Frustrating, frustrating

[djwak59]

Good evening to all-
Last night I called to speak with a very good buddy and friend from college days. We talk every couple of months or so. This guy is a good person and good friend.
Anyway, when he asked me what I'd been doing lately, i told him that I was really into flying my drones and seeing what I could see.
He said, "Oh, so you can spy on folks and look at women, right?"

After a moment I explained that with my drone and at the height I fly, I could detect a person on the ground, but I sure as hell could not "spy" on anyone or even determine male or female in most cases.

How do people get these crazy notions of what drones can do and not do? Why do people automatically assume we're "spying" on others?

It is a frustration to me, I assure you.


You all be safe and keep well- Ed

I answer comments like that from fellow workers. I like to mention to them that the government has drones that can fly thousands of feet above them, too far for you to shoot them down, AND no one around for you to question what they’re doing, or why. AND they’ve got cameras on them that can spot a rat hole in the middle of a desert from that height. So, do you REALLY have to worry about a $700 drone ? That kinda leaves them with a bewildered look and the conversation changes to something else.

 

[Zbip57]

Everyone around our lake knows it's me whenever they spot my drone flying around. I post the videos on YouTube and forward the links to our lake association mailing list, and I've received only positive compliments. It's all good.

So when our lake association started documenting the spread of invasive aquatic weeds in some portions of the lake, I volunteered to use my drone for something useful like taking aerial photos to record the growth of the weeds. I could plot a Litchi mission to reproduce the exact same photo angles at any time of day, repeating the same flight as many times as they'd like, daily, weekly, monthly, whatever.

The committee turned down my offer because their insurance policy doesn't cover the use of "aircraft", thus leaving them personally open to liability [I'm not making this up] in case anyone sued them "for voyeurism"!!