I was out at a Maker Faire all day yesterday so today was the first chance I've had to try out the new flight modes on my P3P. I set up an orbit around my house, radius of about 80 feet, altitude of 80 feet. Mostly through the orbit my doorbell rings. I land the drone and go to the front door - nobody there. So I go back in the house and a few minutes later my doorbell rings several times followed by some loud bangs on the door.
I open the door and its an elderly woman from down the street along with her dog. She immediately angrily says "My name is <redacted>, I live down the street and I would APPRECIATE it if you would NOT fly your drone ANYWHERE near my house!" I say, "Hello. Where do you live?" She tells me and it's 5 houses down from me, not near where I was doing to orbit.
I explained to her that I was just trying out an orbit of my house but otherwise I always fly up to 300-400 feet before flying out with the drone (we live off of a golf course and I want to play nice with the course so I always try to keep the drone at a high altitude to minimize noise) and that anything near her house would be at altitude and just as it passes by.
"Why do you even DO THAT?!" she asks me. I tell her I don't understand. "Fly those things." I tell her that it's for fun, that it doesn't harm anything, and that I'm keeping it within the legal limits. "Why don't you drive off to somewhere in the country to do that?" to which I reply, "Well, this is my house, and I like to fly from here, but I'm not bothering you. I'm not hovering over your home. I'm not flying it low over your home. I'm not targeting your home with photos and video. And I'm doing everything legally."
At this point she just gets mad and says, "LOOK, I am going to have to ask you to RESPECT MY WISHES as a homeowner and MY PRIVACY."
Now a bit of an aside: this neighbor has a dog - a mid-size dog. And they have this habit of letting their dog run free when they go for walks, so this dog is often running through our back yard. And this dog, while generally nice, has a habit of jumping up on kids, including my young daughters, one of which it jumped on last summer until I had to yank it off as the owner was several houses away down the street.
So I tell the lady, "Fine, in that case, I am going to have to ask YOU to keep your dog from running through our yard from now on."
"Fine." she says. And I close the door on her. I'm curious what will happen from here.
I open the door and its an elderly woman from down the street along with her dog. She immediately angrily says "My name is <redacted>, I live down the street and I would APPRECIATE it if you would NOT fly your drone ANYWHERE near my house!" I say, "Hello. Where do you live?" She tells me and it's 5 houses down from me, not near where I was doing to orbit.
I explained to her that I was just trying out an orbit of my house but otherwise I always fly up to 300-400 feet before flying out with the drone (we live off of a golf course and I want to play nice with the course so I always try to keep the drone at a high altitude to minimize noise) and that anything near her house would be at altitude and just as it passes by.
"Why do you even DO THAT?!" she asks me. I tell her I don't understand. "Fly those things." I tell her that it's for fun, that it doesn't harm anything, and that I'm keeping it within the legal limits. "Why don't you drive off to somewhere in the country to do that?" to which I reply, "Well, this is my house, and I like to fly from here, but I'm not bothering you. I'm not hovering over your home. I'm not flying it low over your home. I'm not targeting your home with photos and video. And I'm doing everything legally."
At this point she just gets mad and says, "LOOK, I am going to have to ask you to RESPECT MY WISHES as a homeowner and MY PRIVACY."
Now a bit of an aside: this neighbor has a dog - a mid-size dog. And they have this habit of letting their dog run free when they go for walks, so this dog is often running through our back yard. And this dog, while generally nice, has a habit of jumping up on kids, including my young daughters, one of which it jumped on last summer until I had to yank it off as the owner was several houses away down the street.
So I tell the lady, "Fine, in that case, I am going to have to ask YOU to keep your dog from running through our yard from now on."
"Fine." she says. And I close the door on her. I'm curious what will happen from here.