Ignorant People Make Me Wonder Why I Bother?
- Thread starter thefrisbee995
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2016
- Messages
- 201
- Reaction score
- 33
Honestly I've only flown at Dynamite and it wasn't anything special. Just a large-ish open area on 1 side of the park. Nothing special. I've been meaning to check out a few of the others but doing some quick searches it seems the rest are more of the same. I'm open to suggestions if you have any hot spots!
I open carry pretty much all the time and it seems to calm everyone down when I'm flying.. At least the ones who will walk up to me and talk when I'm flying.
Most are amazed at what the P4 will do and then I mention I went from flying a 747 to this drone and they think I'm kidding them. It just gets to be more fun after that.
AD
I wear an orange fluro vest every time I fly and no one has approached me. For some silly reason it shows authority and people think you are working.
If you really want stealth and money wasn't an issue - go mavic.
- Quiet
- Stealth colours
- Stealth controls (not bright white)
- Smaller take off footprint (take off from the palm of your hand).
- Looks cheap 30m high so no one bats an eye..
- Harder to be shot at.
- Tiny camera bag instead of massive backpack or case.
If you really want stealth and money wasn't an issue - go mavic.
- Quiet
- Stealth colours
- Stealth controls (not bright white)
- Smaller take off footprint (take off from the palm of your hand).
- Looks cheap 30m high so no one bats an eye..
- Harder to be shot at.
- Tiny camera bag instead of massive backpack or case.
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2016
- Messages
- 365
- Reaction score
- 133
I have started off flying with no one around then they come around and watch, then say arnt they suppose to be 30 metres away from people ....... I tell them yeah so you better leave my air space then lol
When someone comes up to you to complain about "spying" cordially show them a video and show them that the camera is a fixed wide angle lens. Fly it up to you standing there and let them see how close the camera has to be to get an identifiable picture. Hopefully, they will be civil enough to let you do this. I get amused on Youtube with some of the wierdos that complain about you filming them not realizing that you actually are all the time they are bitc0000 at you. Then call police and all you have to do is show police your video and prove that they were lying about you missing them by 2 feet and crashing within 3 feet of them when they are over 100 feet away.
I agree that we need to be ambassadors for droning - so be it! I'm always polite and ask if people anywhere near where I'm flying if they mind. Most of the time, as has been said, people are really curious about the FPV aspect.
I've been flying for a few years and quite frequently. A few years ago it was very pleasant. These days I do find that people have been sensitized by the media into hating drones. I've had three negative encounters:
A man asked me to not fly in a large park as not to scare the deer. This is a park that butts up against many large office buildings and a major road. There are deer there as there is also a creek. I explained that I was 200' in the air and he raised his voice and said, I know how high you were. I was a little ticked at this and told him if he'd tell me where the deer were, I could avoid them.
I was flying and getting some video of a new church in the area. A security guard for the Nu Skin company (multi billion dollar MLM company) told me he was asked to tell people not to obtain photos of the Nu Skin building or fly over their building. He was as nice as nice could be. He was just doing what he was told to do.
Last was the worst. I was flying in an area about 7 miles from a _very_ small town off a public dirt road. I wanted to get some video of a mars simulation that was set up in the area as it resembled the planet surface. A lady came out yelling that I could not fly there and to get away. I attempted to talk to her but she continued to yell. I told her I wanted to talk to her but if she kept yelling I'd not be able to do that. She continued to yell and got up about 6" from my face. I told her the conversation was over and continued to fly. About 10 seconds later she hit my arms and the controller and knocked it to the ground. I'll just say that we parted ways after that.
If I'm going to fly around people I always try to talk to them first. One time I was parked near some people at the bottom of a dirt 100 mile trail. I asked them it if was okay with them if I launched the drone and got some shots. No need to ask and it was a little over kill but I feel that it helps open a conversation.
A man asked me to not fly in a large park as not to scare the deer. This is a park that butts up against many large office buildings and a major road. There are deer there as there is also a creek. I explained that I was 200' in the air and he raised his voice and said, I know how high you were. I was a little ticked at this and told him if he'd tell me where the deer were, I could avoid them.
I was flying and getting some video of a new church in the area. A security guard for the Nu Skin company (multi billion dollar MLM company) told me he was asked to tell people not to obtain photos of the Nu Skin building or fly over their building. He was as nice as nice could be. He was just doing what he was told to do.
Last was the worst. I was flying in an area about 7 miles from a _very_ small town off a public dirt road. I wanted to get some video of a mars simulation that was set up in the area as it resembled the planet surface. A lady came out yelling that I could not fly there and to get away. I attempted to talk to her but she continued to yell. I told her I wanted to talk to her but if she kept yelling I'd not be able to do that. She continued to yell and got up about 6" from my face. I told her the conversation was over and continued to fly. About 10 seconds later she hit my arms and the controller and knocked it to the ground. I'll just say that we parted ways after that.
