Do you think this is a sensible flight, even if legal ( UK ), and do you think it is wise to publish it ? NOT mine, I won't fly in a town full stop ..

[Droning on and on...]

Since when you do expect privacy in your outdoor garden open to the skies above?

Answering this in general (i.e. the public) and not me specifically: Since, well, the Big Bang (i.e. the beginning of time).

Noting there has been general aviation flying overhead for the last century is not a counter-argument. People's expectation in their enclosed yards is they have overhead privacy, as aircraft don't usually fly low enough to threaten it.

Drones have completely changed that, and people feel threatened. That's why it keeps coming up.

We must compromise to live together. Loitering around looking at people in their backyards is something I'm pretty confident the general public doesn't like, and won't accept.

So if people don't at present have a right to privacy from drones over their yards, the surest way to get one on the books is engage in this activity.

Oh, and when confronted, get all chest-thumping about how the FAA controls the airspace, blah blah blah you have a right to fly there.

Lickety-split there's a local ordinance against it, you're fined and your drone confiscated, and it's up to you to fight it all by yourself. As has been demonstrated time and again in cases like this, you and your situation are too small and minor of a flea for the FAA to get involved with.

I imagine this plays out about the same in the UK, Australia, France, Luxembourg, Eritrea, and other fun places around the globe.

Respect. Each other. Goes a long way.

 

[mavic3usa]

Answering this in general (i.e. the public) and not me specifically: Since, well, the Big Bang (i.e. the beginning of time).

Noting there has been general aviation flying overhead for the last century is not a counter-argument. People's expectation in their enclosed yards is they have overhead privacy, as aircraft don't usually fly low enough to threaten it.

Drones have completely changed that, and people feel threatened. That's why it keeps coming up.

We must compromise to live together. Loitering around looking at people in their backyards is something I'm pretty confident the general public doesn't like, and won't accept.

So if people don't at present have a right to privacy from drones over their yards, the surest way to get one on the books is engage in this activity.

Oh, and when confronted, get all chest-thumping about how the FAA controls the airspace, blah blah blah you have a right to fly there.

Lickety-split there's a local ordinance against it, you're fined and your drone confiscated, and it's up to you to fight it all by yourself. As has been demonstrated time and again in cases like this, you and your situation are too small and minor of a flea for the FAA to get involved with.

I imagine this plays out about the same in the UK, Australia, France, Luxembourg, Eritrea, and other fun places around the globe.

Respect. Each other. Goes a long way.

And thus was born the drone auditor movement similar to others that has swept the country and created a nationwide epidemic that has brought awareness to millions if not practically everybody in the country and a lot of the rest of to world. And people wonder how these movements get started. Ask the UK how drone auditors are working out for them.

 

[mavic_minis_fly_away]

It goes to show that you need to be very careful before claiming people are breaking the law.

It's the last time I trust dronesafetymap.com.

 

[Murph66]

Give me green fields , rivers , wide open spaces ,scenery and the sea anytime

 

[Droning on and on...]

And thus was born the drone auditor movement similar to others that has swept the country and created a nationwide epidemic that has brought awareness to millions if not practically everybody in the country and a lot of the rest of to world. And people wonder how these movements get started. Ask the UK how drone auditors are working out for them.

Nationwide epidemic?!??!!?

Don't know what you do for a living, but you have a promising future in advertising, particularly treatments for male "thingy" enlargement

 

[mavic3usa]

Nationwide epidemic?!??!!?

Don't know what you do for a living, but you have a promising future in advertising, particularly treatments for male "thingy" enlargement

Obviously being sarcastic but when an auditor shows up with a camera and a dozen armed officers show up within 5 minutes, what would you call it?

 

[Robert Prior]

But I wouldn't want to fly over blah blah blah so I would rather crash it somewhere safe than fly over such an area.
And yes it has happened, a gust came up and took a drone towards a village and I was about to CSC it into the sea when the gust died and I 'regained control'.

Years ago a light plane lost its engine over Toronto, and the pilot (70-something female, IIRC) decided to land in an open field she spotted. Which was the playground of an elementary school. During recess. When it was filled with children running around.

Fortunately she landed in a tree just before the playground, and had to be rescued by a fire department ladder. I have a picture of the treed airplane somewhere (I was teaching at a nearby high school at the time and wandered over at lunchtime to have a look).

A friend of mine at the time, an air force pilot, was absolutely aghast that the pilot would rather land a playground filled with children than crash. His opinion was that any pilot who would choose to endanger others just to increase their own safety shouldn't be in charge of a plane.

