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This happened a month ago during a trip to Ecuador, more specifically in Cotopaxi.
Let me start by saying, drones are not allowed in Cotopaxi (anymore). I could not find any information about this online before I went there, but an angry-turned-friendly park ranger made this very clear. So if anyone goes looking for "Cotopaxi drones allowed", the answer is no.
After climbing a bit up to the Refugio at Cotopaxi, I thought it was a nice location to do some drone shots. I like to keep a low profile, so we went a bit off-trail, and I flew immediately out of hearing distance of the people hiking. After a pretty long shot (500 meters out), I suddenly lost the connection abruptly and completely. I have had quite some disconnect issues in the past, but this one seemed a bit odd: most disconnect issues I have are when I forgot to put my phone or smartwatch into flight mode, this was not the case now. Also, the drone was within LOS.
As the drone was getting nearer, I was only able to get the signal back when it was very nearby to do a safe hand catch. While I was putting it away, I asked my girlfriend if anyone was coming up to us, and sure enough, a park ranger looking very angrily was climbing up to our spot. He started out quite determined to confiscate our drone, but relaxed a bit as we apologised about 10 times and explained our situation: our driver checked in at the park entrance for us, so we missed the no drones sign and I hadn't found anything online about no drones being allowed there. Also, asking very much in detail where it is allowed in Ecuador helped show him that I intend to respect the law: according to him, only Cotopaxi and Galapagos are off limits.
The primary reason why he was so angry was that the drone signal was disrupting a small radio tower (see picture, or 3:41 in the video) a couple hundred meters away. He said this was the reason he detected the flight, not because he heard the drone. I figured that this might also be the reason for the disconnect issues. Do you think this is possible? Is it possible they detected my flight, and sent out some sort of jamming signal to stop it? How far away should one stay from radio towers?
I uploaded the video here. I think I lost the connection at around 0:45, at 2:02 you can see me regaining control, but shortly thereafter I lose connection again.
Let me start by saying, drones are not allowed in Cotopaxi (anymore). I could not find any information about this online before I went there, but an angry-turned-friendly park ranger made this very clear. So if anyone goes looking for "Cotopaxi drones allowed", the answer is no.
After climbing a bit up to the Refugio at Cotopaxi, I thought it was a nice location to do some drone shots. I like to keep a low profile, so we went a bit off-trail, and I flew immediately out of hearing distance of the people hiking. After a pretty long shot (500 meters out), I suddenly lost the connection abruptly and completely. I have had quite some disconnect issues in the past, but this one seemed a bit odd: most disconnect issues I have are when I forgot to put my phone or smartwatch into flight mode, this was not the case now. Also, the drone was within LOS.
As the drone was getting nearer, I was only able to get the signal back when it was very nearby to do a safe hand catch. While I was putting it away, I asked my girlfriend if anyone was coming up to us, and sure enough, a park ranger looking very angrily was climbing up to our spot. He started out quite determined to confiscate our drone, but relaxed a bit as we apologised about 10 times and explained our situation: our driver checked in at the park entrance for us, so we missed the no drones sign and I hadn't found anything online about no drones being allowed there. Also, asking very much in detail where it is allowed in Ecuador helped show him that I intend to respect the law: according to him, only Cotopaxi and Galapagos are off limits.
The primary reason why he was so angry was that the drone signal was disrupting a small radio tower (see picture, or 3:41 in the video) a couple hundred meters away. He said this was the reason he detected the flight, not because he heard the drone. I figured that this might also be the reason for the disconnect issues. Do you think this is possible? Is it possible they detected my flight, and sent out some sort of jamming signal to stop it? How far away should one stay from radio towers?
I uploaded the video here. I think I lost the connection at around 0:45, at 2:02 you can see me regaining control, but shortly thereafter I lose connection again.
