DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Neighbors, and back-yard flying

While it may be USA centric it pretty much lines up with my understanding of the situation here in Oz. (I have no legal training)
 
There are cameras everywhere we go now, in our day to day lives.
We are even filmed in our vehicles as we drive. Satellites are all over the sky filming everything, yet some idiots worry about a drone, whose camera is pathetic compared to the satellite images that they take daily. Some people are just psychotic is all, can't fix crazy, all you can do is medicate heavily for it.
 
Some people are just psychotic is all, can't fix crazy, all you can do is medicate heavily for it.

Oh, you *can* fix crazy. It's just generally illegal to do so in most jurisdictions absent sufficient provocation.

And it's best to lay down a lot of plastic sheeting before you make the attempt.
 
Personally, I'd just ignore the letter. I suspect that she never reported anything to the police, as they never contacted anyone to investigate a complaint. I also suspect she does not have an attorney (contact "my" attorney). I'm guessing that there was no filming done to the inside of her home. I don't see that she has any _reasonable_ expectation of privacy in her backyard as you can simply look right over the fence. If you wanted to go a step further, perhaps have someone explain the situation to her, or even right a letter back. Perhaps she is so important and interesting that everyone wants to see what she is doing all of the time.
I would call over and show her the drone, explain what you were doing and reassure her that there was no privacy invasion filming. One handy fallback resource is to offer to check the roof and gutters for damage, leaves and blockages. I do that for some of my elderly neighbours when I put my drone up to check my own roof. A little friendly offer of help can achieve a lot. ????
 
I would call over and show her the drone, explain what you were doing and reassure her that there was no privacy invasion filming. One handy fallback resource is to offer to check the roof and gutters for damage, leaves and blockages. I do that for some of my elderly neighbours when I put my drone up to check my own roof. A little friendly offer of help can achieve a lot. ????
You just reminded me to check my gutters for leaves.
Thanks,
Dale
 
  • Like
Reactions: DavidT_ NZ
My Air 2 is so stable. I just track along the gutters and take photos from about 2 metres above, to inspect for obstructions. Cheers ????
Too much foliage up against the house for me to risk that! I'm going a bit higher.
 
Hi everyone.

I'm still new. I'm still reading, researching, and learning about this hobby. I was over at my parents house last week, swimming and grilling out. I brought the drone to show it to my dad. I took it up in his back yard, and zipped around a little, followed my kids with it while they ran around the yard, went up to 250' to catch a sunset picture, and back down. It wasn't up long, and I never left his backyard.


We were over again yesterday, and he showed me a letter he got in the mail...

View attachment 101802

I'd like to go ahead and add, that I've decided to not fly in his yard anymore, legal or not. I'd also like to add, that not only did I never fly near the fence, I wasn't recording. I absolutely do not want to escalate the situation. We don't need more people hating drones, getting more laws passed against them. (Also, how does someone say something like "It was pointed directly at me, and filming me" when they clearly have NO idea if that's true /s)

The legality gets so confusing for stuff like this. At least to me. I'm not great at reading case law.

She's one of those neighbors that complains about everything. We had my 30th birthday by the pool, a few years back, and we had the music on. It wasn't loud. Maybe a few decibels louder than a normal speaking volume. My kids swimming made far louder noise, and she called the cops.

This time, no police, but I imagine it's because when she called, they told her it was a legal activity?

As far as I understand it, flying around your own back yard is legal, unless you're intentionally performing surveillance. I've read a little about the "reasonable expectation of privacy" thing, and that also gets confusing. There is a lot of case law in both directions... There is a privacy fence, but it's owned by my parents. I'd still assume you have reasonable expectation of privacy in your fenced back-yard though, so that's added to my decision to not fly there anymore.

I can't find a lot of great resources to read specific law, but I've read everything I can on the federal and state level.

Anyone have some insight on this?

Thanks in advance!

Right now, I'm considering going over one day, knocking on her door, and apologizing. Offering to educate her a little on the drone, and the laws governing them, but I don't think it would do any good.
If they can't prove it, they can't prosecute it. You flew, you saw, you didn't record neighbors, you left the scene. Complaint unable to be substantiated by police. Investigation over
 
Too much foliage up against the house for me to risk that! I'm going a bit higher.
Remember that you can use video digital zoom (1080) on the Air 2, instead of frames. Point down and film from a greater height for drone safety and just zoom in. Review on screen and off later file records. It is a very handy tool. Cheers.
 
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,600
Messages
1,554,285
Members
159,607
Latest member
Schmidteh121