Fight back, perhaps?

[MavicKhan]

I live in Portugal.

Specific UAV legislation has been passed here, last December, a legislation that, in general, is quite reasonable and easy to comply with, exception made for the completely arbitrary number of people we're allowed to fly over - groups of no more than12 people...Why 12...?...You tell me...

Now, given some specific local cultural traits and the wider, more general phobias about drones, I keep stumbling upon self-appointed police officers wannabes that try to evoke how flying my drone is forbidden in whatever "restricted" space fancies their will.

Showing them a photocopy of my ATPL license and asking if they want to see the PDF of the appropriate legislation that is always on my tab is usually enough to turn the conversation around into "so, how fun is it to fly these things?" so, to me, these wanna be "prohibitors" are not much of a problem.

Still, I also keep finding more and more places, at local council or state-owned level that have put in place restrictions that are not contemplated by law.

These are more difficult to contend with in the field, as any attempts to argue the non-validity of such dispositions is bound to face strong resistance up to the point of ruinning that day's sortie due to sheer non-focused and non-productive wasted time.

From these forums, I get the impression that this is not a specific problem only in my country but rather a well-spread phenomena whereas, say, a town council, somewhere, feels empowered to overrule national legislation, legislation that has been dutifully set up by the only agencies that have jurisdiction over each national airspace.

Isn't it time for UAV users associations to get legal counseling and fight the possible "misappropriation" of airspace by any Jack or Joe that feels it is their right to regulate over "their" particular airspace just because they happen to be a subsidiary, possibly just local, sub-agency of an otherwise much larger, already organized and well-legislated state?

I mean, should it be left to local councils and such to say, for instance, that diesel running cars can not drive on their local roads when national legislation has no such provisions?

What do you guys think?

MK

 

[Dw911]

Why 12, its likely it matched nicely the IQ of the official who dreamed up the ruling ;-)

Quite agree with you though, local councils shouldn't be allowed to make any rules or regulations that go against national legislation or guidelines.
We have the same problem here in the UK, lots of local councils making ridiculous rules and regulations that would never be adopted on a national level, usually they dream them up as a way of screwing money out of us, Parking and motorists are their favourite cash cow and now they are already drawing up plans to go after diesel drivers at £20+ a day
Have noticed also lots of extra restrictions on where we cant and can't fly drones round here too, their sign shop seems to have gone into overdrive judging by the amount of no drone signs I see going up, even on land they have no control over

 

[DSGDSG]

I don't know what the answer is. I am finding that when I was once apprehensive about something bad happening to my drone while I was flying it, I'm getting just as apprehensive about even putting it in the air because of misinformed people who love to make comments or instigate arguments. It's really sucking the fun out of it. Doesn't matter what paperwork you have, doesn't matter how wrong they are, I'm afraid that there's just few people out there who are able to admit they are wrong when they get wound up about something, especially something that don't understand. I really don't see what can be done to combat any of this effectively.

 

[newnan3]

OP Ill be visiting the Lisbon and hopefully the Port and Algarves area in June. Im hoping to get great photos and was curious about how the locals may react. It sounds like youve run into a lot hassle flying your drone there....can you please elaborate?

In other words, where do you tend to fly and under what circumstance have you been hassled by others?

 

[MavicKhan]

I am afraid I made it sound worst than it actually is...It's just that I get extremely upset when someone, anyone, tries to curtail my personal freedom on account of some idiocy they might believe is the law .

How things actually seem to go around here, in my experience:

1. Apart from takeoff and landing, the Mavic is very seldom noticed, given it's size and noise levels. This, obviously, in not a local characteristic but rather stems from the models specifications but I thought it might be worth mentioning first, just to get thing is perspective.

2. If you respect our national legislation (...that's mainly not overfly large numbers of people, main cities sensitive spots, and no flying around airports, with 1 to 4 protection layers with various limiting altitudes around them,and there are not that many of them...) you're bound to just have a very good time around here.

3. You will find self-appointed police samples but given our characteristics as a people it will more prone to be a nuisance that an actual violence-escalating event. Unless you go to certain, very specific neighborhoods in Lisbon and Porto, violence is out of the question, much more so anything relating to guns, like those appalling US events often mentioned here.

In rural areas, though, especially in the center and north of the country, it is usual for people to have shotguns for hunting purposes and they might get fed up with something buzz-scaring and scattering livestock above their properties and just aim and shoot. Still, low chances, though...

4. Since drones are still relatively scarce around here, the probability of someone approaching you just to discuss the drone and its operation is much higher than that of someone hysterically demanding that you stop flying.

In Madeira, a couple of months back, I had a young men from a group of 4 coming to me while I was doing some tricky flying and shooting at a very popular local sightseeing spot and starting asking a barrage of questions. As I kept silent, concentrated on what I was trying to do, he went "Do you speak Portuguese?...English?". As I kept silent he turned around, started walking to his friends, saying: "He doesn't speak Portuguese nor English. He's just rude!". Later, I caught up with them and gave them a crash course on how to not interfere with anyone flying a drone and made myself available for any questions they might have.

5. If a specific area has a "no drone flying" notice you better of complying than ruining your vacation trying to dispute.


Hope this helps.

MK

 

[Ozzie]

The OP poses a difficult question to answer specifically in the US. While I agree with that it is super annoying that our Federal agency (FAA) sets a quite reasonable set of guidelines (IMHO). Now what makes flying a hassle is all the other local regulations by run of the mill municipalities.

Buuuut having said that, here in the US, States can in many instances set their own legislation separate from the Federal legislation. My issue is that many times States will directly contradict the FAA regulations which "should" superseed theirs.
To make matters worst is when local municipalities within a state further want to create their own set of rules on top of the already 2 layers of rules.

I honestly have nightmares about the thought that if things keep going they that they are (for example some idiot just crashed his Karma quad in the middle of a nationally televised baseball game) we are closer than ever to Canada like regulations, which are essentially simply banning the use of UAVs.

 

[motard]

Infelizmente é assim que somos considerados, fora da lei. I hope that in the future people and authorities see that this is a professional/ hobby, not bombs from the sky or someone seen people naked in home.