Drone Fly-In/Picnic to protest unlawful drone ordinance

[¬Nomad]

It's all about Perception, a group of scouts having a loud good time is widely acceptable, a bunch of adults playing with noisy sometimes intimidating toys that are probably filmng them.... not so much.
In much the same way that riding a motocross bike through the park would be regarded as anti social, it is a two way street, simply blaming the public for not understanding will win no favour

 

[tcope]

If it did actually happen wouldn't such a gathering do more harm than good?, I am fairly sure most park users don't want a large number of drones buzzing around.
I think perhaps this Idea has more to do with one persons understandable anger over mistreatment than about creating any positive effect

Sometimes you need to stand up for your rights or you will lose them. Illegal laws are made all of the time. Sometimes the only way to make people understand this is to make that stand.

 

[Lapeer20m]

My apologies for not updating this thread earlier.

We showed up and the park was closed, for some mysterious reason:





No big deal. The park system consists of 11,000 acres. They can’t close them all.

This unscheduled closing was rather inconvenient for others as least a couple horse trailers pulled up and they were rather disappointed as they loaded their animals and drove all the way here.

We went to a nearby park in the same system, about 3 miles away.

There were tons of park police. They followed us into the park, then 2 of them parked right next to us and stayed there for the duration.



Many more police cars constantly drove in circles around us. If any member of the group wandered away, they sent a police car to follow.

We had a good picnic. Great discussions. Almost nobody flew. On advice of council, it was determined that it would be more wise to spend money getting a circuit court judge to issue a declaratory judgement against the park than to have a bunch of people arrested and time/money expended fighting all the bogus charges.

The big development is that we have decided to start a non profit organization that educates and advocates and when necessary litigates for uas in the state of Michigan.

Michigan Coalition of Drone Owners or some such thing.

We do need to raise funds to pay for the declaratory action, but we have a superstar attorney who was at the picnic and offered us bargain basement pricing.





Here is a shot of the park:



And another of the park police station:

 

[Lapeer20m]

Thank you for allowing me to join in your drone picinic. You seem to be a lot of good people working toward the right goals following the right path, peaceful and legal. I wish you well in this endeavor. I enjoyed meeting this informal Genesee Drone group. Perhaps I may be able to meet up with the group again when I am downstate.

It was very nice meeting you as well.

I appreciate you putting in the effort and taking some level of personal risk to attend the event.

 

[Lapeer20m]

If it did actually happen wouldn't such a gathering do more harm than good?, I am fairly sure most park users don't want a large number of drones buzzing around.
I think perhaps this Idea has more to do with one persons understandable anger over mistreatment than about creating any positive effect

I can understand how a park full of people could easily be annoyed by a bunch of drones buzzing around.

However, this particular park has few visitors and is hundreds or even thousand of acres.

 

[BD0G]

Thats good news! I can see taking this approach may provide the ability to fly without the pressure of Law Enforcement breathing down your necks.

Open carry as well! I love it! Michigan has some strange gun laws as well.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Well handled !!
You gave them no cause to take any action, possibly rangers and police had been instructed not to cause a scene and escalate things too.

 

[Lapeer20m]

I am hopeful that Soon we will have a judges order to keep the park police from interfering with drone pilots.

State law is crystal clear on this issue.

 

[AMann]

My apologies for not updating this thread earlier.

We showed up and the park was closed, for some mysterious reason:

View attachment 69053

View attachment 69058

No big deal. The park system consists of 11,000 acres. They can’t close them all.

This unscheduled closing was rather inconvenient for others as least a couple horse trailers pulled up and they were rather disappointed as they loaded their animals and drove all the way here.

We went to a nearby park in the same system, about 3 miles away.

There were tons of park police. They followed us into the park, then 2 of them parked right next to us and stayed there for the duration.

View attachment 69059

Many more police cars constantly drove in circles around us. If any member of the group wandered away, they sent a police car to follow.

We had a good picnic. Great discussions. Almost nobody flew. On advice of council, it was determined that it would be more wise to spend money getting a circuit court judge to issue a declaratory judgement against the park than to have a bunch of people arrested and time/money expended fighting all the bogus charges.

The big development is that we have decided to start a non profit organization that educates and advocates and when necessary litigates for uas in the state of Michigan.

Michigan Coalition of Drone Owners or some such thing.

We do need to raise funds to pay for the declaratory action, but we have a superstar attorney who was at the picnic and offered us bargain basement pricing.

View attachment 69054

View attachment 69055

Here is a shot of the park:

View attachment 69056

And another of the park police station:

View attachment 69057

Glad to hear you guys had a successful (attention getting) get together. Now that the park management knows there’s recreational interest in flying there, perhaps they will add it to their allowed activities. They also are aware of what’s ahead for them and hopefully their own council will help them understand the law.

Sorry about the joking about the drone riot gif, hope uou laughed at it too!

 

[Thomas B]

Glad to hear you guys had a successful (attention getting) get together. Now that the park management knows there’s recreational interest in flying there, perhaps they will add it to their allowed activities. They also are aware of what’s ahead for them and hopefully their own council will help them understand the law.

Likely they also let who knows how many traffic violations and crimes pass or have delayed investigation while they watched the group... and likely paid them overtime.

Kudos to you guys for attempting to raise awareness.

 

[Lapeer20m]

Glad to hear you guys had a successful (attention getting) get together. Now that the park management knows there’s recreational interest in flying there, perhaps they will add it to their allowed activities. They also are aware of what’s ahead for them and hopefully their own council will help them understand the law.

Sorry about the joking about the drone riot gif, hope uou laughed at it too!

