Neighbor threatened to kill me for flying my phantom...
- Thread starter joshuaeric
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Every state has different laws, but in our state, "brandishing a firearm is a serious offense, you get arrested and they take your firearm away." If these two actually threatened you while holding a gun, or worse, pointed a gun at you, the crime level rises quickly. The police should quickly take care of this if you have multiple witnesses willing to talk to police.
You should always try to walk away from such a verbal confrontation. One of the primary categories of gun assaults is almost always male on male, where words and threat escalate quickly and then someone produces a gun. Keeping your mouth shut, calling the police, and walking away, no matter what names they call you is probably the best way to cut the risk.
If you carry and have a permit, then definitely walk away ASAP, police arriving will ruin your day, week, month and life if the other party has multiple friends and makes up a story about you, even if you did absolutely nothing.
I have had a few discussions with Police about my Phantom, and they were polite and interested in how it worked. Sometimes they get calls and have to inform citizens that in most areas, there are no laws against flying remote control toys or copters, even if they have a camera.
Once I was taking some great shots with my Phantom 2 Vision +, see below, and I got to meet "Casino Security" who in this case were two 70+ year olds who were told I guy was flying a toy helicopter in the area.
When I told my wife.... she explained it to me. "They thought you were planning to rob the casino! Haven't you ever seen Oceans 11, Oceans 12, Oceans 13 and on and on!!!
You should always try to walk away from such a verbal confrontation. One of the primary categories of gun assaults is almost always male on male, where words and threat escalate quickly and then someone produces a gun. Keeping your mouth shut, calling the police, and walking away, no matter what names they call you is probably the best way to cut the risk.
If you carry and have a permit, then definitely walk away ASAP, police arriving will ruin your day, week, month and life if the other party has multiple friends and makes up a story about you, even if you did absolutely nothing.
I have had a few discussions with Police about my Phantom, and they were polite and interested in how it worked. Sometimes they get calls and have to inform citizens that in most areas, there are no laws against flying remote control toys or copters, even if they have a camera.
Once I was taking some great shots with my Phantom 2 Vision +, see below, and I got to meet "Casino Security" who in this case were two 70+ year olds who were told I guy was flying a toy helicopter in the area.
When I told my wife.... she explained it to me. "They thought you were planning to rob the casino! Haven't you ever seen Oceans 11, Oceans 12, Oceans 13 and on and on!!!
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At that point, my quad would be promptly landed, controller down, and my hand on my waistband holster. While I'm sure this guy was in the throes of a testosterone fantasy and probably wound up crying like a baby when questioned by the police, crazy is everywhere. To be honest, had he aimed his vehicle at my wife and accelerated, I can't say that I wouldn't have drawn and fired at the crazy SOB.
Every time I'v flown I have thought about what I would do if some paranoid nutjob approached me, or even someone looking to steal my quad...so I always carry my XD.
Personally, with all the hyperbole and fear interjected into "drone" use by the media (which isn't helped by the clowns flying into restricted airspace), I think it's only a matter of time until some nice Phantom owner is killed by a crazy person thinking he is providing a community service. I wouldn't be surprised if it happens this summer.
Edit d/t PhantomPilots app weirdness...
That's the first thought that popped into my head. Clearly they've got something going on that they don't want people to know about.
In my experience, you don't get people behaving like this in affluent neighborhoods - mental instability doesn't lend itself to the necessary earnings potential required to support living in a nice location, generally. Something is fishy. My advice is to press charges, and stay away from them at all costs. If that isn't practical, have some means of recording the interactions, like a chest mounted gopro or similar.
There are two points on this story IMO:
1/ Yours neighbor do not have a right to scare you with a gun. If he is using gun and trying to destroy yours drone it is 100% not right. I would call police immediately. If you violated he's privacy, he should call police, not scare people with a gun.
2/ You should respect others people privacy: not to fly in residential areas, especially at low altitude. Personally I'm flying drones about 4 years, but also would not be happy to see someones drone in front of my bedroom window.
In my country it's forbidden to fly in residential areas or in areas with a lot of people with drone without permission from Civil Aviation Agency. Also to fly in less than 50 meters (about 150 feet) from residential buildings. And this is, in my opinion, good thing. There are a lot of videos in youtube of malfunction drones fallen from the sky into buildings, cars etc. What if drone will hit a child... Flying drone could be dangerous to other people: everyone should be responsible.
Just my opinion.
1/ Yours neighbor do not have a right to scare you with a gun. If he is using gun and trying to destroy yours drone it is 100% not right. I would call police immediately. If you violated he's privacy, he should call police, not scare people with a gun.
2/ You should respect others people privacy: not to fly in residential areas, especially at low altitude. Personally I'm flying drones about 4 years, but also would not be happy to see someones drone in front of my bedroom window.
