My wife wanted to walk our dogs and asked if I wanted to drive down to the Alaska Pipeline. It's about 3mi from our house in North Pole, Alaska. People frequently walk dogs and ride snowmachines in the area and along the pipeline. While it is private property and in places might be picky about folks being on it, in this area people frequently walk along it. I was somewhat surprised to see a security truck parked at the spot we were going to enter the pipeline access road. There is a gate preventing cars from traveling along it and the guard was parked near it. We parked just a few feet away from him and I thought "this will be interesting". Two women were walking along the dirt road that parallels the pipeline and were about to leave the property as we pulled up. I got out my drone right away as my wife began to get the dogs out and I got my landing pad out and put it out quickly. I wanted to find out if there was going to be an issue right off the bat. No reaction. I unfolded my legs, put the drone on the pad, walked a few feet back to the car and the security guard looked my way. I nodded to him and he nodded back and...drove away. That was my kind of security guard interaction! I'm aware of the fact that if I can launch from public property I can fly over the area but I was hoping to not have to make that point. Nice.