The council is well aware that they are violating the law. We’ve gone to every council meeting since the end of November. We have also gotten at least 2 newspaper articles written on the subject.

It’s a really strange thing. I don’t even care about drones so much, it’s the blatant disregard for the rule of law.

The council even chastised is lowly citizens for trying to tell them what they can do with their private property.

Which is strange, because it’s public property and it belongs to the people. Citizens have not been telling them what to do with park property, citizens have been politely reminding them that they are violating state law.

 

[AMann]

The council is well aware that they are violating the law. We’ve gone to every council meeting since the end of November. We have also gotten at least 2 newspaper articles written on the subject.

It’s a really strange thing. I don’t even care about drones so much, it’s the blatant disregard for the rule of law.

The council even chastised is lowly citizens for trying to tell them what they can do with their private property.

Which is strange, because it’s public property and it belongs to the people. Citizens have not been telling them what to do with park property, citizens have been politely reminding them that they are violating state law.

Sorry, by council I meant lawyers... but you are right, they need some counseling by a lawyer.

 

[Seth P]

I support you but that many drones in proximity sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, be weary of the bystanders.

 

[Lapeer20m]

I support you but that many drones in proximity sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, be weary of the bystanders.

I appreciate the concern. The group is made up of many intelligent people. safety of manned aircraft and safety of people on the ground is of utmost importance.

These parks are desolate enough that there are no bystanders except for the participants.

Even still, having several different pilots controlling aircraft in realatively close proximity would require a safety briefing and a certain level of organization.

 

[Lapeer20m]

Sorry, by council I meant lawyers... but you are right, they need some counseling by a lawyer.

Your original comment went right over my head, pun intended.

 

[¬Nomad]

I must say from an outsiders viewpoint, wearing a tee shirt saying don't bother me whilst openly carrying a gun seems absurdly passive-aggressive, especialy when protesting in a public area, it indicates you are actively courting confrontation, looking for a fight
Maybe it's a cultural thing as there does seem to be a consensus from fellow Americans that this behaviour is ok

As for the poster saying you have to stand up for your rghts, well that is a good thing, but the criteria being used to define what is a right in this case is purely legal, any discussion of being considerate to others seems to be shut down in here with the pervading attitude of 'its legal ok'.

Sometimes cooperation and consideration of the other can lead to a better outcome.

America has become a place of polarized groups, it's not a good direction

 

[Babaganoosh]

I must say from an outsiders viewpoint, wearing a tee shirt saying don't bother me whilst openly carrying a gun seems absurdly passive-aggressive, especialy when protesting in a public area, it indicates you are actively courting confrontation, looking for a fight
Maybe it's a cultural thing as there does seem to be a consensus from fellow Americans that this behaviour is ok

As for the poster saying you have to stand up for your rghts, well that is a good thing, but the criteria being used to define what is a right in this case is purely legal, any discussion of being considerate to others seems to be shut down in here with the pervading attitude of 'its legal ok'.

Sometimes cooperation and consideration of the other can lead to a better outcome.

America has become a place of polarized groups, it's not a good direction

Typical anti argument that people are looking for a fight due to OC. In actuality they are looking to be left alone. Which by the way didn't happen. They were harassed and intimidated by the armed LEO who were ignoring the laws. However you spin that to the OP being the one passive aggressively looking for a fight? Cmon.

The OP followed the laws to a T and the people who are sworn and paid to follow and enforce laws did the opposite. Over a remote controlled camera/toy. This is how the LEO are spending their time? Unacceptable.

My only concern is the LEO might start a confrontation and the OP might fall victim to the old.... "he was reaching for his waistband and I feared for my life" routine. They already made it quite clear that they intend to harass and intimidate (which is illegal) the drone pilots. What a disgrace.

Thank you OP. I live in NJ so I couldn't be there but I support you from NJ. NJ being another anti everything state.

 

[¬Nomad]

I'm not getting through am I, it's not about being legal it's about being reasonable.
The more unreasonable you behave the more likely authorities will say, "y'know those people are beginning to bug, time we did something"

As for being an "ANTI", I've been flying drones for 10 years now, I don't see any of us being able to fly them 10 years in the future, largely down to unreasonable use, not illegal perhaps but if pursued it will become so.

It's time forums like this stepped up to the plate and encouraged good usage, I'm afraid this forum is falling way short of that.

 

[Lapeer20m]

I won’t comment on firearms on this forum.

To say that nobody should fly in the places where it is legal to do so because it might cause future lawmakers to create tougher rules is hogwash. Especially when the place is an unpopulated area away from people or airports and there is a law that explicitly prohibits government from regulating the activity.

A right that cannot be exercised is no right at all.

People don’t have a right to fly drones, at least not in the way that we think of those enumerated in the bill of rights.

However, people who are not violating the law do have a right to be left alone.

It’s a serious 4th amendment issue when a municipality chooses to disregard clearly established law, detain individuals without reasonable suspicion, and seize their personal property.

This is a big problem.

As such, our new organization, Michigan Coalition for Drone Operators, is utilizing every available tool in the toolbox to get Genesee County to stop violating the law.

This is a country that believes in the rule of law. The people have all the power and we expect our elected servants to act appropriately. When they do not, it’s up to regular citizens like you and me to make them comply.

 

[AMann]

Too many people doing look at me selfie flights with their cheapo drones cause issues like this-

Drones | Meadows

www.skihood.com

This ski area believes they have the authority to regulate fly overs originating and controlled from adjacent private property, and that they can confiscate property and sue for damages from trespassing and invasion of privacy on USFS permitted lands. Its becoming more common of an issue where legitimate use is being looked at in a bad light because of so many making bad choices.