Flying around a house fire is wrong, right?

[Melvoid]

So there was a fire in my town last night. Right away my brothers called me to get in the air and I told him I couldn't because it's probably a TFR situation. Well, I was just on Facebook and noticed someone posted a video from a drone. I was just wondering what everyone's opinions are on this before I say something. I'm not looking to make the guy feel bad, just let him know it was a bad idea, if it was. I'll try and get the videos url and share it so you guys can see. He did do a good job of filming from the few seconds I saw.

 

[Melvoid]

So there was a fire in my town last night. Right away my brothers called me to get in the air and I told him I couldn't because it's probably a TFR situation. Well, I was just on Facebook and noticed someone posted a video from a drone. I was just wondering what everyone's opinions are on this before I say something. I'm not looking to make the guy feel bad, just let him know it was a bad idea, if it was. I'll try and get the videos url and share it so you guys can see. He did do a good job of filming from the few seconds I saw.

There was a barn fire near me last summer. I was a half mile away and about 300 feet up. Only pumper trucks dealing with the fire. I didn't feel as thought I was impeding anyone's progress in any way. I didn't do anything to annoy them, didn't get close at all, etc. I don't think they even noticed me. I see no issues with that. Another time, during controlled burns, I went and asked if I could fly there. THEY said they were expecting a plane and asked that I stay on the ground. I complied. They also said that in other situations, I could check with them and possibly be allowed to fly, so it's a situational thing. If you get too close, it can distract and annoy and even hinder, so just keep your distance. All that said, that's my experience and opinion. Last time I stated my opinion, I got flamed pretty good by one person, but overall, I just put a bit of forethought into what I'm doing and how I'm doing it, and I've had no real problems.

 

[LZet]

This is sad really, and yes it’s why we are being banned, restricted, etc. and it is only going to get worse. If people cannot use common sense, all of us get grounded, it’s just the way it is.

I was filming in the Serra Nevada the other day, in the one or two spots it’s still legal to do so. Noticed a subscribed burn about a mile away. Everyone was stopping to take pictures. I decide against sending the drone out. There were no aircraft in the area, no ground crew, no personnel in sight at all actually, but none the less decided it wasn’t worth the risk or the potential hassle.

A few miles down the road, I was filming a beautiful mirrored lake surface with a peak looming above. It was quite striking. Just as my light was fading, some random lady walks over and asks if I have a permit. I tell her I am a registered and licensed drone pilot and ask what I can do to help her. Note, I took care to set up well away from the road or any people. There was no one on the lake, and the for the life of me I’m not sure why she felt the need to trudge over to where I was at, a good 50 yards from the road. She gets up in my face and starts telling me I can’t be there and these “drones” are ruining the environment, etc. I calmly told her that I was in a National Forest, not a National Park, I wasn’t on private property, that I had every right to be there and that she should probably mind her own business. She stared at me for a minute, took pictures of me, and then back at the road of my car license plate and disappeared.

So, yes, people tend to get emotional over our hobby. I don’t get it, I can’t understand why, but they do. So, if some knuckle head, films a house fire and the result is even the risk of a bad thing happening as a result, expect some new ban, restriction or other rules that make it hard to fly our drones at all.

You should take her pictures as well, and exchanging phone numbers, didn´t she tried to start introduction to each other ? To take your picture is also harming your own the privacy, unles you allow her to do so,hm?

 

[LZet]

I would say it is also an ethical matter, to publish a disaster of someone. I can understand offering the concerned people the video in private, to help them to analyze the reason of fire or helping to solve the insurance claim. But publishing? I am about to contact our local FD to discuss potential help , but not the way the guy did.

 

[bsartist]

It was also less than 5 miles from an airport but I'm sure he call to let them in know he was flying... I'll let it be this time but I'm going to send a message to the fire chief and keep an eye on his channel.

Whilst there is some value in self policing our hobby, you may want to stop at having it appear like a vendetta - which this could start to sound like. It could also look like there is really an underlying jealousy that he walked up to but not over a debatable legal line and got the video you wish you had if you had decided to push the limit.

Don't shoot the messenger here. I'm not accusing you of these things; just pointing out the appearance you could be heading for if you turn this guy into your pasttime. I'm also not saying it was or wasn't legal - just that it's debatable since both sides have been debated here.

