scubadoc Loc: Sarasota, FL

Are there armed drones flying around your house, otherwise, call your local LEO.

Mongo Loc: Western New York

You are correct under the current federal regulations. State regulations may vary, so I would double check. Also another thing to keep in mind is protection around infrastructure.

For example, a park with a lake and a dam might pose an issue if you loiter near the dam. It's kinda the domestic spy paranoia. One can buy satellite data unfettered, which contains digital elevation models and things a hobby drone is unlikely able to create without another level of sophistication. However, loitering over the dam may get people making phone calls.

So one good approach is to make sure they call you first. For something like a dam, I will write a letter to the facility manager, sometimes with a copy of my FAA Certificate. I make sure they know when I expect to be there, and that they have my cellphone number and are encouraged to call me with any question at any time. Sometimes they do. But not when I am there. They call me when other people are doing things or are stupid about what they are doing. And I explain to them what is and is not acceptable, and will even give them the inspector's name at the FAA Flight Standards District Office if I think talking with an inspector will help them.

So back to the park issue...one has to be line of sight, and able to see the drone. The words are visual contact. For some people that's about 1600 feet. There are eagles out there who can see further. Contrast is your friend. Actually it is a combination of contrast and subtended angle acuity of the eye. Blue is harder to differentiate than yellow against a green canopy. I can see my white drone on the other side of a finger lake which is over a mile away. But I have to carefully track where it is, or I can loose sight of it. My suggestion is that if one is at the limit of visual contact, it is time to retreat. There are some other things you can do. Blaze orange or other color tape on your drone. I like the yellow/green tape, except in the fall. You can also put a strobe on the drone, which helps not only in maintaining contact with it, but also in reacquiring it if you loose sight of it.

Just in case I loose sight of it, or loose the drone, I put stickers with the registration number on the drone as well as my name and cellphone number. My phone is also on the SD card.

One final topic while it occurs to me. In my state and several others, the environmental people are going after drone pilots for disturbing wildlife. This can be a real stinger, and I know one drone operator who has been chased down a couple of times. Some have rather strict interpretations of wildlife disruption, like, "any thing that causes a change in the behavior of an animal." One that several pilots have gotten letters on involve animals like bear or dear which notice the drone and usually move away. Or birds like geese which fly away after noticing a drone.

Several FAA inspectors cruise youtube videos and have gone after people who have posted drones doing things against the regulations. Frankly I see violations on youtube all the time, and hope that the people using the drones don't get caught and made an example of. Some of the footage is fantastic and I would hate to see the pilot/photographer get discouraged.

A. T.

That is very interesting to know. My wife and I visited Jackson Hole Wy. a couple of years ago and there were no drone flying posted everywhere which really made it next to impossible to get some of the photographs I went there to get from the air. Now reading your post has really opened up a new door of possibilities. I just hope with some of the new proposed FAA regulations that this will not change. Thanks for you post and the information.

BebuLamar

Well I see the thingy hovering above my house. So I call a friend and he said it's a drone. So I google for drone and it said the US kills Iranians in Iraq using a drone.
I feel threatened then.............

pilot64 Loc: Atlanta, GA

Unfortunately, drones are cheap, easy to operate and are abused by many. We also live in a society where drones pose a threat to some and in the minds of many, pose a threat to their personal security. I bought a drone a year ago to enhance my photography. Pictures taken from 100 feet of altitude can be amazing. Before flying, I took went to an operators ground school to learn not only the techniques of flying but the rules and regulations of operation. Drones are considered to be aircraft. You wouldn't shoot down an aircraft and you really don't want to shoot down a drone. I can't fly my drone (registered with the FAA) in many places (national parks, some state parks, and in areas restricted by flight paths and airports just to name a few). If I want to fly, I won't do it on private land without a stop to get permission from the owner. Drones get a bad name because you feel your privacy is being threatened. The operation of drones has become part of our society - they are legally used by both commercial and recreational users. Don't get your panty hose in a knot... Shooting down an aircraft (yes, drones ARE aircraft) can cost you a hefty fine and several years as a guest of the federal government. Got a problem? Take a picture and call the sheriff. You are a photographer, right?

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

A very good point and difference.

Bunko.T Loc: Western Australia.

Yes, it’s a pain in the neck. I live near our main airport & there’s a no fly zone for 5 kilometres around it. I’m on the edge of it. But I maintain that if any plane gets tangled up with my drone, limited to 40 metres altitude, he’d have much bigger problems than my drone.
Like much of this Safety issue in modern society, they go way overboard. Sure there is the odd idiot who wants to mix with the big guys, but don’t bring us all down to the lowest common denominator/ lowlife.