I've always remembered his comments when flying my drone, which is why my flight plan includes finding places to crash-land if necessary. Drone-eating trees are usually a good option

 

[Droning on and on...]

Obviously being sarcastic but when an auditor shows up with a camera and a dozen armed officers show up within 5 minutes, what would you call it?

Not "epidemic"

 

[Robert Prior]

For me, the issue with sub 250g drones is not safety but privacy. As far as I'm aware, there are no provisions in existing legislation to protect privacy.

Don't know about the UK, but in Canada our privacy legislation applies to drones too.

Privacy guidelines for drone users

Privacy guidelines for drone operators; including recreational, commercial, and government users.

tc.canada.ca

A while back there was a video someone shot of a drone hovering outside the window of their condo, multiple floors above the ground, and there was much to-do about it in the Vancouver press. Was someone peeping in the window of tenth-floor bedrooms? The horror!

As a photographer I looked at the condo building behind the drone and laughed, because any of its windows could have concealed a camera with a telephoto lens owned by a voyeur smart enough not to use a really noisy cell phone camera that attracted attention.

 

[Droning on and on...]

Years ago a light plane lost its engine over Toronto, and the pilot (70-something female, IIRC) decided to land in an open field she spotted. Which was the playground of an elementary school. During recess. When it was filled with children running around.

Fortunately she landed in a tree just before the playground, and had to be rescued by a fire department ladder. I have a picture of the treed airplane somewhere (I was teaching at a nearby high school at the time and wandered over at lunchtime to have a look).

A friend of mine at the time, an air force pilot, was absolutely aghast that the pilot would rather land a playground filled with children than crash. His opinion was that any pilot who would choose to endanger others just to increase their own safety shouldn't be in charge of a plane.

I've always remembered his comments when flying my drone, which is why my flight plan includes finding places to crash-land if necessary. Drone-eating trees are usually a good option

Not defending that Pilot, not at all. I'd point out, however, that survival instinct is strong, and panic causes irrational thinking.

None of that comes into play ditching a UAS. We haven't evolved to panic over that

 

[Droning on and on...]

Don't know about the UK, but in Canada our privacy legislation applies to drones too.

Privacy guidelines for drone users

Privacy guidelines for drone operators; including recreational, commercial, and government users.

tc.canada.ca

A while back there was a video someone shot of a drone hovering outside the window of their condo, multiple floors above the ground, and there was much to-do about it in the Vancouver press. Was someone peeping in the window of tenth-floor bedrooms? The horror!

As a photographer I looked at the condo building behind the drone and laughed, because any of its windows could have concealed a camera with a telephoto lens owned by a voyeur smart enough not to use a really noisy cell phone camera that attracted attention.

Here's where the flippancy ("the horror!") of your comments doesn't compute for me: I don't think invading ones privacy is okay whether you use a drone or a long telephoto lens through a window. It's just harder to catch the latter.

I have a strong feeling the vast majority of the public sees this the same way. Whether drone hobbyists like it or not is utterly irrelevant. As is current law which, if enough people get pissed off, will change.

Please don't do things like that, folks. Drone or Nikon.

 

[Robert Prior]

Here's where the flippancy ("the horror!") of your comments doesn't compute for me: I don't think invading ones privacy is okay whether you use a drone or a long telephoto lens through a window.

I wish I could find the article, because it was very much drones-end-privacy while totally ignoring all the ways that the condo owner didn't actually have the privacy they obviously thought they had — hence my flippancy. I would have expected a reporter to at least point out the gaps in their logic in the article, even if they didn't bring them up in the interview.

I've lived in apartments with other apartments across the street. If you have a unit which faces other units, it's pretty much a given that you can see into your neighbour's windows (and they into your's). If you want privacy, use curtains.

You may legally have an expectation of privacy inside your home, but if someone is on public property (or their own home) and can see inside your home the onus is on you to use a privacy barrier. Legally, and frankly practically. Otherwise you're like the crazy parent who puts a kiddie pool in their front yard and then shouts at anyone who looks at their squealing kids.

So if you're upset that a drone can see through your window but not that a neighbour across the street can do the same, IMHO you're irrationally panicking. It's like someone getting upset about a photographer in a park with an SLR who might be photographing them, while ignoring all the cell phones, GoPros, etc. (Been there, done that. Even had a woman insist that I had no right to take pictures in the park, while videoing me with her phone.)