Was I trolling?

[Wolfiesden]

The police were at my house 3 times last year. And then I helped locate a missing person and the sheriff and I spoke a few times and yesterday he had his Lieutenant and a Deputy detective's come and spend a couple hours at my house in helping them buy a thermo imaging drone.

So...they were at my house 3 times last year because of one jacked up neighbor that lives behind my house. But now I think I will train the team out of my back yard since it opens up to a field. Can't wait to get 3-4 aircraft up in the air at the same time.

Especially if a couple of them have sheriff stars on them

 

[RedHotPoker]

Please post a small vid of these drone classes... Ha
Love to see the boys in blue getting trained... ;-)

RedHotPoker

 

[Wolfiesden]

Right on!

 

[CafeRacer]

Thank you all for the responses. I will from now on fly at a higher altitude. Fortunately the cops didn't show up. And for the one person who said I'm giving all us pilots a bad name, I think that was a little overkill. The rest of you seem to understand what I was doing but there is always that the one town crier, weather it be a neighbor or the one who comments. So again, I appreciate all the info and have looked into it further, and from what I gather, being informative, transparent and not flying over property is the way to go. Thank you all again, except you, yeah, the forum crier, you know who you are.


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[Mark The Droner]

do you pay a monthly fee for flytrex?

Nope

 

[meissner58]

The police were at my house 3 times last year. And then I helped locate a missing person and the sheriff and I spoke a few times and yesterday he had his Lieutenant and a Deputy detective's come and spend a couple hours at my house in helping them buy a thermo imaging drone.

So...they were at my house 3 times last year because of one jacked up neighbor that lives behind my house. But now I think I will train the team out of my back yard since it opens up to a field. Can't wait to get 3-4 aircraft up in the air at the same time.

That's awesome!!!

 

[CCDD]

Let me get this straight, you said you've been flying up and down your street for 5 months at heights never above 30 feet and most recently had a run in with your neighbor when flying at only 8ft? I'm an avid drone pilot, had someone flown up and down my street for 5 weeks doing the same as you, I wouldn't be too happy either. I'm 6'6" 260lbs, believe me, you don't want me coming after you in a rage like this woman did, the ending would've been a whole lot different, in fact, you wouldn't have had the ability to write such a post!!!
You need to use some common sense Matt, aside from safety issues along with noise, your altitude should be well above the aforementioned, perhaps 100ft or more and try and avoid your habit of flying in the same neighborhood over and over. It doesn't matter whether you're in the right or wrong, just simply use your head.

 

[MikeyOnline]

What CCDD said...

Knock on wood, hasn't happened to me yet, but I try to avoid it by doing things like flying at 100 to 200 feet, going back over the woods and then to my destination instead of over houses, flying between properties instead of over houses (ours are ~2 acre lots), not hovering anywhere close to anyone's house, etc. It helps if you put yourself in the shoes of the homeowner and think "what do I see". One time I was back over the woods filming away from any houses into a bog where feral pigs wallow and when I stopped to think, I realized that I was only 200 feet or so behind someone's house (over public land), hovering. It didn't occur to me at first because I was pointed away from the houses, but then I thought about what the homeowner might see: they can't tell which way I'm pointed! So I moved and didn't do that again. Next time, I flew over that spot, dropped down just below the treetops into the open area (making sure the trees weren't blocking my signal), so it'd be obvious I'm not pointed at houses. As CCDD said, just use common sense. Flying at 8 ft, over a roadway, and people could start complaining that you could come into contact with a truck or SUV, a couple feet lower and you could hit a bicyclist or runner, etc.

Edit: your neighbor was probably already annoyed at your previous runs and had a knot in her knickers that day. She flipped and went into her first sprint in 20 years. So it had probably been building for a while. Unfortunately the bad people in the world make use good ones guilty until proven innocent. They don't know whether you are just flying for fun or you're a perv trying to get video of their daughter sunbathing.

