Sheriff at my door this morning.

[Vic Moss]

How about orange cones and a safety vest indicating you are a FAA licensed drone pilot.

We use those when necessary. And I have a body cam I wear if I feel the need.

 

[PompousWindbag]

Who gets so offended by this that they feel the need to phone the police? It really is quite sad and pathetic.

Remember, they also took the step to track my drone in the sky back to my home. That's just creepy.

 

[PompousWindbag]

A woman goes into a bar where the band is setting up to play. She walks up to the band leader and says "Can you please turn down the volume?". The band leader looks up and in amazement and replies "We haven't even started playing yet ma'am"... to which the woman retorts back "But it LOOKS loud".

Believe it or not, I've actually had something like this happen when I had my own band. I was asked to "turn it down" before we even started playing. LOL

 

[mattcaz]

First and Foremost: I am only asking for info - I am not trying to make any statements or argue anything.

Where in the FAR's is the bit where recreational flyers can fly at night? I've been looking and can't find one shred of info that says it is okay, even with approved lighting. There was one general waiver - but it was rescinded a short time ago. I want to fly at night, have everything set to fly legally; but so far all of my LAANC requests have been denied (100' inside Class C airspace and always file for clearance, just in case a neighbor calls) - and I can't find one sentence about night flight anywhere else, including rec flying under part 49, making me think night flight is not allowed. It's driving me crazy.

LAANC will NOT approve a night flight by a recreational flyer. As soon as I selected Commercial because I have my 107 and trust etc, it approved it.

 

[mattcaz]

How about orange cones and a safety vest indicating you are a FAA licensed drone pilot.

This is the Shirt I made so anyone approaching me has a heads up.

 

[Lbesing]

What I would do now:

Sign up to your Neighbor Hood Watch: Let them know your FAA approved to fly at night,
Let them know your Practicing for Search and Rescue and your Available for finding those who are lost.

Post a security perimeter Picture of your Neighborhood every night on the Posts. '
Post Sunsets when you can and Foul Weather Pictures as well.

If someone is selling there home offer an Overhead View for them showing the location surrounding them.
You can also Post Pictures of Rivers and Streets that flooding, Parked Vans , Utility Work , Pole work,

One quick response that has saved me countless times from speculation is the reason I am flying my drone is that I am checking the Designated Air Space for Search and Rescue Operations , and that is the Reason why my drone has the Wet Suit because it needs to fly under all weather Conditions. It works better than I am joy flying my drone.

Needless to say my surrounding Neighbors know where to go to find a lost cat.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain and Land on the Water.

He cannot offer that service because he is not a 107 pilot. He can post photos for fun, but he cannot offer photos for somebody who's planning to sell their house, etc. Otherwise, that's a great idea. But I would encourage the OP to go ahead and get his 107 certification. It opens up a lot of doors and removes a lot of restrictions, especially with the new regulations. When I got my 107, I jumped through the hoops and got my 107.29 daylight waiver, but that got automatically canceled as of May 17th. I just took the recurrent test online and was able to resume flying at night. If you're not in a restricted area, you don't need the approval to fly at night. If you are in a restricted area, then you need approval.

 

[Lbesing]

LAANC will NOT approve a night flight by a recreational flyer. As soon as I selected Commercial because I have my 107 and trust etc, it approved it.

You are correct that it will not approve a flight by recreational pilot in a restricted area. But if the OP was in an unrestricted area, he did not need approval to fly.

 

[uberamd]

Just the other day I had a neighbor post in our neighborhood Facebook group saying someone was hovering a drone 10’ above their driveway/house and every other house in the neighborhood taking pictures at night, and gave a “my young daughters noticed” appeal for sympathy, saying he was going to shoot it down but it was gone by the time he came out with his BB gun.

Another neighbor then claimed that when the drone was noticed, it flew off into the night.

Trying to get ahead of the clear “omg how creepy” comments that would soon follow, I said that yes, it was me, a fellow neighbor, doing a legal flight at night to take a hyper lapse of the cars in the distance, and at no point was I under 300 feet except for my driveway, and the drone was moving at a consistent 3MPH.

He insisted the drone was 10’ above his driveway and house. I then posted the irrefutable video showing the clear height of the drone, and how the resulting hyper lapse was unusable due to bad camera settings but I saved it anyway just in case a situation like this came up, because it shows enough light to prove height based on visible structures in the distance.

Rather than admitting that he was trying to make a situation worse by making false claims, he insisted that there must have also been someone else flying a drone over his house, at the same late hour of the night, in a neighborhood where I’m not aware of anyone else with a real drone.

