Just swallow your pride a bit, treat them with utmost deference, call them officer and sir. If you act like even remotely like a smart***, they will make your day miserable.
Once a friend and I were shooting hand trap with shotguns on a deserted stretch of a four lane road being constructed that had been delayed for months (no activity at all, no people, no equipment) It was between Baltimore, and D.C. just off I95. Actually it was quite rural. There were no houses in sight, and the tree line across the field was probably a half mile away. No chance of shot going that far.
A policeman showed up. He could see were were "clean cut" professional types in our early thirties, as was he. It was obvious what we were doing, and he said someone complained about the noise.
We treated him with the utmost deference, called him sir, called him officer, and packed our stuff and left. We didn't hang around and argue with him. As it was we were in an area that hunting would have been permitted. We didn't even bring it up!
Six to eight weeks later we were back at the same spot. A different cop came. We acted the same way. We appealed to his sense of fairness about the area was suitable for hunting, but before we got in an argument with him, we just once again aqueissed and packed our things up, told him we understood that since someone complained we weren't going to "demand our rights" and asked him if he knew where we could shoot target. He told us!
No hand cuffs, no fines, no courts, no taking our guns from us.
If I get in a similar situation with my drone, I will follow the same practice. I bet it will end up the same way!