Mike

 

[shockwave199]

Thank you all for the responses. I will from now on fly at a higher altitude. Fortunately the cops didn't show up. And for the one person who said I'm giving all us pilots a bad name, I think that was a little overkill. The rest of you seem to understand what I was doing but there is always that the one town crier, weather it be a neighbor or the one who comments. So again, I appreciate all the info and have looked into it further, and from what I gather, being informative, transparent and not flying over property is the way to go. Thank you all again, except you, yeah, the forum crier, you know who you are.


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At this point I would refrain from flying your neighborhood altogether. Height doesn't help the situation at all. The drone can still be heard up there and higher only means you have more opportunity for surveillance, in their minds. It's convenient to walk out the front door and fly but it's never a good idea. I flew my neighborhood only once, after a snow storm when it was too brutally cold for anyone to be out. I don't suppose that'll happen anytime soon in your neck of the woods, lol. Fly anywhere but the neighborhood and certainly never buzzing around at low altitudes. At that point you're as much as a nuisance as kids with motor go-carts and off road bikes zipping around and creating a disturbance. If the cops ever do come they'll ask you if you're registered for one and then they'll tell you to stop doing it no matter who's in the right. So, quit while you're ahead. I'm a drone flier and to be honest, I'd have a problem with your behavior and ask you to stop. Not barreling up to you like a loon, but a calm and civil conversation. If you didn't stop, then we'd have a problem.

 

[flyNfrank]

Thank you all for the responses. I will from now on fly at a higher altitude. Fortunately the cops didn't show up. And for the one person who said I'm giving all us pilots a bad name, I think that was a little overkill. The rest of you seem to understand what I was doing but there is always that the one town crier, weather it be a neighbor or the one who comments. So again, I appreciate all the info and have looked into it further, and from what I gather, being informative, transparent and not flying over property is the way to go. Thank you all again, except you, yeah, the forum crier, you know who you are.


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I wanted to mention what happens in these situations is when the weather begins changing from the cold months into the warmer spring days, people begin open up their doors and windows to get some fresh air in since the furnace wont be running. It's at this time when they begin hearing stuff outside and really focusing in on sounds that they're not use to hearing. At this point they hear our aircraft flying around and likely out near their area. And here we have already been out flying for several weeks because we don't wait for windows to begin opening to go fly. So the problems generally don't get out of hand until the weather warms to the point of opening up the house a little.

I did find that nearly all complaining came to a huge slow down when I switched from instead of launching from the back of my house to the side furthest from the complainers, and going up to 300ft+ to fly out of the neighborhood.

Where I live, I have lived here for the past 18yrs. Our neighborhood had never had any such type of issue with another neighbor until this new neighbor moved in. And I must say it does get under your skin anytime you put some thought into it. I was raised where you never mess with anyone that can visually see each others house. Those neighbors were our "A" neighbor's and the others rated down from there.

The police told me as long as I wasn't trying to fly my aircraft down at the people in an attempt to hurt them, I would not get in any trouble with the law. And they also said, those people would have to have visual proof of my aircraft doing something wrong, and without that proof there is no reason to call them.

My advice would be to just stay away from the complaining lady and maybe try what I did by launching to a high altitude when traveling in & out of the neighborhood.

 

[dirkclod]

OK guys I have tried to clean up all the OT and bashing post in this . It took some post that wasn't bashing but was in this .
Please no bashing and stay on topic .Thanks
BE NICE

 

[skipilot1]

What you are doing is illegal and the FAA can charge you.
You cannot fly in populated area's, over roadways, in school yards, over business, over hospitals, etc......unless you have FAA clearance as a commercial business.
You are contributing to the bad name this hobby is getting.

FAA regs are not that strictly interpreted. The legal definition of populated areas was a simple matter of law years ago. You had cities and dense inner ring suburbs or you had rural areas. Even though the rural areas still have people, they are not population centers. The definition of suburbs in legal situations has changed because it depends on the density of the population.

Businesses are another issue. If you are flying next to a road and go over a gas station that is not the same as flying over a shopping center. As far as roads, everyone has to cross one sometime including chickens and drones. That is different from flying down a highway.

