How do you deal with drone shyness?

[Skywatcher2001]

Very impressive! I love the “FAA Certified Remote Pilot” label. Where did you get that?

Thank you pilot! See amazon link below.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09RQ5Z2Q1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

[CaseyGuy]

Thank

Thank you pilot! See amazon link below.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09RQ5Z2Q1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Thanks!

 

[Looking Down On You]

Those are great...but I might go with this.

 

[karlblessing]

Those are great...but I might go with this.

Would only need "certified" , but I'm a little picky on advertising that since you don't get a license passing either TRUST or 107, just a certification.

 

[CaseyGuy]

Would only need "certified" , but I'm a little picky on advertising that since you don't get a license passing either TRUST or 107, just a certification.

Same here. That’s one reason I like the label: it uses the correct term, “certified.”

 

[Looking Down On You]

Same here. That’s one reason I like the label: it uses the correct term, “certified.”

It was the Do Not Disturb that sold me.

 

[Skyryder]

Get something that sort of looks official

FAA Certified Licensed Drone Pilot - FRONT DESIGN T-Shirt : Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry

 

[DaveG]

I'm still very new to this and so far all of my flights have been totally covert. There's a forest near me with some huge, secluded clearings that have been good places to learn how to control my Mini 2 in private, although I find the range drops to around 400-500 m due to the trees. More recently, I've started to fly from an open field in a nearby village, and this gives me a range of 2000+ m (actually, the battery has been the limiting factor so far), although it's not the most interesting scenery. If I notice people anywhere near the drone (lots of hikers around here), I'll immediately go up to the maximum altitude to avoid disturbing them. The laws around filming people in public spaces without permission in Germany are also pretty strict, so I keep this in mind as well.

By the way, is it possible to reduce the volume on the DJI Fly app's low battery/return to home alarm? I know it's useful (I learnt my lesson at the weekend after having to make an emergency landing in the middle of the forest, luckily I was able to avoid the branches on the way down), but I feel that it is audible for miles...

 

[karlblessing]

By the way, is it possible to reduce the volume on the DJI Fly app's low battery/return to home alarm? I know it's useful (I learnt my lesson at the weekend after having to make an emergency landing in the middle of the forest, luckily I was able to avoid the branches on the way down), but I feel that it is audible for miles...

The audible for miles part is intentional seeing the likelihood of crashing before returning home when you're down that low on the battery, as an aid to finding the drone after it lands somewhere.

I'm not sure if an method to reduce or turn it off outside of seeing if drone hack has some kind of parameter option for it.

If you maintain visual line of sight and keep the broad side of the antenna facing the drone you should be able to keep pretty good range (especially compared to the mini 1). I suspect with the trees you're probably pointing the antenna straight up as you look at the screen instead of facing towards the direction of the drone, I also understand that outside of the us the controllers drop down to a slower/shorter CE mode instead of the FCC mode that has more power/range (there's a hack to force that but might not be legal in Europe).

Here in the US we're supposed to keep visual line of sight with the drone (which clearly isn't always done), so usually the signal strength is pretty good doing that but also DJI has a stronger output in the US depending on the drone configuration. With my Mini 2 I could do quite easily 4000 feet away (1200m?) In forest/hills type of scenery, but 1500 feet at 300 feet up is at the limit of my visual line of sight for such a small drone. But I have done 6000 feet (1.1mi, 1,800m ish) away without much issues with a small town of shops, apartment building, and a farmers elevator between myself and the drone, with the signal dropping a little past that. That was an early "what if" when I first got the mini 2, but shouldn't have been done simply because that was outside of my visual line of sight among other reasons.

I find that my transparency and openness regarding the drone tends to avoid a lot of complaints especially if you are pretty good about deescalating loaded questions.

 

[Robert Prior]

I recently got a Mini 3 Pro and I've noticed the 6-7 times I've gone out to fly, I specifically choose the furthest I can be from people as to not draw any attention to myself

And when the drone is in the air, I go to the maximum height ASAP (120m) so that I don't draw any attention to it either, which is kind of nice, but in some ways limits the quality of photos I can take

How do you get over the not wanting any kind of attention part?

In my life in general I try not to attract any attention (regardless of positive or negative attention) so it kind of carries over to my drone usage it seems.

That sounds like me, too.

Personally, I find the sound of the drone annoying, especially when I'm out in nature, so I assume other people might also find it annoying and try to avoid bothering them. It does mean that I'm more willing to fly in noisier places — if there's several chainsaws running then my drone won't be the reason someone's peace is disturbed.

Having someone with you is a great help. Not only is there strength in numbers, but they can help prevent bystanders from distracting you if something happens and you really need to pay attention to flying.

Most people are curious, not aggressive, but sometimes you need to say "sorry, let me finish this flight and land, then I can chat safely".

I use Drone Pilot Canada to log flights, so sometimes after I've landed I've shown people the map view with all the restrictions to emphasize that piloting a sRPAS is a regulated activity, just like driving a car. My grey hair probably helps as well — I'm obviously not some young punk messing about with a toy!

Drone Pilot Canada

dronepilotcanada.com

 

[Robert Prior]

I keep my flight bag near me.

That's a good idea. Did you make the official-looking bag or buy it somewhere?

 

[Robert Prior]

With something like a Mini after 400 feet the spec in the sky is invisible. After 100 feet or so, inaudible.

