Attitudes towards drones

[Pilgrim Pilot]

(psst -- our statements agree)

 

[Byrdman]

I have had a number of people wander over to see what I am doing during a flight. I usually stop filming and bring the drone home and show it to them. I've had nothing but 100% feedback.

I don't fly over people's back yards and when I show them what I have been filming, they think it's the coolest thing in the world. -Clif

 

[Django18]

I’m really chuffed my original scribbling have resonated with so many people and also encouraged debate and the expression of other views not necessarily agreeing with my own. I’m always interested to hear other viewpoints looking at things in ways I’ve not considered. It’s educational for me and helps me see my own thoughts in the context of the bigger picture of the drone community.

If I had set out to write a piece For publication as an article I probably wouldn’t have written it quite like that. I’d definitely have paid more attention to keeping it shorter and using smaller paragraphs! But I was only inspired to write it as a rant/reply to the first article in the Hastings Online Times and it’s replies that I felt did us a disservice.

Unfortunately I’m about the most time-poor person I know and it would take me ages to re-write it properly in dribs and drabs, however I’ve made a couple of small changes and have re-submitted it to HOT and it looks like it’ll be published soon. I’ll update when it comes out.

 

[Django18]

I have two points for the OP.
First, have you ever seen an animal react well to a drone? I have had dogs jump for it, birds dive around it , even bees swarm it. It is unnatural and many people have a similar visceral reaction.

Second, many years ago the drone, the military drone, came into existence. Why? To spy on the enemy, to fire or dive bomb an explosive at its often human target.
Now we need to realign people perception and it will be an uphill battle.
Drones for good, as someone said.
Good luck with your article.

I have two utterly insane dogs. Whenever I’ve flown my drone near them on walks they tend to get all excited when I take off and I have to wait until they’re 20 feet or so away, then spin up and straight up to about 7-8 feet - just out of their reach. Then they ignore it completely unless I’m right down within reach and I happen to be in their way as they’re charging about. Otherwise they ignore it. In the garden the cat just pretends she hasn’t seen it and sits there looking indifferent.

It’s a shame the word drone applies to both military and recreational devices as it does tend to have that negative association. Quadcopter is a good alternative but I’d never heard the term before researching drones so I’m not sure many others will know what I meant. Maybe I’ll say it’s an ‘Aerial photography vehicle’...

 

[old man mavic]

I have two utterly insane dogs. Whenever I’ve flown my drone near them on walks they tend to get all excited when I take off and I have to wait until they’re 20 feet or so away, then spin up and straight up to about 7-8 feet - just out of their reach. Then they ignore it completely unless I’m right down within reach and I happen to be in their way as they’re charging about. Otherwise they ignore it. In the garden the cat just pretends she hasn’t seen it and sits there looking indifferent.

It’s a shame the word drone applies to both military and recreational devices as it does tend to have that negative association. Quadcopter is a good alternative but I’d never heard the term before researching drones so I’m not sure many others will know what I meant. Maybe I’ll say it’s an ‘Aerial photography vehicle’...

i to dont like drone when i first came on this forum i did my best to use UAV instead but over time i seem to have reverted to drone ,when i am out in the field though and people talk to me about flying my drone i say its called a UAV

 

[EricJT]

It’s a shame the word drone applies to both military and recreational devices as it does tend to have that negative association. Quadcopter is a good alternative but I’d never heard the term before researching drones so I’m not sure many others will know what I meant. Maybe I’ll say it’s an ‘Aerial photography vehicle’...

?? My son and I were early adopters to flying the various AC here in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)....."quadcopters, hexcopters and octacopters".....a less emotional noun than the one connected to the conflict-laden term "drone", used by the military.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

A good use of drones...
Animal Espionage
https://g.co/kgs/yb9MWv

 

[BenF]

Its interesting to see the official form on what is considered a violation.
Visiting in Perth, Australia for 2 weeks. Here is the official unsafe drone operation report for Australia:

Report unsafe drone operations
Use this form to report drone operations you think might have
broken the drone safety rules.
We cannot enforce privacy related matters.
Safety breaches can only be investigated where there is sufficient evidence,
such as photos or video recordings of the breach and the person controlling
the drone at the time.

Nature of the incident

o What was the drone doing? (mandatory)
o It was flying close to people
o It flew over the top of me
o It was flying near an airport
o It was flying near a helicopter landing site
o It was flying at night or in fog
o I don’t think the person flying the drone could see it
o The drone was flying too high (above 120 metres)
o Taking photos of me or other people
o Flying too close to wildlife such as marine animals
o It was noisy
o Other

Drone complaints

Use this form to report drone operations you think might have broken the drone safety rules.

www.casa.gov.au

 

[Kola]

I have so far only experienced curiosity and interest when I fly and others see/hear it.

Of course I do whatever possible to not be a nuisance to anyone.

There is always a chance that someone might not like it, feel 'spied' on or offended/irritated when they see you fly - in these cases, as long as you are within the rules it is really for them to deal with (having said that, avoiding such situations if possible is always better than having to deal with them).

A drone is a great talking point most of the time.

 

[Django18]

I’ve just heard back from the Hastings Online Times - they have now published!

Putting the case for drones

They’ve even put up some pictures I sent them - frames taken from the video I shot on the morning I mentioned in the article.

