I often fly intentionally with the goal of not being noticed, and hiding my location as best possible. This mitigates Karens from calling LEOs in situations when I'm legally flying with no intention of snooping on others. This is especially important in public where I often record animals along the local riverbed. Some folks actually get offended of drones recording wild animals, the purest PETA folks. IMO the
Mini 2 is best drone for that, producing the least noise of all DJI drones, and having a great flight range and duration, with 4K and 2X zoom support.
The techniques I've learned to mitigate spectators from knowing where the pilot is flying from has to do with takeoff and landing protocol. Some may already know to do this, but here's the tactics.
For takeoff:
If someone sees a craft ascending straight up, they can automatically predict almost exactly where the flight originated, then come and find you. If you can take off horizontally and gradually ascend, it's not so obvious where the pilot is, because by the time the observer sees the craft, it's 100+yds away from the launch point. And if the observer sees it flying in a more horizontal direction, he assumes it's been flying for a while and predicting the pilot location doesn't even enter his mind. It's just another drone flying around from somewhere.
For landing:
I try to fly into my landing site in a similar manner, horizontally, just above tree level. I will often approach my landing spot from the opposite direction as I took off, so I don't fly over the same private property twice, giving someone 2 opportunities to be annoyed and possibly complain in person. I also try to come in to land fairly fast, minimizing the time that drone noise can be heard. This mitigates observation as best possible, even though someone might hear it a little bit one time. At the last minute I'll descend to land, and leave the area if I suspect anyone may complain, or search for me. Backpacks are ideal to throw the gear in and calmly walk out of the area.
These techniques don't eliminate the possibility of someone locating you, and complaining, but they work really well to minimize that possibility. I rarely get found by anyone. I'm only found when someone is hiking and happens upon my location to see me. Most flights I'm well hidden. If someone does see me and stop to ask what I'm doing, they often want to see the display, then they ooh and aah at the view. This is why I like flying from inside my car when the mission route doesn't fly very far away. It virtually eliminates passersby curiosity. Plus, if you see a LEO or ranger approach suspiciously looking around, you can immediately drive away while the craft hovers by itself, then land the craft elsewhere.
Flying from the car requires a constant monitoring of the signal strength bars, which is hard to do. Some folks can train themselves to constantly look at the signal strength bars using peripheral vision, but you have to consciously watch the bars constantly to mitigate signal loss, and the risk of auto RTH.
