Drones

Gather App
C

cowboy43

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 7, 2009
Messages
1,945
City & State/Province
Central Texas
Been seeing were drones with cameras will be the next big hobby attraction. I am concerned about invasion of privacy, what will keep people flying over your place to search out items to steal . If the drone is accidentally shot down , can charges be filed against the Person who accidentally shot the drone down, Looks like a whole new can of worms are being opened up. Does anyone have any experience with drones or drone laws?

They will be a useful tool for farmers and ranchers to check crops and cattle, but I do not like the idea of the average person searching my place, seeing me me taking a crap out in the woods.
 
People been flying model planes for ages. Drones are just a notch above that. You can attach a camera to just about anything you can keep in the air. In "day gone by" anything done outside was considered fair game for about any camera.
 
Be neat for hunting. I could sit in the truck and have the drone fly and check what's at every feeder. And most of the green fields at the same time. Big bucks better look out now. :D
If I see one flying over my house I'm going to try and shoot it down. We use to take turns trying to shoot one of them Cox airplanes down with a pellet gun. Hit it a few times but never brought it down.
 
This doesn't answer your question, but I have a buddy that sells real estate and shot footage of a ranch with a drone and uploaded it to YouTube.
It was really neat how he hovered around and tilted the camera as well as zoomed in and out.
I think they could stay out of shotgun range and zoom in close enough to recognize facial features.
It's a handy tool for lots of things, but you could defiantly spy on someone if that was you goal.
 
I'm far enough away from my neighbors that it wouldn't be practical for people to use it around here, but if I saw one I'd probably be taking shots at it... People keep your dogs out of my property, your cows out of my property, and I'd extend that to your drones too.
 
cowboy43":19ua515v said:
Been seeing were drones with cameras will be the next big hobby attraction. I am concerned about invasion of privacy, what will keep people flying over your place to search out items to steal . If the drone is accidentally shot down , can charges be filed against the Person who accidentally shot the drone down, Looks like a whole new can of worms are being opened up. Does anyone have any experience with drones or drone laws?

They will be a useful tool for farmers and ranchers to check crops and cattle, but I do not like the idea of the average person searching my place, seeing me me taking a crap out in the woods.
Click to expand...

I am part owner of a company called Unmanned Aircraft International - we fly UAV/drones - most of it is for security and for pipeline patrols. We do some photo work - mostly golf courses. And we do some other "stuff".

If it matters - http://www.unmannedaircraftinternational.com - you can look us up.

That being stated - right now the FAA is not allowing commercial use of UAV's in most areas of the US of A - they have slacked off somewhat slightly in the fields of agriculture. These are aircraft and they need to be flown as per the regs. That being stated, there are many models out there that can be and are being abused and used to invade privacy. To the best of my knowledge it is illegal to use them to advertise real estate but some realtors are using them. In order to do this legally that person needs what is called a COA or certificate of authority - otherwise s/he is wide open to a serious fine and potential jail time. It usually takes a few visits to a Senators office in DC and some arm twisting at the main DC FAA office to get one. (Ask me how I know sometime)

So - if you do shoot one down with your 12 gauge - be sure that it is not a legal and licensed commercial operator because they are being used and flown and regulated the same as an actual manned aircraft (at least today that is the case) - meaning they are protected in the same manner and within the same laws as manned aircraft - so - big talk or joke talk - trust me - you do not want or need the trouble that will bring you. All it would take to solve the problem is to identify who is the operator and then send a complaint to the local FAA office - they will do the rest. And the operator will not like it when he gets that visit.

Most of the light - under 50 pound UAV quad rotors - or even the six and 8 rotors - only have about 17 - 25 minutes of flight time as they are battery powered - so the operator is not far away. For those of you who talk about scouting remember - even as a hobbyist you are required by law to maintain visual sight of your UAV at all times - you are highly unlikely to see legal "beyond visual line of site" UAV flights within the the next three to five years in the US of A. And it is easy to lose them - I have that T shirt as well.

For those of you who do not have much experience but do have the money - a simple and relatively cheap system is the Phantom II with a GoPro camera - we do a lot of work with these - the basic set up is about 1400 bucks including the camera. You can spend up to about 5500 bucks in additional accessories - which we do - because we need it for golf course work. There are a few others out there that we like and use but they are usually around 75,000 bucks a pop and not what the hobby guy needs. For the big stuff we use fixed wing systems.

One thing though

In the business people call them UAV - unmanned aerial vehicles - all others use the media term drones. So if you ever go to a show or convention or whatever, and you want to talk to someone in the business and look like you know what you are saying - call them UAV.

While I have based this upon the US of A regs which I am fairly familiar with, the Canadian regs are very similar - so Nessie - trust me - you do not own the airspace above you in Canada or in the US of A - and the feds can and will make your life miserable - if the machine is on a flight planned mission it has every right to be there - as for the hobbyist - well, you do as you see fit - only problem is - which one is it? Hobby guy or flight planned mission?

Anyways do not want to bore you folks any more.

Out of here - best to all

Bez__
 
Thanks bez.. I'm talking about the Parrot machines I'm just seeing advertised on TV now, and that thing is probably something that would be flying at under 100 ft elevation, and possibly less.. at that point I'd take that to court and call it invasion of privacy.. whether that's wise or would have a chance of winning I don't know.. but there *should* be a minimum elevation. Otherwise someone could come onto your property on a hovercraft (it's technically not touching the ground). One thing that's certain is you will need a good lawyer.

Meanwhile, Drone vs UAV, or Unmanned Arial Vehicle is just euphemistic language, though I am also know that people using the correct terminology for something greatly enhances my confidence and trust in what they're talking about.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top