jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

So will the FAA and PA get into a fight?

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Drones are still being debated.
FAA says 500' minimum over agricultural land and 1,000, over residential properties with obvious exceptions like NYC etc.
83' and below is traditionally air space that is totally inviolate by anything flying over including drones. (Shotgun range? ).

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

You mean my legal quirky behavior?

Yes...that's how freedom works; you are free to not like my behavior but as long as I'm not violating any law, then you don't get to stop me.

David Kay Loc: Arlington Heights IL

Wrong. Skyscrapers must apply for authority to build in the air space. Anything from above ground level to infinity is controlled by the FAA. The exception to that is allowing homeowners rights up to 82 feet without authority to build.

David Kay Loc: Arlington Heights IL

Where did you find these rules? I have never heard of them.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Being a pilot.
It is pilot class 101.
83 feet is from an old case in the 1940's if I remember right where the space was determined.
There are variances etc., ex crop dusting for one, obviously as skyscrapers and towers exceed 83' but you can take a slight amount of time and research those specific requirements.

Dodson Branch Graphics

I live in middle Tennessee where a Drone over private property is considered skeet.
In all seriousness a drone over anyone’s private property can violate a reasonable expectation of privacy. It would be the same as holding my camera over someone’s fence and spraying pictures of thier back yard. The comment someone made about the FAA having and granting air rights anyplace above ground level may be so. If so, that clearly infringes on our 4th Amendment rights.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

The lawyers in Pennsylvania are salivating over this one.

mrjcall Loc: Woodfin, NC

I have my sUAS pilot certification and I too wonder where all the quoted rules are coming from. Never heard of most of what Architect1776 is talking about. The basic rules are pretty simple:
1. max 400'
2. Line of sight only
3. No fly within 5 miles of FAA facility
4. No fly over private property without permission
5. Yes, 400' above top of building, regardless of building height
6. No fly over people unless they are under shelter
7. No fly over any sort of stadium or public place
8. No fly over gov. facilities

Major changes are coming, but not for the moment.

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

And what about regular aircraft and helicopters, real aircraft fly low too, especially home built, powered para-gliders and copters, they fly over us and you can see them looking at everything, probably have cameras running too.. I have some camera drone equipment and they all have wide angle lenses, 120 to 170 degree view makes anyone very hard to ID unless you fly right down into their yard. Noisy - yes, none of mine are "stealth" drones, and everything looks very small till you go low enough to be fodder for bb-guns and slingshots, I'm talking within 50-75 feet, and even that low the view is just like looking at someone or thing with a 20mm lens, hard to ID anyone with that.

I don't yet have anything like a DJI Phantom or others like them, we (my adult son and I) fly them for fun and were trying to get into the racing drone fun. That is more difficult than I imagined, and I don't like having the headsets on, and they go so fast that you better be sure where you are and where your headed. We don't fly GPS, just line-of-sight and camera view.

My neighbors came to visit and voiced their concerns about spying (ludicris, as most of them never even spend time in their yards, other than to mow them) and I showed them a couple flights with them wearing the goggles.....after that didn't hear anymore about it. If I had a Phantom with high end camera (esp. one with a zoom) the reaction might have been different. We always fly respectfully, over my two acres and woods behind us, and just up and down the street in plain view, at altitude above the power/phone/cable lines, going fast and we don't point the cameras/nose of the drone at anybody. This has all helped.

The last time a large ( looked to be of military vintage) slow flying drone was over our area, it was a "black unit" and we got in the car and followed it to, guess what....two sheriff's department vehicles! We didn't bother them, I was curious, but didn't bother them. I also know of several Land Suryeying firms in the area that use them, and they have "Legal third party" access, and can legitimately fly over your ground when surveying, just like they can walk on your property while doing their job.

If someone really is "spying" then they deserve to be "interviewed".... but anything beyond that should involve law enforcement. We don't need nutbags running around threatening people or shooting down what could be just innocent fun. Even some of my "toy drones" look pretty sosphisticated as I modify and add lighting, etc.

Hopefully respectfull drone flyers will be treated with the same respect as any aircraft. If in doubt, call the police, much better than starting a neighborhood fued, or confronting someone with a gun - those things can go down hill very quickly.

1grumpybear

Current rules and regulations for flying drones.

https://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=22615

https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=dc908fb739912b0e6dcb7d7d88cfe6a7&mc=true&node=pt14.2.107&rgn=div5

It is all a waste of time because you do not need to prove you can fly the drone. The new drones are very easy to fly until you have a problem. When your training to become a pilot you learn how to deal with emergency in the air. It was nothing for the instructor to cut the power and see what your reaction was and what you did. Drones you take a written test and your off to the races. Been flying RC since the 80s and a pilot since 1969 and the things that I have seen happen. There was a mid air between two small air planes over the western part of Tucson in late 70s I went to the crash site and over heard a sheriff say "as soon as it quits smoking we will get the bodies out" the airplane fuselage couldn't have more the 18" thick. I quit flying for a couple and took up flying RCs. If your really serious about flying drones and have had no RC experience start out flying fixed wing and move on to helicopters. In emergency situation you don't have time to think you have to react.

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

They will all fight - there are so many contradicting laws / rules right now that the lawyers are arguing over which ones are applicable...

All we can do is wait until the lawsuits are battled out in the courts

Retina Loc: Near Charleston,SC

My simple layman's reading the 4th Amendment does not seem to protect a citizen from being observed outside his home without a warrant by the government from a place not on his own property. Nor does it refer to observations from non-government or private individuals which are covered, in part, by peeping tom laws when it comes to the earlier topics mentioned here. Depending on the state, of course, the physical boundaries of what helps define a reasonable expectation of privacy differ. Even with newer clarifications of the expection of privacy, there is a difference what is considered illegal behavior in terms of public decency statutes and what is protected by peeping tom laws. If nothing else, people with backyard pools might start paying more attention to diet and exercise, which is overall a good thing from a public health perspective.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

That depends on how low it's flying. If you are 200 feet up, all you can see are roof tops and people look like ants. To spy on people you'd literally have to have the drone flying 3 feet away from a window. Then yes, I'd say that person is spying on someone. I guess if a drone were flying over a large estate where a celebrity lived and they were caught sunbathing in the nude, and the drone were a super high tech drone with a zoom camera, then that too would be considered to be spying. But to simply fly over someones property and not stop to hover, should not be considered spying.

I would think that to convict someone of spying they should be arrested, equipment confiscated, then tried in a court of law and evidence should be collected and used in said hearing. If there's no proof of spying, there should be no conviction. There shouldn't even be a trial.

One time a friend of mine was at the beach taking pictures. A young lady shouted at my friend for taking her picture and her mother herd the 14 year old accusing my friend of taking her picture scantily dressed in a very revealing bikini. It attracted a crowd and soon the police came over to see what the commotion was about. By the way, my friend is a retired cop. So the police asked him to show them the pictures on his camera and not one single picture was of the 14 year old girl. The police apologized but the damage was done. My friend was very embarrassed and humiliated. You can't undo this. So simply flying a drone over someone's property needs to be carefully addressed and accusations need to be carefully checked before people start assuming that there's spying involved.

People need to understand that in today's day and age there are cameras everywhere. It's how we are going to be living from now on. All the large cities have city owned video cameras everywhere. This is for our safety. There are rotten people everywhere. It's a good way to catch them.

berchman Loc: South Central PA