Also I'm not sure if reporting to the FAA will help the hobby. I doubt the FAA will say, "thanks, we will go tune this guy up and leave the rest of you alone." Instead, if we keep reminding them this stuff happens, they are more likely to say "hmm we better tighten the regs." Just my opinion.

So my belief is this: If you can be sure your intent really is to educate, then find a way to nicely say "in case you didn't know, it may not be legal to fly over fires" or whatever. If he duly notes it, your done. If he acts like the north end of a southbound horse, then I think you're still done lest it turn into a battle of egos. After all, even if he does get his back up, he still may file it away and think better the next time.

 

[Ansia]

Whilst there is some value in self policing our hobby, you may want to stop at having it appear like a vendetta - which this could start to sound like. It could also look like there is really an underlying jealousy that he walked up to but not over a debatable legal line and got the video you wish you had if you had decided to push the limit.

Don't shoot the messenger here. I'm not accusing you of these things; just pointing out the appearance you could be heading for if you turn this guy into your pasttime. I'm also not saying it was or wasn't legal - just that it's debatable since both sides have been debated here.

Also I'm not sure if reporting to the FAA will help the hobby. I doubt the FAA will say, "thanks, we will go tune this guy up and leave the rest of you alone." Instead, if we keep reminding them this stuff happens, they are more likely to say "hmm we better tighten the regs." Just my opinion.

So my belief is this: If you can be sure your intent really is to educate, then find a way to nicely say "in case you didn't know, it may not be legal to fly over fires" or whatever. If he duly notes it, your done. If he acts like the north end of a southbound horse, then I think you're still done lest it turn into a battle of egos. After all, even if he does get his back up, he still may file it away and think better the next time.

I understand where you are coming from, but to my eyes, the author did not give a .... He is the type that thinks he is in the right and rules don’t apply to him. So no matter what we tell him, it won’t change anything.

 

[bsartist]

I understand where you are coming from, but to my eyes, the author did not give a .... He is the type that thinks he is in the right and rules don’t apply to him. So no matter what we tell him, it won’t change anything.

The author of the post or the video?

 

[Ansia]

The author of the post or the video?

The video. The OP’s interest is to educate the video creator, to prevent him from doing something stupid, forcing the FAA to regulate us even further and/or giving us even worse rep.

 

[Videojim]

This is sad really, and yes it’s why we are being banned, restricted, etc. and it is only going to get worse. If people cannot use common sense, all of us get grounded, it’s just the way it is.

I was filming in the Serra Nevada the other day, in the one or two spots it’s still legal to do so. Noticed a subscribed burn about a mile away. Everyone was stopping to take pictures. I decide against sending the drone out. There were no aircraft in the area, no ground crew, no personnel in sight at all actually, but none the less decided it wasn’t worth the risk or the potential hassle.

A few miles down the road, I was filming a beautiful mirrored lake surface with a peak looming above. It was quite striking. Just as my light was fading, some random lady walks over and asks if I have a permit. I tell her I am a registered and licensed drone pilot and ask what I can do to help her. Note, I took care to set up well away from the road or any people. There was no one on the lake, and the for the life of me I’m not sure why she felt the need to trudge over to where I was at, a good 50 yards from the road. She gets up in my face and starts telling me I can’t be there and these “drones” are ruining the environment, etc. I calmly told her that I was in a National Forest, not a National Park, I wasn’t on private property, that I had every right to be there and that she should probably mind her own business. She stared at me for a minute, took pictures of me, and then back at the road of my car license plate and disappeared.

So, yes, people tend to get emotional over our hobby. I don’t get it, I can’t understand why, but they do. So, if some knuckle head, films a house fire and the result is even the risk of a bad thing happening as a result, expect some new ban, restriction or other rules that make it hard to fly our drones at all.

It's just like everyone that report people for doing legal things. I would just tell them to call the police. Oh and record the situation on your phone. Never hurts to ask "What are you doing here?" and reverse the power.

 

[Ansia]

My 107 certificate card arrived yesterday in the mail and I read something really interesting in it. For those of you who think you have the right to fly as you wish.

