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Well—it happened. Neighbors complaining.

The HOA can levy fines against you, even if the drone they saw wasn't your's. So, in order for these fines to stick. They are going to have to film you actually taking off and landing on your property and you would have to be physically present and be filmed picking it up. Without any video or photographic evidence they will lose in court. "It wasn't my drone, your honor." Prove it was HOA.
 
Got my DJI Mavic Air S2 yesterday. Pretty stoked. Did my verification videos, got insurance, went up to 400ft the 2nd day, registered w/ FAA, familiarized myself with the rules—all is good.

I live in an HOA. When I take off, I switch to sport mode and get up as high as possible to reduce noise. It's still quite loud at 350-400 feet. I am noise-conscious with my drone; if I feel it's too loud, I increase altitude. As I was capturing great shots of my neighborhood, I overhear my neighbors talking about the drone. "Well they have a right to fly it (mocking tone), but it's annoying". He was talking to another neighbor across the street. They don't know it belongs to me.

And now, the SECOND DAY in the hobby, I feel if I have to take sporadic breaks between flying as to not impose new HOA regulations on drones. All it takes is one neighbor to complain. It's a bummer. I'm nineteen; videography is a fun little hobby of mine. I take my GoPro mountain biking and hunting then spoof them up in Premiere. Yesterday, I shot some clips in DLOG on the Air S2 and they came out beautiful after color-correcting. The thought of having to slow down to please my neighbors is lame.
Well, flying from your neighborhood is going to get boring fast anyway. So venture out to more impressive places and fly to your hearts content.
 
Flying from your HOA neighborhood is going to get boring quick, so shrug it off. Go to more impressive places to fly, capture amazing videos and images and share them with your complaining neighbors...I bet they will have a different outlook then. If not at least you will....
 
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Yep, have launched from home twice in over 4 years, just to get a look at home from above.

Practice / testing is always somewhere safer, big sports field type area.
Videos and photos always somewhere suitable for scenery / places of interest.

Unless you live in wilderness and have a few options to test / fly for fun at different times of the year, it MUST get very boring, very quickly.
 
Are you sure that you have understood that law correctly? Florida HB 1027 330.41 (3) (b) says:

Except as otherwise expressly provided, a political subdivision may not enact or enforce an ordinance or resolution relating to the design, manufacture, testing, maintenance, licensing, registration, certification, or operation of an unmanned aircraft system, including airspace, altitude, flight paths, equipment or technology requirements; the purpose of operations; and pilot, operator, or observer qualifications, training, and certification.​

A HOA is not a political subdivision. It's a private organization and, as such, can make any rules that it likes regarding activities on its land.
Only the FAA has rules . Not HOA. Just launch from outside, and do as you please !
 
The HOA can and does have noise and nuisance rules, and owners signed up for these rules when they purchased the house in that neighborhood. It is what it is. I've been on two HOA boards. While there are limits, thank gawd, on what an HOA can do and regulate, it is usually a losing battle unless you have deep pockets or many residents on your side.

One example is antennas on your roof. An HOA can have rules saying no, but, in court the FCC overrides the HOA: you can have antennas on your roof, and the HOA can't tell you to take it down. They can ask you to make it pretty though.

The HOA probably will have trouble winning a court battle against a drone - after all, Amazon will be flying them around the hood quite soon - but it will cost you or the homeowner to see the process through, and you may very well lose the noise/nuisance portion of the fine.
 
Well, I'm not even fence to fence with anyone, and already got 2 complains, but they never came back again (seem to understand that I'll keep flying everyday anyway), If you fly from your garden (well, or anywhere XD) get used to it, it happens worldwide.

You can take it in two ways:

  • Hide: That's it, right after takeoff climb to 120m then move away about 200-300 meters and fly normally from there on. Nobody near you sees/hears the drone, nobody finds you, you'll be ok.
  • Show off: Take off from the most exposed places, and after one week or so of trouble everyone will deal with it. "Oh, look, the stupid guy with the drone again", and that's it XD
General people out of the hobby doesn't know the rules, so don't try to explain them the legality about your flights because it's useless, just stay calm whenever anyone approaches and you'll be fine.

PS: And remember to tell them that you don't take pics of them with the drone because it's too loud and it'd be nonsense... for that purpose you use your terrestrial telescope ;)
 
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