In my country it's forbidden to fly in residential areas or in areas with a lot of people with drone without permission from Civil Aviation Agency. Also to fly in less than 50 meters (about 150 feet) from residential buildings. And this is, in my opinion, good thing. There are a lot of videos in youtube of malfunction drones fallen from the sky into buildings, cars etc. What if drone will hit a child... Flying drone could be dangerous to other people: everyone should be responsible.
Just my opinion.
Im going to use my combat wheelbarrow, and get Imbroglio to push it right after I throw my DRONE down the driveway a few times so It has that well used look!
( That should tell ya how long I have been around)
And,
Fu Arock!
To the OP, not one of you had a cell phone out taking video of the encounter?????
Why is all the tension, suddenly building up in here?
There may shots over the bow, in this very thread, Before breakfast light...
Seems like, there are some hard feelings, boiling under the surface.
I'm not interested in the lingo meanings, that doesn't interest this Canadian. I would and do hope that the intelligent mature forum members can atleast respect each others opinions, and agree to disagree.
I must have missed or miss read something?
RedHotPoker
There may shots over the bow, in this very thread, Before breakfast light...
Seems like, there are some hard feelings, boiling under the surface.
I'm not interested in the lingo meanings, that doesn't interest this Canadian. I would and do hope that the intelligent mature forum members can atleast respect each others opinions, and agree to disagree.
I must have missed or miss read something?
RedHotPoker
Absolutely horrible that the guy was so aggressive and pulled a gun. Out of order and illegal I would imagine (from UK so don't know your laws). No question this is wrong regardless of your actions.
However, that wrong does not make what you did right imo. Flying that close to another's house doesn't seem right to me. I own and have flown quads and other RCs for years, just because I could fly it in my back yard to show off to my friends doesn't mean I should. Especially when so close to folks homes.
I wouldn't like some dude climbing a tree overlooking my house with a camera. He might not use that camera, but I can't say I'd be happy and would call the police (not pull a gun!).
How is a quad with a camera over my house any different to this? You might not use the camera but you could. I don't have anything to hide, but I do have children. Which of you would want someone with a camera hanging around over / close to your house with kids in it? If you say you are ok with that then either you don't have children or you are kidding yourself on.
I'm glad there are laws here that restrict such usage, it makes both safety and social sense. (Laws stated above by another user).
Go to a park.
A beach.
A field.
A mountain.
An abandond place.
The desert (a lot of that around your place I hear).
Not that close to your neighbours. Even if not illegal it's hardly the neighbourly thing to do.
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However, that wrong does not make what you did right imo. Flying that close to another's house doesn't seem right to me. I own and have flown quads and other RCs for years, just because I could fly it in my back yard to show off to my friends doesn't mean I should. Especially when so close to folks homes.
I wouldn't like some dude climbing a tree overlooking my house with a camera. He might not use that camera, but I can't say I'd be happy and would call the police (not pull a gun!).
How is a quad with a camera over my house any different to this? You might not use the camera but you could. I don't have anything to hide, but I do have children. Which of you would want someone with a camera hanging around over / close to your house with kids in it? If you say you are ok with that then either you don't have children or you are kidding yourself on.
I'm glad there are laws here that restrict such usage, it makes both safety and social sense. (Laws stated above by another user).
Go to a park.
A beach.
A field.
A mountain.
An abandond place.
The desert (a lot of that around your place I hear).
Not that close to your neighbours. Even if not illegal it's hardly the neighbourly thing to do.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I have flown my P3 many times in my back yard and quite often have gone up to 400 feet, the one rule I always stick to is keeping it within the foot print of my property. I have not had any complaints from the neighbours, if I did I guess depending on how reasonable they were would depend on my response, I certainly wouldn't respond kindly to threats but then in the UK the chances of being threatened with a gun are remote. I do plan to fly in all the places you list and the flights in my yard are about me just testing settings and taking test footage before I invest the time to take it into deepest darkest Derbyshire.
I do have a young family and If the shoe was on the other foot I would not have any issues if my neighbor was flying as I am, maybe because I know the limitations of the camera and without a zoom I think it would be really obvious if they were actually filming/photographing my property or family intrusively/purposely. If I thought they were and it was over my property I would ask nicely for them to refrain, if it happened again I would ask them not so nicely..... 3rd time they are taking the piss and the hose would be out or at worst my friends BB gun......
In this case the following advice would be pretty much useless, but I always find that showing the 'complainers' what you can see on the phone screen helps an awful lot. Once they realise that the footage is like a phone camera and not a high powered paparazzi shot, they quickly calm down.
Offer to give them a go, can't help, unless they purposely crash it into the ground, of course...
Offer to give them a go, can't help, unless they purposely crash it into the ground, of course...
Scary, but this is why I always record video when flying. I just delete it before the next flight. It's always good to have video if anything happens.
Rather odd that none of your six witnesses filmed this incident. Did your quad take any pictures ?
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