If I'm going to fly around people I always try to talk to them first. One time I was parked near some people at the bottom of a dirt 100 mile trail. I asked them it if was okay with them if I launched the drone and got some shots. No need to ask and it was a little over kill but I feel that it helps open a conversation.
I try to keep away from people when I fly but a side effect of going to beautiful places is that other people want to be there too.
I do my best to be respectful of people trying to seek peace and quiet and have yet for a single person to approach me. People come over to watch sometimes though.
I do my best to be respectful of people trying to seek peace and quiet and have yet for a single person to approach me. People come over to watch sometimes though.
I've been flying FPV aircraft for a few years now and have never had a negative experience. If I'm at the local sports field and anyone else shows up I always offer to pack up if it bothers them, nobody has ever asked me to. Now granted I'm a big ugly fella, but I always give people a smile and a warm greeting so I like to think that's what folks respond too.
N017RW
Premium Pilot
Lol, 6 1/2 pounds of cuddling fury!!!It's clearly the doggy, not your smile.
I basically have the whole 'biker look' thing going on and I get some pretty funny looks when I'm accompanied by my faithful Chihuahua
Last edited:
captainmilehigh
Premium Pilot
Chihuahua's are no joke. They can de-bone an ankle in seconds....[emoji33]
Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots
Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots
Hah! And only if you keep very still, otherwise they get spooked and run away..
Funny thing though, every time I fly a quadcopter mine goes mental so I leave him at home when I go flying.
I've never really had an issue--usually people that approach me are very curious and friendly--though I've had the odd question from an otherwise friendly woman, asking if it was legal to fly where I was.
I think what helps a lot is if you have someone cute and feminine standing next to you (unless you're cute yourself)--hence the reason I like to drag my wife along with me... plus she'll happily talk their ear off while I try concentrating on flying.
I do have some coworkers who like to proudly boast about how they'd shoot down any drone that flew over their backyard spying on their naked daughter. I just sigh, and explain that unless they have access to a Predator (military) drone with highly stabilized telephoto lenses, they're not going to see anything--better off with a land based-SLR in the bushes...
I think what helps a lot is if you have someone cute and feminine standing next to you (unless you're cute yourself)--hence the reason I like to drag my wife along with me... plus she'll happily talk their ear off while I try concentrating on flying.
I do have some coworkers who like to proudly boast about how they'd shoot down any drone that flew over their backyard spying on their naked daughter. I just sigh, and explain that unless they have access to a Predator (military) drone with highly stabilized telephoto lenses, they're not going to see anything--better off with a land based-SLR in the bushes...
Wait, your coworker's daughter is naked in the backyard?
^^^
Neighbor did say she saw me flying around back and didn't want me spying on her in her jammies.
If you saw the neighbor, the last thing I would want is wasted video time.
I always have curious people coming up and asking questions
We were out in the desert and all I hear were people saying "hey there's a drone"
One guy even held his beer up for me in the video.
^^^Neighbor did say she saw me flying around back and didn't want me spying on her in her jammies.
If you saw the neighbor, the last thing I would want is wasted video time.
I always have curious people coming up and asking questions
We were out in the desert and all I hear were people saying "hey there's a drone"
One guy even held his beer up for me in the video.
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2016
- Messages
- 15
- Reaction score
- 3
- Age
- 36
I wouldn't even take 2 seconds to acknowledge that person. As long as I'm having fun and not hurting anyone, I would smile for the camera and continue flying.
My own thoughts haha
My own thoughts haha
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2016
- Messages
- 183
- Reaction score
- 29
- Age
- 27
The media doesn't help drones whatsoever, they tell people that they are used to spy on people and people believe it. The media is the worst thing because it has a long history of demonizing anything new.
People see the news stories and people say "hey other people shoot down these drones on the news I can do that too" and they get gung ho about it like what was seen in an earlier post about coworkers talking about how they want to shoot them down
Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
People see the news stories and people say "hey other people shoot down these drones on the news I can do that too" and they get gung ho about it like what was seen in an earlier post about coworkers talking about how they want to shoot them down
Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2016
- Messages
- 183
- Reaction score
- 29
- Age
- 27
To be honest I can see it from other people's perspective too when I first flew my drone my dad was with me and we flew it out far into the field and and brought it back to the edge where it meets our lawn and hovered and looking at it we agreed if one of those just showed up out of nowhere in our backyard it would piss us off too. Like wtf is this thing flying in my backyard buzzing and hovering ominously
I guess it's not so upsetting if you can see the operator because it goes from an unnamed faceless person to just a dude flying his toy
Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
I guess it's not so upsetting if you can see the operator because it goes from an unnamed faceless person to just a dude flying his toy
Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
Similar threads