P.S. this is not my card. I got this one off the internet, but mine is identical.

 

[bsartist]

The video. The OP’s interest is to educate the video creator, to prevent him from doing something stupid, forcing the FAA to regulate us even further and/or giving us even worse rep.

Your use of the word “author” was a bit ambiguous so I wasn’t sure. I think we are in agreement here. If the OP’s interest is to educate then an attempt at doing so by trying to inform him in a non confrontational way could advance that cause. No guarantees of course. But you also can’t assume that the guy will be belligerent and uncooperative unless you try - and then get that response. I still think there is always a possibility that even those who respond belligerently at first still might say to themselves in the future “hmm. Maybe I shouldn’t tempt fate.” Maybe they just think twice and that has accomplished something. Again, no guarantees. I don’t think reporting him is likely to teach him a lesson because I doubt any enforcement action will be taken. But the more reports the authorities get could eventually create a critical mass in their heads that has them take a harder regulatory stance. Like swatting at flies. Which has the exact opposite effect the OP (and most of us want).

Congrats on your 107

 

[Ansia]

Your use of the word “author” was a bit ambiguous so I wasn’t sure. I think we are in agreement here. If the OP’s interest is to educate then an attempt at doing so by trying to inform him in a non confrontational way could advance that cause. No guarantees of course. But you also can’t assume that the guy will be belligerent and uncooperative unless you try and get that response. I still think there is always a possibility that even those who respond belligerently at first and still might say to themselves in the future “hmm. Maybe I shouldn’t tempt fate.” Again, no guarantees. I don’t think reporting him is likely to teach him a lesson because I doubt any enforcement action will be taken. But the more reports the authorities get could eventually create a critical mass that has them take a harder regulatory stance. Which has the exact opposite effect the OP (and most of us want).

Congrats on your 107

Thank you. I agree with you completely. I beleive that even if the video author responded with hostility, it gave him/her something to think about. Who knows, maybe it did work. FAA is taking action. I constantly keep reading about reports of FAA sending letters to try to educate wrongful fliers. Hopefully it stays that way for now, although I read somewhere about a case where someone was fined 25 grand for reckless flying over people, highway, damage to property and a couple more. With the recent law that was passed on Oct. 5, 2018, things will change.

 

[Billy F]

I don’t see an issue flying near a house fire if you are not interfering with emergency personnel. There is no FAA regulation on this. I would not fly over a wild fire as that has a potential of interfering with aircraft. In fact your drone maybe able to help in ways not thought about.

 

[BigAl07]

I don’t see an issue flying near a house fire if you are not interfering with emergency personnel. There is no FAA regulation on this. I would not fly over a wild fire as that has a potential of interfering with aircraft. In fact your drone maybe able to help in ways not thought about.

While it may seem "Ok" to just randomly fly over a structure fire I can tell you from first hand experience that it's not. What happens if the dept (or a neighboring one) has a sUAS and they want to put it in the air? Since you are flying "blindly" how will they know WHO or WHERE to contact to coordinate flights as to not cause a safety hazard over the area? Guess what happens if they can't launch their sUAS because of yours in the area? You are now officially hampering Emergency Services and in a direct violation of FAA rules. Not where you want to be.

Instead of being a Hot Shot and flying "in the shadows" from afar why not go to the scene, find someone with Emergency Services and offer to give them a new perspective? If they refuse be a big boy and thank them for their time and watch it from a distance and leave the sUAS in the case. You might make some life long friends and be able to give back to your community going forward which is a WIN-WIN!

Keep in mind if you do this you'll need to have your Part 107 as this is not HOBBY in any stretch of the imagination.

I work training various Emergency Services Depts around the southeastern US in this type of operations. We teach departments how to try and keep an eye out for rogue sUAS operations and how to follow the aircraft back to the operator. From there we teach them how to interact with an operator and what you can and can NOT do at that time.

It's important to note that more and more Emergency Services Agencies are adding sUAS to their tool box each and every day.

 

[Billy F]

Point well taken!

 

[Billy F]

Is there anything more I can do about it? This guy really got under my skin. Maybe if you guys went and commented on his YouTube video?

Enough has been said. I would drop it.