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Dealing with spectators.....

I deal with all of this by avoiding people altogether. I'm not shooting people or activities like this at all, so there's no reason for us to connect.

Generally, I have a few shots in mind, and I get in and get out pretty quickly. Even though I'm doing nothing illegal, dealing with people's misperceptions about the subject often doesn't go great, so I do what I can to lessen interactions.
 
I deal with all of this by avoiding people altogether. I'm not shooting people or activities like this at all, so there's no reason for us to connect.

Generally, I have a few shots in mind, and I get in and get out pretty quickly. Even though I'm doing nothing illegal, dealing with people's misperceptions about the subject often doesn't go great, so I do what I can to lessen interactions.
yeah, i try avoid ppl too...but hard to find a park that is abandon, and if there's no people around...scare being rob the next second, and yes im living in 3rd world asia country
 
I usually fly from a large open grassed area just in front of the beach where I live so lots of people out walking / cycling etc on the seafront 150ft away - I don't fly over them but I've had lots of contact with interested people - I always take the time to chat to them and often bring the Mavic back in so they can get a closer look at it - most seem fascinated that they can see themselves on the screen. The age range is huge as well, younger kids right through to people in their 70's / 80's wanting to know the usual how much, how far, how high, does it take pictures / video questions - even had the police stop by and have a look (in a friendly capacity rather than official lol). I think the more we can do to engage the public the better.

I've only had one bad experience with 'angry man' and his 'angry wife' who came striding up to me shouting that I shouldn't be flying over the beach (even though it was near enough deserted) and that he was going to report me. I had just landed having used my last battery and had some really great chats with people - a phantom4 pilot had spotted me and had been chatting to me for the past 20 mins, a group of 'youths' had come over an hour or so before and were really interested in the Mavic and had been super friendly before going off to play football near by. Anyway, 'angry man' who was around 20 feet away and shouting seemed to be making towards the Mavic which was about 10ft away from me where it had landed - I really thought he was going to stamp on it or take it... his demeanor was aggressive and I just managed to get to my feet and grab it before he reached me. He was intimidating and shouty - now although I am quite capable of dealing with this and giving it straight back to him I remained calm, corrected him on his inaccurate knowledge and wished him a nice day....unfortunately he didn't seem to want to go and continued being an idiot. Well, the funniest thing then happened - the group of 'youths' who were playing football came running over and, how should I put it, were considerably less friendly to him than they had been to me. :D He seemed to lose interest in having a go at me and left the area immediately, albeit still grumbling.

So I guess the moral for me is that always be nice to people because sometimes the least likely of people will surprise you and help you out. :)
 
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i have had no particularly bad experiences.
shown a mom and her kids, sent them to her, shown a whole family, transferred the quick shots to the dads phone for him and some pictures.

the closest I had to a negative experience really was two old biddies walked up, one friendly, asking questions, I sensed a "can you spy" question coming so I took the jump and joked how "its no good for spying..." blah blah blah. making joke of it.
but her companion didn't really say anything, just had that.. demeaner.

had the police park up behind me while I was sitting in car plotting a survey shot with drone deploy on phone.
thought "uh oh what's going on.."
they went to boot of their car got shovels and started scrapping mud off the road from the farmer harvesting his field, apparently a cyclist had called in as hazard after nearly coming off bike or did come off. who knows

most people are wonderfully curious and I have not yet got sick of the positive attention and I love making parents with kids happy.
 
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I had my first unpleasant encounter, I'd walked to a quiet spot out in the countryside where there was no sign of anyone and popped the drone up but it was struggling in the wind so once I had a couple of pictures I took it down. My timing was awful as a lady just approached me and told me how annoying my drone was, how rude I was to disturb the countryside etc. so I simply stated the drone had only been up a matter of minutes and that she hadn't heard it until it was near landing (she claimed the noise had been bothering her the last half hour) to which she didn't reply. Instead she stood there blocking it from landing to I asked her to move on otherwise I couldn't land my 'noisy' drone and switch it off so she stormed off making some other derogatory comments about me.

I'm not very good at confrontation and it riled me more than it should, as always you think of what you should have said after and in particular there was a body of water nearby that there were some dogs barking away while playing making far more noise than the drone, she wasn't complaining about those.

At another spot, again I walked out from the main path and found a quiet spot where I never see another person but this time there were a few people. As usual the moment I'd seen anyone I moved the drone up and away so it couldn't be seen or heard but this guy came up to me and started 'Oh you're the one that's flying the drone' and was bracing myself for a similar episode but he laughed and said he'd noticed his dog reacting something but couldn't see what it was then had spotted the drone and realised that's what it was.
 
johncmcl7 you handled it as best you could, at the end of the day you got your bird down safely.

