Drone Movement Questio

[iamkjf]

I know literally nothing about drones but had one over my property today. It stayed stationary just above the treeline but kept doing little one quarter turns until fully rotated into a 360. Did this for about one minute, flew away and then came back to a slightly different position and did the same thing. The quarter turns looked very deliberate. Any idea what he was doing? I'm out in a rural area and am pretty surrounded by trees but my property itself is wide open above. Worth noting he did this for about half an hour and did a few of my neighbors as well

 

[Phantomrain.org]

The drones have a camera to capture landscapes as many do for a hobby.

The Turning of the Drone Camera is automated slowly allowing it to take as many pictures as needed and for the drone to stitch them together to make one very big Picture of the Sky and the land scape.

This is very similar to some one standing on the groud with there I Phone turning the phone in a circle motion very slowly to capture as many pictures as needed to stich a picture together to create a Pano , short for panning the camera to make a bigger picture as almost all phones now have .

Maybe some members will post a few pictures for you to see a Panorramic Land Scape Picture.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain and Take Pano of the Storm

 

[Starz]

A number of possibilities. Probably not a big concern unless you see this more often than you would like.
If it persists beyond your comfort level, post again for additional help.

 

[Felix le Chat]

I know literally nothing about drones but had one over my property today. It stayed stationary just above the treeline but kept doing little one quarter turns until fully rotated into a 360. Did this for about one minute, flew away and then came back to a slightly different position and did the same thing. The quarter turns looked very deliberate. Any idea what he was doing? I'm out in a rural area and am pretty surrounded by trees but my property itself is wide open above. Worth noting he did this for about half an hour and did a few of my neighbors as well

That was shooting the component shots of a 360° panoramic image.

It may be someone shooting a series of landscape images (not unusual).

It may be someone working on behalf of a local estate agent (realtor... not unknown).

Or it may be someone remote scouting a series of rural properties for less than legal reasons (very rare... but still not unknown)... in which case, whoever was doing it was pretty thick because they've given you and your neighbours a definite heads-up.

And to be completely unbiased: there have been reports of insurance companies doing something similar in an effort to identify undeclared property problems that might lead to claims being made... as well as reports of local police forces using drones for surveillance.