This past weekend I saw a post on Facebook from my niece's husband bragging/warning about a drone he saw flying over his house and how he got his shotgun out, took aim and the drone flew off. He went to the front yard and saw a person standing outside their vehicle with a controller. He still had his shotgun and started running toward the person. The drone pilot landed the drone and sped off. He claimed that he would shoot down any drone in his sight for violating his property and privacy rights and how no one better not dare to fly over his house again.
It turns out the drone pilot, is one of my good friends and a fellow private airplane pilot and Part 107 license holder. His drone is equipped with an IR camera as well as other equipment (valued at $9k) and he volunteers for search and rescue and is very well known in our town for being very friendly, generous and he shares his experiences on Facebook as well. He is also licensed to carry and is armed 90% of the time since he travels to disaster/crime areas all over the country. He was packing at during this flight. My friend delivered a happy birthday card to an 8 year old girl with his drone and kept visual the whole time. He messaged me and sent me his GPS track to show he was never over my niece's house.
I posted the ground track on Facebook and said that no one's privacy was violated and that shooting down a drone is ilegal. I also said that drones can't fly over 400ft above ground level and simply flying over a house is not an indication of personal privacy laws and how to report drones to the authorities if you feel you are being violated.
My ripped into my niece's husband for this display of stupidity could have turned out very deadly! Thank God nothing bad happened and hopefully some people were educated on how not to handle drones flying in their neighborhood.
Be careful out there! There are uninformed and dangerous people everywhere.
It turns out the drone pilot, is one of my good friends and a fellow private airplane pilot and Part 107 license holder. His drone is equipped with an IR camera as well as other equipment (valued at $9k) and he volunteers for search and rescue and is very well known in our town for being very friendly, generous and he shares his experiences on Facebook as well. He is also licensed to carry and is armed 90% of the time since he travels to disaster/crime areas all over the country. He was packing at during this flight. My friend delivered a happy birthday card to an 8 year old girl with his drone and kept visual the whole time. He messaged me and sent me his GPS track to show he was never over my niece's house.
I posted the ground track on Facebook and said that no one's privacy was violated and that shooting down a drone is ilegal. I also said that drones can't fly over 400ft above ground level and simply flying over a house is not an indication of personal privacy laws and how to report drones to the authorities if you feel you are being violated.
My ripped into my niece's husband for this display of stupidity could have turned out very deadly! Thank God nothing bad happened and hopefully some people were educated on how not to handle drones flying in their neighborhood.
Be careful out there! There are uninformed and dangerous people everywhere.
