they try to film your flight.

By the way, Welcome to the Forum W3bexec.




.

 

[Skywatcher2001]

New recreational flyer. Here are my neighbors, husband and wife, taking "video evidence" of my second ever flight. These people have 5 kids, 3 Ram Cummins diesels all with modded exhausts and rev them daily. Hell, they just installed a train horn on one of them 2 weeks ago that they tested all day long.

But my 10 minute drone flight gone up to 150 ft... totally unacceptable and we're calling the cops. LOL

View attachment 145955

Yeah but you have the high ground . . . welcome to the forum!!

 

[slozukimc]

This photo needs to be a meme of some sorts.

" Call the cops."
" I can't. Too busy filming."
"Me too."



Just keep zig zagging in the sky and fly a bit to the left as the sun will get in their faces as they try to film your flight.

By the way, Welcome to the Forum W3bexec.




.

Fly back and forth for no reason other than to make them follow your movement so when you make a meme they look like they are dancing.

Mike

 

[Korrd]

New recreational flyer. Here are my neighbors, husband and wife, taking "video evidence" of my second ever flight. These people have 5 kids, 3 Ram Cummins diesels all with modded exhausts and rev them daily. (Mod Removed Language) they just installed a train horn on one of them 2 weeks ago that they tested all day long.

But my 10 minute drone flight gone up to 150 ft... totally unacceptable and we're calling the cops. LOL

View attachment 145955

Is that dual tires on the rear of the rightmost truck? What good are those for such a light vehicle?

 

[BigAl07]

Is that dual tires on the rear of the rightmost truck? What good are those for such a light vehicle?

What if it's pulling a loaded trailer? Still not a good idea?

 

[BigAl07]

New recreational flyer. Here are my neighbors, husband and wife, taking "video evidence" of my second ever flight. These people have 5 kids, 3 Ram Cummins diesels all with modded exhausts and rev them daily. (Mod Removed Language) they just installed a train horn on one of them 2 weeks ago that they tested all day long.

But my 10 minute drone flight gone up to 150 ft... totally unacceptable and we're calling the cops. LOL

View attachment 145955

WELCOME to the forum

Can you not see why hovering and recording them like that could be very unnerving? We are our own worst enemies when it comes to Public Perception.

 

[akdrone]

In tight neighborhoods it' good to get to know neighbors in advance of flying around. You might offer them some free aerial pictures of their house. Find some way to get them interested in your activity. Then, know when to back off.
In our very close community I may do some flight tests on the street or on our lawn, that's all. Other flights are away from housing areas. I found ways to make videos useful to the community.

You can’t offer them free aerial photographs if you don’t have a part 107