GOLF COURSE

[E90RAW]

I know multiple HOA articles have been posted but I have what I think is an interesting situation. I live in an HOA zone with a golf course in my back yard. I fly my drone from my yard to the golf course and at 100-200 feet fly just over the course and adjacent farm(I am literally on the course, no houses to fly over). One of my neighbors is complaining about the noise and wants drones banned in the HOA. My thoughts are that they cant ban anything over the golf course nor farm. Maybe they can ban in the HOA but I'm not flying over the HOA property even though I am part of it. I fly over the course after hours with no one on the course(twilight usually). any thoughts.

 

[dirkclod]

Have you spoke with this person and tried to treason with them ?
Do they have issues with you for any reason. Seems like being
neighbors yawl could work it out.

 

[icecoldgin]

Sad reality of life.

Unless there is a directive from the HOA on drone flying which is backed by law, then I believe that for your area it is the rules of the FAA that should be followed.

 

[787steve]

FYI, I was once (and never again) on our HOA board. Lots of work for the 2% of busybodies who complain constantly. We had a covenant which said no fences forward of the back edge of a home. Of course, one family fenced in their side yard to the front edge of the home. Neighbor complained. We called in home owner to discuss. Seemed like a clear cut violation, but we sensed that the home owner would go to court to fight it, so we ran it by our lawyer to be sure we were correctly applying the standard.

It turned out that the back wall of the house standard was a change put in several years ago. Originally, the rule was to the front of the house. Our lawyer said that if we went to court, judges tended to side with the homeowner, if the rule had been changed. I guess they feel that the owner purchased under one rule, and should not be held to the whims of later HOA boards. End result was that we let it stand. Not sure if our lawyer's advice was correct, but if it is a trend, if the HOA bans drones, you may have a leg to stand on.

 

[BigAl07]

I live in an HOA zone with a golf course in my back yard. I fly my drone from my yard to the golf course and at 100-200 feet fly just over the course and adjacent farm(I am literally on the course, no houses to fly over). One of my neighbors is complaining about the noise and wants drones banned in the HOA. My thoughts are that they cant ban anything over the golf course nor farm. Maybe they can ban in the HOA but I'm not flying over the HOA property even though I am part of it. I fly over the course after hours with no one on the course(twilight usually). any thoughts.

Let's take a moment and remove the fluff so we can see the pertinent details...
You live IN the HOA... YES
You flying FROM your back yard (still in the HOA)... YES
The HOA has some level of "jurisdiction" as to what you can do on/from your property... YES

They can't ban your FLIGHT over the golf course (only FAA can control the actual flight) but they CAN restrict you from flying FROM your property if the HOA has rules against it. It's a Land Use Ordinance and not an Airspace/FAA issue and the HOA may have the needed power to restrict your "flying to/from" your very own land.

If the HOA wants to re-write their rules they most likely will and worse they CAN. While I agree with what Steve said above re:Rule Changes that's probably not going to be the case with anything pertaining to UAS. With the concern about privacy etc I would almost bet most judges are going to side on the HOA and allow the ban to stay in effect.

 

[Cw4bray]

If you're not a golfer, your automatically in trouble with the HOA and that may be the real problem with your neighbor. After hearing numerous horror stories of HOA's I will never ever, live in one.

 

[muchuckwagon]

The noise from a drone is nothing compared to other routine activities such as mowing the lawn. Is the HOA going to ban gas powered lawn mowers? If not, why? If the argument is that a drone is loud, then by all measures something like a lawn mower, edge trimmer or leaf blower that is used daily within the HOA and is significantly louder must be banned as well.

 

[BigAl07]

The noise from a drone is nothing compared to other routine activities such as mowing the lawn. Is the HOA going to ban gas powered lawn mowers? If not, why? If the argument is that a drone is loud, then by all measures something like a lawn mower, edge trimmer or leaf blower that is used daily within the HOA and is significantly louder must be banned as well.

While the basis of your comment is fundamentally accurate it doesn't fit with the REALITY of DRONES.

• A) The sound from drones can be annoying (sound-wise). Much different than the sound of a mower etc. The higher pitch tends to trigger a much more profound response from John Q. Public even if they don't know what that high pitched sound it.
• B) Drone in general have such a NEGATIVE "perception" by John Q. Public and even a drone w/o camera is an automatic "Hey they are PEEPING in our windows".

One day UAS may be more socially acceptable but in the current social climate we are definitely not very acceptable to the majority of society.

 

[EricJT]

They can't ban your FLIGHT over the golf course (only FAA can control the actual flight) but they CAN restrict you from flying FROM your property if the HOA has rules against it. It's a Land Use Ordinance and not an Airspace/FAA issue and the HOA may have the needed power to restrict your "flying to/from" your very own land.

Good points....if it were me, I guess it would be time to learn hand launching and landing...reaching over my fence of course. ?

 

[pinballwiz86]

Who cares what that lady says. Keep your props spinning OP.

 

[BigAl07]

Who cares what that lady says. Keep your props spinning OP.

Where did the OP state it was a lady? I missed that in the post.

As a community MANY of us care what the lady says. We are all ambassadors for the industry whether you like it or not. As we know all-too-well it only takes a single bad apple here or there to make the rest of us look and smell rotten. Some of us have a lot of skin in the game and the last thing we need/want is more regulations and rules comin down because some people "Don't Care".