You have a right to be there, you always think of the perfect thing to say once they gone.

Don't let it stop you flying there, be prepared conceptually to run into her again and if she does it again tell her you are well within your rights to enjoy this space as you see fit and that interfering with the operator of a drone is a criminal offence under FAA regulations. (truths are not important she won't know)

Can always tell her to jog on, but situation and your comfort level a factor.

Someone comes at you in a civil manner you respond in kind, if they come at you looking for trouble act.... appropriately.
 
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in addition, if you find conflict on any level to be difficult you may find using deterrent methods valuable.
High vis vest with drone operator on it, sign saying do not disturb, Air Force surveyor operating"

I have my builders son who is rather nervous about getting told to go away, given he is just a young man he is disrespected, so when I will fly with him I will look after him, I have toyed with the idea of getting 2 vests, 1 for me "RAF UAV instructor, do not disturb" and one for him "RAF Drone Operator, Do not disturb"

probably won't bother with such vests but it amuses me :D
 
I had an incident last summer while flying at a family reunion. I was taking pictures and a number of younger children started to crowd around wanting to see the screen.
Before long one asked "What's that", reaching out and poking the screen. He managed to find the RTH button and my Mavic climbed away.
It took me a moment to realize what was happening but I managed to get it back on the ground safely (and quickly packed up).
Made a note to self about kids and drones.
 
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I feel the best strategy is to simply put yourself into neighbor/bystander/whoever shoes: imagine YOURSELF having zero affection to drones, and someone flies over you/house, making this annoying noise, loitering, pointing camera in various directions, doing unknown things for unknown purposes. Would you like it? Day after day after day. Let's be honest: NOBODY LIKES IT. Even if someone is initially curious about drones, they will be annoyed after a couple flyovers.

Wherever you want to launch/fly your drone, just put yourself in other people's shoes and the answer will be obvious.
 
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I feel the best strategy is to simply put yourself into neighbor/bystander/whoever shoes: imagine YOURSELF having zero affection to drones, and someone flies over you/house, making this annoying noise, loitering, pointing camera in various directions, doing unknown things for unknown purposes. Would you like it? Day after day after day. Let's be honest: NOBODY LIKES IT. Even if someone is initially curious about drones, they will be annoyed after a couple flyovers.

Wherever you want to launch/fly your drone, just put yourself in other people's shoes and the answer will be obvious.
I agree. It doesn't matter if the law is on your side. Don't be a nuisance, and don't decide your enjoyment takes precedence over theirs.
 
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I feel the best strategy is to simply put yourself into neighbor/bystander/whoever shoes: imagine YOURSELF having zero affection to drones, and someone flies over you/house, making this annoying noise, loitering, pointing camera in various directions, doing unknown things for unknown purposes. Would you like it? Day after day after day. Let's be honest: NOBODY LIKES IT. Even if someone is initially curious about drones, they will be annoyed after a couple flyovers.

Wherever you want to launch/fly your drone, just put yourself in other people's shoes and the answer will be obvious.

I take no responsibility for others people's unreasonable emotional responses.
They need to grow up and realize that life is not all about them.
Hopefully they won't have to learn this lesson the hard way.
 
Me personally love view without people in it. But if you need those kind of shots, do it quickly before got any attention from others, otherwise just answer them in short sentences and no eye contact, they'll know how do you feel about random chit chat.
 
And life is not all about you when you're flying over their heads?

Who said I was flying over anybody's head?
Pay attention your imagination seems to be running away with you.
I don't fall for straw man arguments so you need not post anymore.
If you like to cave to every whiny snowflake you encounter, feel free.
 
Honestly, every time you post I cringe. You bring your political beliefs to a non-partisan forum, and generally respond to others in a negative way.

I invite you to take your own advice and find another more appropriate forum, not one that exists for the spirit of cooperation and goodwill.

Nobody here is fooled by your invoking terms like "commie" and "snowflake". Keep it civil, or take it elsewhere.

Can't stand somebody not agreeing with you?
Start another straw man argument?
Seriously it looks like if it's not your idea it's not an idea we're hearing.
Is that the way it is?
You're transparent.
I would never suggest that you go away because I can tolerate other people's ideas, something you should possibly try.
 
Well, my favourite feature of this forum is "ignore". I wonder how many others have found that helpful in your case?

Goodbye. Enjoy the rest of your bitter life.

Like I said.
 
Be Nice.jpeg Everyone
 
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