Even with video evidence, people like this will never admit they’re wrong. It’s exhausting.

And the worst part is, it’s made me not want to fly my drone anymore. I fly for fun, but getting called out like that, in your community, with verifiably false claims makes it not worth the risk. And that frustrates me greatly.

Wasn’t even worth trying to point out that late at night it’s hard to accurately judge the height of a drone if you can’t see any surrounding trees/structures and don’t know the size of the aircraft, or that it’s legal to fly where I was flying, you don’t own the airspace 300’ above your home, drones don’t make sounds when taking photos so how can you be so sure any drone is “taking pictures” to begin with, etc. These types will never admit they’re wrong.

 

[KJack91986]

I’m with Jiffen in that as a recreational flyer, I didn’t realize there was a an FAA requirement that would necessitate me acquiring and attaching an additional strobe to my DJI Mavic 2. If anyone has recommendations on a specific strobe attachment for my drone I’d definitely appreciate it. Side Note: I seriously doubt I’d be flying over populated areas and definitely 5+ miles from any restricted airspaces).

 

[Lbesing]

Until now I did not realize a strobe light was required for night flight. In looking for an approved light I see they come in several colors, and operate in Strobe, Flash, or Continuous. I cannot find a regulation that defines color requirement or the strobe, flash, continuous operation.

You're looking at white or red for the strobe is visible for three statute miles. Not green. I tend to use a white LumeCube anti-collision strobe on my drones. But I also add additional LED navigation lights for easier orientation as well. Originally took a course through 107waivers.com to get my 107.29 daylight waiver approved by the FAA. Very good folks over there with that website by the way. Learned a lot about flying at night. A lot of this material is now covered by the recurrent training / testing that we have to do. I learned that they orientation navigation lights are better if you don't have them strobing. It's harder to guess the distance away from you if they're strobing. I've tested that myself and they were correct. So I just run the red and green orientation navigation lights on two arms of the drone in addition to the OEM lights. And I put the white strobe on top of the drone for aircraft purposes. You've got to be careful where you position these lights because they can interfere with the photos and videos that you're taking.

 

[Mikieh]

Wow, that ended up nicely. Once I was on a family vacation in a hotel and after checking with the hotel and got the approval to fly, I started flying early in the morning and people were very interested in it and many people wanted to take pictures and video and I was so happy to do so. went back to the room and changed the battery and flew again and no pleasure will last as many people are "HATERS". a lady came and she reported me to the police and hotel management claiming that I have recorded her..... I was frustrated and worried at the same time till I explained the situation and the reason was the drone was close to the area where she was as it's next to us, showing them the approval as well as the registered Drone certificate. police were understanding as well as the management and I had to show her the footage and told her to give me exactly the time you saw it. then she claims that she open the curtains and she saw the drone flying nearby her room and thought I was recording. fun fact, the drone was recording at 90 degrees the sand area with the sea plants and nothing she says was true. also showed them the footage of the landing and case dismissed.

Totally agree with the haters.

Some people just don’t get that they are not always the center of the universe. I was first a terrestrial photographer then graduated to aerial drone photography which I enjoy immensely as I am retired and need a pastime and part time work. Got my FAA cred and sometimes fly for money. Anyway when you get the bird in the air with all that lovely scenery around you just don’t think twice about intruding on someone’s privacy. In fact when someone confronts about flying, I feel violated!!! Go figure.

 

[caryg]

Until now I did not realize a strobe light was required for night flight. In looking for an approved light I see they come in several colors, and operate in Strobe, Flash, or Continuous. I cannot find a regulation that defines color requirement or the strobe, flash, continuous operation.

There have been a few extensive tests put up online. As far as I know, the only strobe unit that meets FAA specs (visible from 3 miles) is the Firehouse Arc V with white LEDs. I just wish they made it with a delayed "on" switch, because as soon as you turn it on, it's blinding. Nice if you could take off and get up 10 feet or so before it actually came on...

 

[snowghost]

This is the Shirt I made so anyone approaching me has a heads up.

I found this vest on Amazon. Lots of pockets too.

 

[uberamd]

I found this vest on Amazon. Lots of pockets too.

That’s exactly what a creeper drone stalker who is taking pictures in peoples windows at night would wear.

