Had my first crazy neighbor experience...

[MMPerrish]

Well it took a few months but it finally happened!

I was showing my father in law (big aviation enthusiast) my Mav Mini and flying at a legal and safe altitude exploring the neighborhood and showing off the drones capabilities when a neighbor a few houses down walked up with a puffed chest and a chip on his shoulder. He claimed I was “flying into his backyard“ and “spying on him and inside his backyard” which was simply not true and technically impossible.

He followed it up with “just wanted to see who owned this before I took it out of the sky” which I informed him with the legal issue of that he claimed “he had a way around the FAA”.

I expected for people to ask questions but the blatant hostility was a bit out of left field. I guess if you have things to hide you get twitchy seeing a drone 150ft up passing though... yikes.

Fly safe all!

 

[Path Finder]

If you know him outside of this one meeting, try make peace. . . .(If not try stay away if you can, no sense making things worse. . .)

GOOD LUCK!!!!!

 

[maintenanceguy]

It would make me uncomfortable and I would feel like my private property was violated. I live in the middle of nowhere and don't have a lot of neighbors. I'm pretty new to droning and have been flying for distance checking out wildlife areas as far away as I can get the drone to cooperate. That has me flying over a lot of peoples private property.

No matter what "rights" I have, I've been making an effort to stay high and move fast so I that no one feels I'm spying on them.

 

[MMPerrish]

If you know him outside of this one meeting, try make peace. . . .(If not try stay away if you can, no sense making things worse. . .)

GOOD LUCK!!!!!

I don’t know him and neither did the family-in-law. It’s difficult to bring people down to your level with that paranoia ringing through their ears. I have no beef.

 

[MMPerrish]

It would make me uncomfortable and I would feel like my private property was violated. I live in the middle of nowhere and don't have a lot of neighbors. I'm pretty new to droning and have been flying for distance checking out wildlife areas as far away as I can get the drone to cooperate. That has me flying over a lot of peoples private property.

No matter what "rights" I have, I've been making an effort to stay high and move fast so I that no one feels I'm spying on them.

Just like you said - high and fast. Exactly what I said in my post. They live in a very residential area of Southern California and I have a feeling this is a type of guy to keep a log of cars that drive by each day..

Edit: Welcome to the forum!

 

[dirkclod]

Flying in a

. very residential area of Southern California

is not the best place to be flying I would think. Just because you can don’t mean you should. Not with all the negativity we already
have.
JMO

 

[Thomas B]

Flying in a is not the best place to be flying I would think. Just because you can don’t mean you should. Not with all the negativity we already
have.
JMO

Agree... I never fly from my house/yard. Go to a big open area.

 

[MMPerrish]

Agree... I never fly from my house/yard. Go to a big open area.

If only it was that easy. Still maintained LOS in an approved airspace. You can do everything right and can’t keep everyone happy ??‍ Another day another flight.

 

[THE CYBORG]

Hi maintenanceguy Welcome to Mavic Pilots.
Good advice by the way.

 

[Desert Falcon]

Where I live and fly overseas, it is completely illegal to fly in a residential area. I guess laws are different back stateside.

 

[julius13]

I’ve been flying in my neighborhood for over 4 years now. I even had a malfunction (propulsion issue) and my Mavic 2 Pro fell out of the sky and landed in a neighbors backyard into a tree 115 ft up. We all have 2 acre lots and I was at the rear of his property. I didn’t know the neighbor so I braced myself for a tense situation. Fortunately it all was good. The drone finally fell out of the tree a week or so later and he found it then brought it to me. Because of his understanding and kindness I sent him a gift card for dinner at Longhorns and a nice 20 x 30 aerial of his house. He was blown away by the picture and has it hanging in his home office. Ive let neighbors I do know that I’m the one with the drone and I’m not spying on them or trying to look at their wives/daughters around the pool. So far nobody has had an issue with it either and I fly at least once a week.

I agree, the ones that are paranoid usually have a reason. I have a friend who was flying around his neighborhood and got approached by a neighbor and he got aggressive about it. My friend handled it well and explained no laws were being broken. Out of curiosity he did another lower fly over and discovered the guy had a nice crop of weed growing in his garden. Had the neighbor just ignored the drone, it would probably not been noticed. And before anyone ask, my friend didn’t call the cops. It’s 2020, nobody cares if somebody wants to “farm” in the burbs.

 

[lilewis]

I live in a residential neighborhood loaded with very high trees so cannot see the horizon from the ground. I do try not to overdo flying from my back yard because although I haven't been approached by any neighbors, I'm sensitive to the possibility. So I usually only back yard fly when I see what may be a spectacular sunset and don't have enough time to get to an open field, or a distant thunderstorm. And when I do take off from the back yard, I go straight up at full speed to reduce the amount of prop noise as soon as possible, capture the sunset/lighting, then come straight down. If anyone were to approach me I'd offer to playback the images for them to see and delete any that they asked me to.

Two things I won't do:

1 Fly from my yard on hot summer days when neighbors may be sunbathing or in their backyard pools.

2. Volunteering to show neighbors how much detail the MP2 captures.

One last comment: If a neighbor tells me he is uncomfortable about the drone being able to invade his privacy, I'd honor his wishes and not fly again from my yard.