Yesterday I was flying my Mini and it was annoyingly audible 70 m away (50 m vertical, 50 m horizontal).

(That's about 230 ft in archaic units )

I don't think my ears are that great. A number of senior dog-walkers in the park noticed it and wandered over for a look. (Worked out well — they learned that drone cameras are like flying cell phones not telescopes, and I got doggie kisses!)

 

[Mavic Merrick]

Yesterday I was flying my Mini and it was annoyingly audible 70 m away (50 m vertical, 50 m horizontal).

(That's about 230 ft in archaic units )

I don't think my ears are that great. A number of senior dog-walkers in the park noticed it and wandered over for a look. (Worked out well — they learned that drone cameras are like flying cell phones not telescopes, and I got doggie kisses!)

No kidding, people think you can be hundreds of feet up and read their retina and take their fingerprint - wrong! Unless you have insanely expensive optical zoom you won’t see anything that would be a privacy threat unless you are literally in the guys face.
Happy spying!

 

[Skybuyer]

Yesterday I was flying my Mini and it was annoyingly audible 70 m away (50 m vertical, 50 m horizontal).

(That's about 230 ft in archaic units )

I don't think my ears are that great. A number of senior dog-walkers in the park noticed it and wandered over for a look. (Worked out well — they learned that drone cameras are like flying cell phones not telescopes, and I got doggie kisses!)

I'm not sure which model Mini you have, but Master Air Screw makes props for the Mini2 as well as other models. I have them currently on my M2P and they are quieter. Sometimes I would like to have the louder propellers because sometimes I have trouble spotting my drone even when it is in very close proximity. What I find annoying is the Harley Davidson bikers who intentionally put louder pipes on their bikes. I can literally hear them more than 1/2 mile away or beyond. Where are those drone harassers when you need them?

Why don't you just use 70,000mm/50,000mm or 0.7km/0.5km? Less "archaic", no?
Metric was mandated by law about 1960, if I recall. I can't tell you why metric in the US never "took". At least ft and miles can be converted to metric with a simple calculation. Now temperature??? What a mess. Subtract 32 and multiply by 5556 (or 5/9). Yikes! I don't need 100 to be boiling and 0 to be freezing. I know that when we see 0°F its 32° below cold

 

[Robert Prior]

I'm not sure which model Mini you have, but Master Air Screw makes props for the Mini2 as well as other models.

Stock Mavic Mini. Will probably get a Mini 3 eventually.

 

[karlblessing]

No kidding, people think you can be hundreds of feet up and read their retina and take their fingerprint - wrong! Unless you have insanely expensive optical zoom you won’t see anything that would be a privacy threat unless you are literally in the guys face.
Happy spying!

Plus that would have to be a pretty large size drone that would be hard to miss even 300 feet up. Not even the new Mavic 3's 7x zoom is gonna give all that good a quality, and that's already a larger looking drone by comparison to the other foldables. If you're out there flying a matrices, can garantee you're not looking for a Karen/Daren.

 

[Skywatcher2001]

That's a good idea. Did you make the official-looking bag or buy it somewhere?

Got it here:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FXL7DKY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

[Jam0ne]

 

[DaveG]

The audible for miles part is intentional seeing the likelihood of crashing before returning home when you're down that low on the battery, as an aid to finding the drone after it lands somewhere.

I'm not sure if an method to reduce or turn it off outside of seeing if drone hack has some kind of parameter option for it.

If you maintain visual line of sight and keep the broad side of the antenna facing the drone you should be able to keep pretty good range (especially compared to the mini 1). I suspect with the trees you're probably pointing the antenna straight up as you look at the screen instead of facing towards the direction of the drone, I also understand that outside of the us the controllers drop down to a slower/shorter CE mode instead of the FCC mode that has more power/range (there's a hack to force that but might not be legal in Europe).

Here in the US we're supposed to keep visual line of sight with the drone (which clearly isn't always done), so usually the signal strength is pretty good doing that but also DJI has a stronger output in the US depending on the drone configuration. With my Mini 2 I could do quite easily 4000 feet away (1200m?) In forest/hills type of scenery, but 1500 feet at 300 feet up is at the limit of my visual line of sight for such a small drone. But I have done 6000 feet (1.1mi, 1,800m ish) away without much issues with a small town of shops, apartment building, and a farmers elevator between myself and the drone, with the signal dropping a little past that. That was an early "what if" when I first got the mini 2, but shouldn't have been done simply because that was outside of my visual line of sight among other reasons.

I find that my transparency and openness regarding the drone tends to avoid a lot of complaints especially if you are pretty good about deescalating loaded questions.

I was referring to the loud alarm coming from the controller, which I find a bit excessive. I understand why they made it this way, but it's one thing that would make me less willing to fly in public places. A single beep and an on-screen notification in the app would be more than enough for me.

I didn't know the range can be improved by pointing the controller at the done directly, thanks for that. I probably would have had the screen up close to my face because it's hard to see the video feed in bright daylight.

We're also supposed to keep line of sight to the drone in Europe. I suppose technically I could be breaking this rule when flying from the forest if the drone's more than a couple hundred metres away, but I'm not putting anybody at risk and it's impossible to even see the drone at this distance anyway, so I cut myself some slack.

 

[DoomMeister]

I always bring my spotter, which keeps eyes off of me.

So your spotter stands around with a Yuneec drone while you fly your Mavic?