I wish folks would not do this...

[edfrombama]

Good afternoon to all-
Well, I see from the local news outlets that some bright light flew his/her drone over the Pensacola baseball field last evening and forced the game to stop for fifteen minutes or so.
Now, as a photographer, I can understand wanting to get shots of the field and the game in progress and even the stands, but I understand that doing such a thing would cause problems- and it did.
Apparently the drone hovered over left field for a while and then disappeared over the trees to the west of the stadium.
It's things like this, not flying BVLOS that creates problems for all pilots.

You all be safe and keep well- Ed

 

[Eagle Eye 62]

I agree this is bad for all of us who follow the rules. I guess the good news is with Remote ID becoming available soon, it will be easy for people to get busted doing this sort of stuff.

 

[shb]

Did they really have to stop the game? Wonder if he was really even over the field. Probably a Autel anyway.

 

[LoudThunder]

I agree this is bad for all of us who follow the rules. I guess the good news is with Remote ID becoming available soon, it will be easy for people to get busted doing this sort of stuff.

I would liken this to the laws that require all gun owners to register their guns, as if the criminals will register their guns…

I imagine anyone who either does not know the law about flying over people or they and do not care will not worry about registering their drone or entering the required information into the RID.

It's against the law to fire a weapon into the air celebrating New Year's Eve, 4th of July, but they still do that anyway.

But the authorities are starting to acquire the electronics to read the Drone's and the RC's signals and they may not know the pilot's name, address, etc… but they can read all the other info, RC's location, the Drone's location, altitude, speed, direction, etc… and if they respond quickly enough, they can catch the pilot.

I know, I fly in the Class D Airspace of Langley AFB. I have the FAA Authorization to do this through the FAADroneZone, and I've even gotten DJI to unlock Authorization and Altitude Zones for me and I'm just a recreational flyer…(TRUST me…). But the point of this is I am required to call ATC before I fly there and I sometimes do not bother and the Security Police have often stopped by to see whose flying because they picked up my telemetry signals.

My DJI Mini 2's OcuSync is reputed to control my drone up to 10-Km, 6-miles, but that signal can probably be picked up by their equipment 50-miles away. Remember, they are not controlling the drone, they are just reading the signal…

It's like the folks on Alpha Centauri who have been watching the reruns of the Star Trek TV Series for years now and are probably wondering when we will stop by and ask them to join Star Fleet…

 

[spsphotos]

The stadium only has a 5000 seating capacity, so is not covered by the TFRs that govern major pro teams. Have to have a 30K stadium for that. If the drone was not over people in the stands or players it is not an FAA violation. Possible that it violated BVLOS though, but we have no way of knowing where the pilot was at the time. How low was the drone hovering? They probably suspended the game because players might have ran under it or hit it with a ball. 15 mins seems like enough time for any drone to go away anyway as battery life is usually 15-25 mins on most drones (M3P might go longer with bigger battery).

 

[Eagle Eye 62]

The stadium only has a 5000 seating capacity, so is not covered by the TFRs that govern major pro teams. Have to have a 30K stadium for that. If the drone was not over people in the stands or players it is not an FAA violation. Possible that it violated BVLOS though, but we have no way of knowing where the pilot was at the time. How low was the drone hovering? They probably suspended the game because players might have ran under it or hit it with a ball. 15 mins seems like enough time for any drone to go away anyway as battery life is usually 15-25 mins on most drones (M3P might go longer with bigger battery).

It's pretty hard to fly over a stadium during a game and NOT fly over people. Either way, they could have flown from a safe distance and still been able to see, but not sure if they were looking to take images or video or just were spying on the game.

 

[PepperBird]

If you have been living under a rock, you may have missed that in the Russia-Ukraine war DJI drones are being used to drop munitions on tanks and destroy them. The notion that there is "too much regulation" goes out of the window as soon as such an attack happens here. You can follow @ralee85 on twitter for more.

 

[Capt KO]

The officials had no way of knowing if the drone was equipped with a remote dropper. If I was a player, I wouldn’t want a drone overhead. What a distraction.

 

[YVRGUY]

Did they really have to stop the game? Wonder if he was really even over the field. Probably a Autel anyway.

 

[vindibona1]

I would liken this to the laws that require all gun owners to register their guns, as if the criminals will register their guns…

I imagine anyone who either does not know the law about flying over people or they and do not care will not worry about registering their drone or entering the required information into the RID.

How long is it going to take for someone to come up with a hack to bypass RID even if DJI builds it into the system that won't allow a drone to fly unless it is active? And while we know for a fact that criminals won't register their guns- period. However I doubt that there are very, very few drone pilots who are flying drones with "criminal intent". If RID (or gun registration) is demanded of everyone, there will alway also be a segment of those who simply refuse to comply on principle or for safety reasons.

 

[dave canada]

iF YOU ARE GOING TO BREAK RULES ATLEAST HAVE ENOUGH COMMON SENSE TO TRY TO GET AWAY WITH IT YOU KNOW LIKE FLYING FURHER THAN YOU SHOULD WHERE THERE IS NO ONE BUT SOME COWS TO CATCH YOU. HARD TO BELIEVE ANYONE IS THAT IGNORANT

 

[JimSteadman]

iF YOU ARE GOING TO BREAK RULES ATLEAST HAVE ENOUGH COMMON SENSE TO TRY TO GET AWAY WITH IT YOU KNOW LIKE FLYING FURHER THAN YOU SHOULD WHERE THERE IS NO ONE BUT SOME COWS TO CATCH YOU. HARD TO BELIEVE ANYONE IS THAT IGNORANT

Never underestimate ignorance.

 

[Chrislaf]

Good afternoon to all-
Well, I see from the local news outlets that some bright light flew his/her drone over the Pensacola baseball field last evening and forced the game to stop for fifteen minutes or so.
Now, as a photographer, I can understand wanting to get shots of the field and the game in progress and even the stands, but I understand that doing such a thing would cause problems- and it did.
Apparently the drone hovered over left field for a while and then disappeared over the trees to the west of the stadium.
It's things like this, not flying BVLOS that creates problems for all pilots.

You all be safe and keep well- Ed

Hmm, interesting take on another drone pilot knowingly breaking the rules (hovering over a baseball game) meanwhile knowingly breaking BVLOS rules yourself. The message I get from your post is it is ok for you to cherry-pick which rules you break but when other drone pilots break rules that you feel they shouldn't, you feel it is ok to publicly criticize them for their indiscretions.

Chris