 

[Gjarrette]

If you know him outside of this one meeting, try make peace. . . .(If not try stay away if you can, no sense making things worse. . .)

GOOD LUCK!!!!!

Are

If you know him outside of this one meeting, try make peace. . . .(If not try stay away if you can, no sense making things worse. . .)

GOOD LUCK!!!!!

Stand your ground. Being a pacifist only encourages aggressors which like to bully and trample on the rights of law bribing citizens. Confront bullies or they will stop all drone flights. Ask him what he is hiding and perhaps the police should monitor his activities. I now wear a body cameraa to record threats which might be an asult case. If you are not breaking the law it is he who that better stop making threats. What will it be next time he does not like your sports car?

When they came for the Catholics I said nothing. When the came for the Jews I said nothing. When they came for me there was no one left to say anything. History is repleat with those that did not stand their ground or with their fellow man. Do not go along to get along. Ask him if he is threatening you and have a witness or small body cam. When you have evidence of threats go to a judge and get a court order for him to stay away from you. If he damages your lawful drone sue him for criminal damage to property.

 

[Heindrich1988]

He followed it up with “just wanted to see who owned this before I took it out of the sky”

I can't imagine what it must be like to live in a country where guns are so prevalent that the guy could very well act upon that threat... and where every dispute has the potential to escalate to mortal danger. Sorry, I know that's a bit off-topic, but it just boggles my mind.

Back on topic, from my 13hrs of flight experience in China, Chinese people seem to be very relaxed about drones. I guess they are used to the prevalence of CCTV cameras and don't associate them with police state surveillance. Chinese news recently widely publicized the capture of a high profile criminal using drone technology... And generally speaking, people think that's a great thing.

When I fly in public, people regularly come up to me to ask about what the drone can achieve. But it's only curiosity and occasionally awe. Only one person ever questioned whether I was allowed to fly where I was at the time.

This week, I even flew at the most iconic locations in my city. I was half-expecting security guards at the mall or park to possibly object to me flying where there are a lot of people or directly in front of the city government building. But nope... nobody seemed to mind at all.

I guess I'll have to be more mindful of different attitudes to drones when I return to the UK. I look forward to shooting the canal near my home. I can easily reach it from my garden, but based on OP's experience, I should probably just walk to the park.

 

[Vic Moss]

I fly in my neighborhood all the time.

If we give in to the idiots that complain, we lose our ability to fly. Tell them is they have a problem they should call the police.

It's a perfect chance to educate. If they still complain, ignore them and keep flying.

 

[Chaplain Dave]

Well it took a few months but it finally happened!

I was showing my father in law (big aviation enthusiast) my Mav Mini and flying at a legal and safe altitude exploring the neighborhood and showing off the drones capabilities when a neighbor a few houses down walked up with a puffed chest and a chip on his shoulder. He claimed I was “flying into his backyard“ and “spying on him and inside his backyard” which was simply not true and technically impossible.

He followed it up with “just wanted to see who owned this before I took it out of the sky” which I informed him with the legal issue of that he claimed “he had a way around the FAA”.

I expected for people to ask questions but the blatant hostility was a bit out of left field. I guess if you have things to hide you get twitchy seeing a drone 150ft up passing though... yikes.

Fly safe all!

LOL, some people just like to complain. Got one, drone too noisy, violation of privacy, and my favorite, interferes with his TV reception! Course he said the same about my HAM radio.

 

[ajaxflysquare]

Well it took a few months but it finally happened!

I was showing my father in law (big aviation enthusiast) my Mav Mini and flying at a legal and safe altitude exploring the neighborhood and showing off the drones capabilities when a neighbor a few houses down walked up with a puffed chest and a chip on his shoulder. He claimed I was “flying into his backyard“ and “spying on him and inside his backyard” which was simply not true and technically impossible.

He followed it up with “just wanted to see who owned this before I took it out of the sky” which I informed him with the legal issue of that he claimed “he had a way around the FAA”.

I expected for people to ask questions but the blatant hostility was a bit out of left field. I guess if you have things to hide you get twitchy seeing a drone 150ft up passing though... yikes.

Fly safe all!

Yes... We all have to put up with paranoid neighbors who wallow in their ignorance . Unfortunately trying to educate these personality types is often futile making the situation worse.

 

[Martysticks]

Several weeks ago a parent in our neighborhood asked other neighbors to be on the lookout for their sons lost drone. I offered my services and mentioned that I was an FAA certificated drone pilot. They did come back and said they were happy for my help. The first thing I did was post on our community page what my plan was (including when I would do this) which was to fly low (100') over a small grid area where they believe the little guy lost his toy. As I flew over the houses I had several folks in their yards actually wave to me. Yes, I found it in a backyard about ten houses away; father than the little guy thought.

 

[6 String Fan]

LOL, some people just like to complain. Got one, drone too noisy, violation of privacy, and my favorite, interferes with his TV reception! Course he said the same about my HAM radio.

dit dit dit dit - dit dit

 

[judell]

I live in a Condo and decided to practice with the Mini.
A human living in an apartment building next door started screaming at me to get my (Mod Removed Language)“thing” away from his car. I was so surprised by his reaction that I apologized and just moved it elsewhere. Some people are so intimidated by drones they feel its an invasion of their privacy or that you are spying on them. Best to defuse the situation and move on.