Morgan300

Well that's some interesting feedback. While drones are noisy most of the people I have encountered are curious and so far no a-holes. To infer that since I have a drone I'm automatically wanting to spy on anyone is BS on a grand scale. If you don't like them fine but don't label me and others as being a narcissist is petty and libel. As far as controlled flying areas might be necessary in a congested area but I'm not a cow to be herded by some bureaucrat who has a control issue. America used to be an awesome place. Still is mostly. People in her today have to much anger. Put a voice with it and their true nature comes right out. Sad

aellman Loc: Boston MA

There are so many more open areas than closed areas, it would be hard to even estimate a percentage. Take a walk over the restricted airspace border and you'll find more open space than you can ever use.

Bob Werre

I've only hired a drone + operator a couple of times for documenting construction sites. However in the past I've flown many hours in helicopters doing some of the same things. I suspect a drone is certainly no worse then a Bell helicopter at 200 feet. Twenty years ago, if we had a great spring day with the blue non-polluted sky we'd have to take turns booking the flight times. I shot for land speculators, construction firms and subs, oil patch many times too. I think the last time I flew, I paid nearly 1K PH. Drones being a fraction of that.

aellman Loc: Boston MA

It's a great hobby, but to operate responsibly you should be educated, cautious, and use a reasonable amount of common sense, like not flying near airports and their low altitude flight patterns, which change according to wind direction. Here's what happened when a large drone collided with a commercial airliner. If even a smaller one went into an engine, it would be the end of that power source. All airliners are designed to fly without one engine, but it's much more difficult, it usually requires the captain to declare an official emergency, and the pilots have no backup if another one fails. The big ones don't glide all that well. Scary movie, kids.

Morgan300

I worked in the Navy student pilot program Raytheon at Sherman Field/PNAS and saw a lot of aircraft with bird strikes. No matter what impacts them it can be a disaster in the making. I have flown drones for 4 years now and the worst encounter I have had is I have one in the bottom of our city lake. I just stay away from airports.

Mongo Loc: Western New York

A tangent, but an instructor in a Piper Dakota was with a student at Wellsville NY airport doing pattern work, when a turkey vulture broke the windshield. Now the Dakota has allot more power than the run of the mill training aircraft, but even at full power it was going down at 800 feet per minute. Blood and guts and wind all over the place, but the instructor took over and just barely managed to get the plane onto the runway. No serious injuries. A drone will do what a turkey vulture will do to an aircraft.

A few years ago, a seagull took out the engine on a corporate plane on takeoff at Rochester NY airport. The plane made it back and landed, which some say is no big deal, except in NYC a regional jet lost both engines and splashed in the Hudson.

It is not unheard of for jet engines to loose turbine buckets which are not contained, and pierce the fuselage and have killed passengers. None of us would want to be the owner of a drone that caused a turbine failure, which took out passengers.

So regulators worry about this kind of thing every day because the public relies on them to "assure things are safe." This results in more regulations and makes it harder to use a drone in many areas, and easier to use the Bell LongRanger for the low level shots. It just costs more, but you get a noisy ride.

(And the Bell LongRanger probably is in the end more risk exposure with 3000+ pounds and 743 pounds of jet fuel waiting to ignite on crash.)

johnmccarthy Loc: North Hampton NH

I'm sorry, but this is my considered opinion about drones. I have owned 3 over the years, from before the FAA to after. The first year the FAA tried to figure out what to do about drones, they treated them like actual aircraft, and to be able to fly a drone, you had to apply for a Section 333 Waiver. In those days, drone owners hired lawyers to write the application, so they would have an attorney on board to a file a lawsuit if the FAA disapproved their app. That first 6 months was tough. The FAA had no idea how to handle so many applications. The actual waiver requests were available for public review on their website. Approval took 4 or 5 months, but you could see the waiver request and the approval process online. By the time June rolled around, I had read so many waiver requests that I knew I didn't need an attorney to write mine, so I put together all the elements of the request I thought I needed and sent mine it. In late September that year, they sent me a notice they had approved mine. It didn't matter a whit to me because I had been using mine for a several months to photograph real estate properties for my fellow agents. Radio controlled model airplanes had been used for many years. Now, because the FAA did not know how to handle drones, they felt they needed to regulate it to death. They decided all drone operators take a test to prove they can do what? operate a model aircraft with a camera? Well I'm sorry, but I will go through that make-pretend "I'm a real pilot" nonsense just as soon as they level the playing field and require the hobbyist standing next to me, doing the same things I'm doing, and get a pseudo-pilot license. End of rant...

scooter1 Loc: Yacolt, Wa.