Ignoring legality, do you fly over other people houses in suburban or built up areas?

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Please, no discussion of whether or not it is legal in your jurisdiction, in some it is, in some it is not.
I am not talking about flying whilst trying to invade peoples' privacy. I am talking solely about just general overflights with the camera primarily pointing horizontally and for views you can not get from the ground.

 

[old man mavic]

I have answered YES simply because there are occasions where its impossible not to fly over some houses going to or from a location of interest
but i will add as i said in another thread ,that i would not fly over dwellings on the estate where i live ,but i have flown my MM above my home when i was following the progress of having a new roof ,the workmen doing the job were fine with it

 

[Skwirl]

I'm in a rural area and I voted the #3 no. I wouldnt / dont fly over the neighbors property where I'm at. I could, without being to close to their house to. I'd ask first if I wanted to fly over their land, just out of respect. Not over their house though.

 

[RH009]

For me, it just depends. I don't typically fly over other peoples houses but there are times that I will. I live in a small community and there are large fields and open land in 3 directions, so if I'm taking off from my backyard, I will fly over my neighborhood towards the fields and that's where my primary flight will be. It also depends on what I'm flying, but I'm answering this in regards to my MA2. Most of the time I will walk to one of the 3 good locations to takeoff and fly from, but that's not always the case. Sometimes I just want to go out back for a quick flight and don't want to load everything up and walk to my destination.

Rob

 

[spsphotos]

Can't answer because there is not one that fits. But if there were, be "Yes...cause it's legal to".

 

[Capt KO]

Yes, I traverse over homes when necessary but if possible, fly IFR (I follow roads). No problems.. yet

 

[Korrd]

Truthfully, yes. The world is too crowded already and it is impossible to fly in a manner that avoids it all. The way I see it, there are two choices; do it or do not fly. I won't not fly, so I do it.

I believe regulation on the 21st century must do away with the old restrictive-punitive paradigm and instead guide ppl into doing what they need in a safe, easy and efficient manner.

To quote Golan Trevize from Asimov's 5th Foundation book:

Rules, established with reason and justice, can easily outlive their usefulness as circumstances change, yet can remain in force through inertia. It is then not only right, but useful, to break those rules as a way of advertising the fact that they have become useless-or even actually harmful.

So if you have, say, a huge ammount of ppl doing BVLOS, you don't have to crack down harder but instead provide a way of doing so that's safe. Otherwise you become another authoritarian state, and those don't prosper nowadays.

 

[WimStang]

I live within a controlled airspace, so no.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

I have answered YES simply because there are occasions where its impossible not to fly over some houses going to or from a location of interest
but i will add as i said in another thread ,that i would not fly over dwellings on the estate where i live ,but i have flown my MM above my home when i was following the progress of having a new roof ,the workmen doing the job were fine with it

I have added an option to cover "force of circumstance", votes can be changed.

 

[Mavic Merrick]

Can't answer because there is not one that fits. But if there were, be "Yes...cause it's legal to".

Totally man! I agree with you %100!

 

[Mavic Merrick]

Well the honest answer for any drone pilot (including myself) would be OF COURSE!

 

[dave canada]

i said no absolutely not for my insoire 1 It flys to crash ! my mavic pro i will if I need to get home some years back i read 200 ft is the homeowners ceiling have never had any reason to check or contest such a claim ,most of the time no one even noticed ,I crashed a mp from 223 up It was going some 5 mph faster when it hit the ground and it was pretty much a fatal crash scattered for 35 ft . so that would indeed hurt someone bad ,90 percent chance it would be someone 10 or younger

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Well the honest answer for any drone pilot would be OF COURSE!

Why of course? My chosen places would be coastal areas or mountainous areas where there are no houses.

 

[wardtom084]

All the time.

 

[Chaosrider]

I answered "No", but that was an easy answer because I don't fly in built-up or suburban areas!



I fly over houses occasionally (there are only occasional houses around here...) sometimes on my way to another destination, or incidentally in the context of a mapping run.

TCS

 

[EpicFlight]

About half my flights.

 

[dronerdave]

Generally no, but it kind of depends on my mission. It's all about photography and I really don't see much to capture over most subdivisions that I can't get by just operating directly over me. But if I do fly in a suburban area, I usually stay over the streets as much as possible. Flights are short and I stay well within VLOS. I usually travel away from the city and fly in remote areas.

 

[Deleted member 154956]

I always thought this an odd "rule" as no one EVER asks me if I fly my 3,600 pound Piper Saratoga SP over houses, people or roads... Pretty sure I could do some damage with that.

 

[Johnmcl7]

No, I don't fly from house nor fly over built up areas.

 

[dronerdave]

I always thought this an odd "rule" as no one EVER asks me if I fly my 3,600 pound Piper Saratoga SP over houses, people or roads... Pretty sure I could do some damage with that.

Huge difference between manned aircraft and RC aircraft. One difference is the manned aircraft pilot has their life to think about as well as what's below. There is a reason why manned aircraft pilots are generally required to avoid low altitude flights over people, vehicles, and populated buildings. While the chances of my drone doing bodily damage to life or property is low, it's higher in town than in the sticks. Provided the drone can still stay in the air, a malfunction or loss of signal (at least with my DJI stuff) usually relies on autonomous controls that kick in allowing the drone to take a direct route to return to home. Being there is also a good chance that my drone might also auto-land due to several factors, I really don't want to be knocking on doors asking to find my drone on their property in a highly populated area like a subdivision. So I avoid people, vehicles, and buildings as best I can when flying in town. If a person does fly in town, I'd hope they have enough responsibility to tell a property owner that it was their drone that caused the property damage if any occurs. My guess is there are irresponsible drone pilots out there who might say "oops", not admit fault, and simply walk away. Kind of hard to do that with a full sized aircraft.