After the general tone of the replies to the original article that motivated me to write this in the first place it’ll be interesting to see what respones I get if any!

 

[1bad]

I’ve just heard back from the Hastings Online Times - they have now published!

Putting the case for drones

They’ve even put up some pictures I sent them - frames taken from the video I shot on the morning I mentioned in the article.

After the general tone of the replies to the original article that motivated me to write this in the first place it’ll be interesting to see what replies I get if any!

Nice Job man!! Way to step up and get it done for the hobby we love!

 

[old man mavic]

well done , and well done for the Hastings Online Times for allowing you to put your point of view ,there are always two sides to every story,a great job and it would be nice if in time some others in the press feature your article

 

[EricJT]

I’ve just heard back from the Hastings Online Times - they have now published!

Putting the case for drones

They’ve even put up some pictures I sent them - frames taken from the video I shot on the morning I mentioned in the article.

After the general tone of the replies to the original article that motivated me to write this in the first place it’ll be interesting to see whatrespones I get if any!

Well done....and we hold our collective breath for the public's reaction.

 

[Colberado]

There’s always a few exceptions like the idiot who flew over Gatwick last year. But this is not the norm. Anyone can buy a car and drive it on the public highway. Some motorists break the law and speed, or drive whilst on their phones, or tailgate and are a nuisance or even a safety risk. Should we ban cars? Of course not. I’ll attempt to give a balanced view of the comments I read the most often about drones and which are cited in the replies to the article in question.
View attachment 86562

Going to play devils advocate here. This is categorically inaccurate. Let’s start with the unoriginal car comparison. Actually let’s not, that’s a moot point and its always been used as a red herring. There is no logical comparison of drones to cars/phones/dogs etc. and that debate has been exhausted.

I’m going to write this from a millennial view/an outdoorsman/and someone that is well versed in social media-There are not a “few” exceptions. There are many. There has been a massive trendy push over the last few years to venture outdoors, go to national parks, travel abroad, etc. Namely due to Instagram. There are hundreds if not thousands of drone users breaking laws, nfz’s, harassing local and exotic wildlife, you name it—daily. And not just Mavic-type aircraft, FPV as well. People see this stuff now. If not in person, on social media. There are instagram pages created, with hundreds of thousands of followers, whose sole purpose is to expose this type of behavior. If you want to look that up, just let me know.

Again this is coming from an outdoorsman point of view. I can’t speak on city/rural qualms with drones. I’m just pointing out that I completely understand why drones get a bad name in the wilderness/around wildlife/and around notable tourist countries and attractions. Unlawful drone use is unfortunately growing exponentially. You just have to know where to look.

 

[BerndM]

If technology continues the way it is heading now, these issues will all become moot in the very near future.
The reason I say this, is that within the next year or two, we will be inundated with drones flying overhead delivering Amazon, FedEx, UPS, medicines and the local Pizza joint. Our little drones will simply blend in to the flying masses. All of these will, of course have one or more cameras on them.
Those people who are so concerned about being spied on obviously have never seen how tiny they look from even 100 feet with the cameras you'd normally find on our DJI or Yuneec typed drones. Even the Mavic2 Zoom is only a 2X zoom. The amount of spying you can do with cheap super-zoom digital camera is leaps and bounds better at spying than our litlle drones whose cameras have been specifically designed for landscape type imagery.
I believe that most of the fear of being spied on is pure and simple paranoia, misplaced feelings of self importance that anyone should waste their time spying, and a general lack of understanding the imaging capabilities of our drones.
I have been taking aerial pics for at least 20 years with my other RC airplanes both powered and gliders, and not a single person has EVER questioned me except out of curiosity.
This fear /hatred of our drones can be 100% attributed to the idiotic media and their poor record of blowing everything way out of proportion.

 

[MAJMattMason]

I actually think more people are becoming more accepting/resigned to drones. Almost everyone has one now, so being a professional drone pilot is a pointless pursuit. But this does remind me of something that happened several years ago.

A photographer knocked on our door one Saturday and said he'd been flying in a Cessna over the neighborhood and took some aerial photos of our house, and asked if I'd like to purchase them. I did buy one photo for something like $50 and thanked him, amused at the angle the guy had figured out how to make a few bucks.

Later that same day, he knocked on a guy's door, for the same purpose. Only this fellow was a known hothead who lived on the other side of town, next door to some friends who had told us about his aggressive behavior.

He shot and killed the photographer.

I learned about it reading the local newspaper. There are a lot of insane folks out there. Some are going to be fine with drones, some will kill you over them. Be safe. It's not worth your life.

 

[Pilgrim Pilot]

Not true.

Less than half of everyone has one. Probably less than 25% of everyone. And I would even gander to say that less than 10% of everyone has one.

Almost everyone has one now

 

[Pilgrim Pilot]

This could be true for you, but let's just say that people making $150 - $300 / hour would disagree and say it is not true.

being a professional drone pilot is a pointless pursuit.

 

[Pilgrim Pilot]

Can you link us to a news article about this?

He shot and killed the photographer.

 

[old man mavic]

it does not really matter how many people own a drone ,there will always be someone who requires the services of a professional drone pilot, with the equipment to provide it