- Alarmist neighbors, probably

 

[snowghost]

Haven't flown at night since doing the recurrent exam, but got this strobe that has 3 colors.

https://www.amazon.com/ULANZI-Anti-Collision-Lighting-Phantom-Rechargeable/dp/B08VDTJD78

 

[eEridani]

White Red is the general color for anti-collision top mounted strobes. Red/Green is a left/right positional indicator on wing tips. And can be a tail light, too, also white. By seeing which side of the craft you are approaching is red, you know if it is coming at you or heading away from you. Positional lights are usually solid on - non flashing - but some are flashers. Anti-collision lighting is generally flashing - usually real 50Ws or larger Zenon strobes visible 3 miles in a 360 degree dome over the aircraft - some aircraft also have the same strobe on the lower fuselage or in each wing tip.

I'd swear white was once the color I learned in flight school, but that was 1980, today I see many references show red at the prevailing beacon color.

 

[Lbesing]

Just the other day I had a neighbor post in our neighborhood Facebook group saying someone was hovering a drone 10’ above their driveway/house and every other house in the neighborhood taking pictures at night, and gave a “my young daughters noticed”. He then claimed that when the drone was noticed, it flew off into the night.

Trying to get ahead of the clear “omg how creepy” comments that would soon follow, I said that yes, it was me, a fellow neighbor, doing a legal flight at night to take a hyper lapse of the cars in the distance, and at no point was I under 300 feet except for my driveway, and the drone was moving at a consistent 3MPH.

He insisted the drone was 10’ above his driveway and house. I then posted the irrefutable video showing the clear height of the drone, and how the resulting hyper lapse was unusable due to bad camera settings.

Rather than admitting that he was trying to make a situation worse by making false claims, he insisted that there must have also been someone else flying a drone over his house, at the same late hour of the night, in a neighborhood where I’m not aware of anyone else with a real drone.

Even with video evidence, people like this will never admit they’re wrong. It’s exhausting.

I spend a lot of time on the NextDoor app, proactively responding to anybody that mentions the word drone. I have been posting my own videos on there and emphasize the fact that I try to avoid flying in my neighborhood very often, just for the very reasons that they are complaining about. I'm now the go-to guy on my side of town whenever anybody has questions about drones. I've helped a lot of new drone operators get into the hobby and I direct them to our San Antonio Drones Facebook group where we've got 1800 members on board. We have monthly Meet-up events and invite people to come watch us fly.

 

[06-Hammerhead]

(Deleted by moderator)

Cops don't know drone laws. They barely understand anything involving privacy or nuisance laws.

Imagine how bad it'll be when RID kicks in and any angry neighbor can track you down and confront you.

I’m not sure that is a fair blanket statement.

 

[uberamd]

I spend a lot of time on the NextDoor app, proactively responding to anybody that mentions the word drone. I have been posting my own videos on there and emphasize the fact that I try to avoid flying in my neighborhood very often, just for the very reasons that they are complaining about. I'm now the go-to guy on my side of town whenever anybody has questions about drones. I've helped a lot of new drone operators get into the hobby and I direct them to our San Antonio Drones Facebook group where we've got 1800 members on board. We have monthly Meet-up events and invite people to come watch us fly.

That’s awesome, and absolutely how to handle things! I too don’t fly in my neighborhood much, it just happened to be a perfectly clear night, with zero wind, and my wife was off on a quick late night errand leaving me with the sleeping kids so I couldn’t go to the local park to fly. I felt like it was maybe rude of me to take off/land that late given the noise of the drone, but didn’t think much of it beyond that.

My neighborhood is about 100 single family homes, and most people are pretty cool. Ive given 3 starter drones away in the last year to neighborhood parents so they can teach their kids how to use them, and try to be approachable and willing to teach when flying. Seems like the best way to get people over the privacy fear.

Sadly, a few vocal people will spoil it using fear tactics to rile up other easily manipulated people

 

[sar104]

Until now I did not realize a strobe light was required for night flight. In looking for an approved light I see they come in several colors, and operate in Strobe, Flash, or Continuous. I cannot find a regulation that defines color requirement or the strobe, flash, continuous operation.

I’m with Jiffen in that as a recreational flyer, I didn’t realize there was a an FAA requirement that would necessitate me acquiring and attaching an additional strobe to my DJI Mavic 2. If anyone has recommendations on a specific strobe attachment for my drone I’d definitely appreciate it. Side Note: I seriously doubt I’d be flying over populated areas and definitely 5+ miles from any restricted airspaces).

The FAA strobe requirement is in Part 107 (107.29) - it doesn't apply to recreational flights under 49 U.S.C §44809 because it is not one of the requirements of that section. Eligibility under 49 U.S.C §44809 does require following the guidelines of a community-based organization but, for example, the AMA has no guidelines requiring strobes for night flights either.

That is almost certainly one of the main reasons that the FAA is not authorizing recreational flights at night in controlled airspace - they have no way to require strobes under 49 U.S.C §44809.