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Situational Scripting for Drone Pilots

Aboveitall

Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2021
Messages
5
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14
Location
Morgan Hill, California
As a new drone pilot and reading a variety of threads it appears that we have many encounters with the public, law enforcement and other entities and agencies. It is one thing to know the rules and obey those; it is another thing to know how to deal with a variety of situations that drone flying might suck me into. It would be great if we had a repository of suggested responses (mature, educational, factual, de-escalating, reflects a positive light on the drone community, etc...) to the most common encounters that drone pilots might experience. There might be 20 or 30 of these typical situations or encounters. That way, a new drone pilot like me or any drone pilot for that matter, might be better equipped to intelligently handle a situation that might occur--keeping things in perspective and calm. I'm personally not real spontaneous and tend to get emotional when approached by an emotional person--a personal fault. I'm not suggesting that there is only one right way to handle any situation; I am suggesting that if I'm better prepared (scripted) I might handle a situation better (a win/win outcome) and further the positive view of the drone community et al. I would be interested in what others think about this idea?
 
Each encounter is unique whether it is any of the entities you mention (public, LE or whatever) and to me it would seem trying to find a scripted response would appear to those you are (responding) to, would seem - scripted.

Knowing the rules you are flying under and having knowledge of the airspace you are flying in, as well as any regulations that will impact where you are operating from, will go a lot further. At least if you are dealing with someone that can reason which; is sorta becoming a rarity these days.

I have, in all my years of flying, never had an encounter that was negative or caught me off guard except for one. I do real estate photography and one time I had a neighbor of the house I was shooting, (who had been informed by the realtor that I would be on sight), watch me like a hawk as I moved throughout the property I was taking photos of. When I waved and acknowledged him with a smile, he just glared at me. At one point he turned on the sprinklers that bordered his property. I just smiled, finished my job and left.

The point is this; that guy did not want to talk, he would not have accepted any reason for me being there, so nothing anyone could say (on the spot or scripted) would have worked. Best to be informed and able to relay that for any given situation and be prepared to deal with the average oddball.
 
Yeah as Ty said, there are just too many scenarios to deal with a script, and it would look pretty awkward pulling out something to read from, or practice from to learn roughly ad lib.

The best thing is know where you stand with airspace, legal flight, and the rest is dependent on the other party.
LEO, annoyed older person, neighbour, absolute psychotic, armed absolute phsycotic, etc.

It seems to really only happen very rarely in any form, barely worth worrying about.

Carry whatever legal licenses, trust, drone registration on aircraft etc, show them to LEO or others if you wish.
Learn to state firmly that you are licensed drone pilot (part 107, trust, or just drone regoed), flying legally in an authorised airspace with no restrictions, and if they have any concerns, please call you local law enforcement . . . also that they should now leave you alone to concentrate on your flight, and enable you to have the lawful distance from your drone for when landing.
 
I have had hundreds of encounters. More are good then bad. But then again we fly Power lines so we are out in high visibility vest and hard hats. Many times driving dirt roads out into farm field and farmers will drive right by and wave and keep going. Have had a couple of Karens, but we are out for the power company so many back off pretty quick. One lady was being nice and started to ask kindly why we were looking into peoples windows. I showed her the power lines we were looking at and how it works and she realized how it sounded asking us that. We explained that we are professional and record everything, we avoid getting anyone in the video. Have had the cops called several times. Its always the same story that someone has been flying over their house and spying on them all week and they are tired of it.

With us we are flying right over peoples property and along the easement. Most people ask us why they were not contacted by the power company before hand. Of course this is out of our wheel house, and I am sure they never do. We tell them we were under the impression that the power company was telling people about the inspection rotation and it is possible that it was a robo call that they hung up on or did not answer.
Even the people asking us this are usually pretty decent and are more curious then anything.

Best thing to do is to not get defensive, tell them what you are doing, be out in the open and not try to hide anything. If they start getting really nasty it is best to leave and if you have to call the police.

We had to cops called one day before the lady realized we were inspecting the lines and she apologized, we told her its no problem and told her we did not blame her. That its better to do that then confront someone that they dont know. We kept on down the lines, about 45 minutes later cop shows up and says ”hey we have been looking for you guys!” Told him we are not hard to fine, follow the power lines and look for the bright yellow vests and the hard hats with the huge drone flying around! He just laughed.
 
I don't know if others might consider something like this? (I'm UK based for what its worth so obviously there may be some variances).

I've printed an A5 booklet which I keep on top of my flight bag, the idea being that if approached I can direct people to it in the first instance - specifically the README on page 2.

The booklet contains general info about my flights, emergency contact details (local ATC, A+E department etc) and redacted copies of certifications and insurance (an unredacted copy I keep on me if needed).

In addition it has excerpts from the various pieces of legislation I'm flying under, aircraft specifications and maps of local spaces I tend to flow which show 50m boundary marks.

I haven't had to use it yet, however the idea is to show that I'm not flying in a 'reckless' fashion, have investigated where I'm flying, and done due diligence re insurance etc. I'm hoping that it might feed some peoples curiosity, but also allow me a few minutes while landing to prep myself if someone seems 'angsty' (and potentially calm them a little knowing that I'm prepared).

If you guys have any thoughts on it (or ideas of things to add) I'm all ears!
 

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