School yards, when school is out and not being used for a school activity, becomes a public space unless the school or municipality has other rules.

If you are an aviation lawyer, then I apologize. If you are not, you may want to talk to one or at least to a licensed pilot who has had to study and keep updated on FAA regs that are similar to drones.

 

[Imabiggles]

What you are doing is illegal and the FAA can charge you.
You cannot fly in populated area's, over roadways, in school yards, over business, over hospitals, etc......unless you have FAA clearance as a commercial business.
You are contributing to the bad name this hobby is getting.

WTF are you talking about? You are wrong on all accounts. You can fly over people, just not a high density of them, over school yards as they have no special NFZ assocated with them. Over hospitals - depending upon size and if they have a rotor craft pad. Roadways? Yeah, we fly over them. etc-?

You should not fly low enough that a reasonable concern for privacy is valid. You should abide by AMA guidelines and rules. You should not fly in FAA restricted airspace. You should not fly within 5 miles of airport without letting them know.

 

[Wibble]

Let me get this straight, you said you've been flying up and down your street for 5 months at heights never above 30 feet and most recently had a run in with your neighbor when flying at only 8ft? I'm an avid drone pilot, had someone flown up and down my street for 5 weeks doing the same as you, I wouldn't be too happy either. I'm 6'6" 260lbs, believe me, you don't want me coming after you in a rage like this woman did, the ending would've been a whole lot different, in fact, you wouldn't have had the ability to write such a post!!!
You need to use some common sense Matt, aside from safety issues along with noise, your altitude should be well above the aforementioned, perhaps 100ft or more and try and avoid your habit of flying in the same neighborhood over and over. It doesn't matter whether you're in the right or wrong, just simply use your head.

Unless he just shoots you............

6'6" and large build doesn't make you a hard man! I once saw a bouncer your size taken out by a weedy looking little bloke. The scariest people in the British army are the Ghurkas and they are tiny.

Your comments are valid throwing your weight around isn't!

 

[0DRK3RT]

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[Bill Schroeppel]

What you are doing is illegal and the FAA can charge you.
You cannot fly in populated area's, over roadways, in school yards, over business, over hospitals, etc......unless you have FAA clearance as a commercial business.
You are contributing to the bad name this hobby is getting.

Get a life.

 

[dirkclod]

 

[Ed209]

The police were at my house 3 times last year. And then I helped locate a missing person and the sheriff and I spoke a few times and yesterday he had his Lieutenant and a Deputy detective's come and spend a couple hours at my house in helping them buy a thermo imaging drone.

So...they were at my house 3 times last year because of one jacked up neighbor that lives behind my house. But now I think I will train the team out of my back yard since it opens up to a field. Can't wait to get 3-4 aircraft up in the air at the same time.

That's badass. I've had positive interaction with LE numerous times and they were inquiring about FLIR for searching and checking rooftops on houses/buildings where an alarm has gone off. They see the real uses and benefits. I think the uneducated majority of the public who absorb the mainstream news are all just paranoid.

 

[flyNfrank]

That's badass. I've had positive interaction with LE numerous times and they were inquiring about FLIR for searching and checking rooftops on houses/buildings where an alarm has gone off. They see the real uses and benefits. I think the uneducated majority of the public who absorb the mainstream news are all just paranoid.

Yeah look how the new Zenmuse XT Thermo Camera on the Inspire 1 was able to show a Wall Stud still hot and smoldering. The Firemen were then able to go right to the hot spot. (Btw, this is one of several video clips I sent to the sheriff's department I'm currently helping out.)

 

[Wibble]

Yeah look how the new Zenmuse XT Thermo Camera on the Inspire 1 was able to show a Wall Stud still hot and smoldering. The Firemen were then able to go right to the hot spot. (Btw, this is one of several video clips I sent to the sheriff's department I'm currently helping out.)

Can you also get the B+W image like you get from Police helicopters?