So I was in the park flying my Mavic Air 2 under A16 OA and a middle aged couple come out of a tree clearing walking a dog. The guy had clearly already spotted the drone because he kept pointing at the drone and he was speaking to his wife in a raised tone so I could tell he had an issue with it even though I couldn’t hear what he was saying. Then I saw the phone come out and he made about a 2 minute phone call all while pointing at the drone and myself as he spoke again so I deduced what he was doing… at no point did he come and confront me or anything like that. Just got his phone out and called the police.
Anyway I continued. Drained all 3 batteries. Police never turned up.
I’m yet to have anything but inquisitive interactions with people, went out last night up to Cleveleys and two people saw the drone going up and spoke to me about how far it could go etc and how do I see it!. Same when I head down to the prom in Blackpool.
Usually my interactions to date have all generally been positive or curious. Had one farmer get a bit bothered when I was using a public footpath once but never to my knowledge had someone call the police on me before this.
Usually that’s my experience too, even when I’m FPVing. Had someone come over yesterday wanting to ask questions when my battery was getting low. Politely asked him to stand back 15 metres for me to land for his own safety and he respectfully did so and showed him the drone, told him a bit about it and the rules about flying them the way I was, etc.
That’s a lot more representative of my experiencr than today.
Nor do they for muggings, or ladies being scammed out of £££k, domestic violence (until it’s too late), and various other far more serious actual crimes. Can’t see them blowing any of their limited budget on drones.
I’ve normally found people to be ok, sometimes quite curious. I’ll always try to appear approachable, even though I wear adidas trainers, have tats, shaved head and goaty🤔, and try to keep things on a calm level. There’s some info printed out an laminated that I keep handy, which I can hand to them if they start getting stroppy, at which point, they get handed the info and told to read it, and I carry on flying, job done😁.
Although I was in Mesnes Park, Wigan the other week, an all I heard was ’ Get that f@ king drone out of ere before I smash it up!’, so I replied in a calm and constructive manner:rage:, the tit shouted 'I’ll smash you up aswell, old man! ', and proceeded to head towards me, in which case, the info wasn’t going to work:thinking:, so the drone was left hovering, controller laid down, glasses came off…this Karen shouldn’t have under estimated an ‘old man’ .
Good one !
I was going to start flying under article 16 etc - studied it many many times & gives you that extra bit of leeway / freedom - I always get people looking down there nose at me wen I’ve got my drone out ( I’m being sensible and abiding by the rules ) so fk em wen they start getting like oooooooo you got a drone - yr flying it’s illegal - yea ok go do yr home wrk & come back is what I say - call the police oh & here’s my name & address !!!
It’s the people I think back then at airports & st that make people think we’re criminal !
Just to add I was on a farmers field in March ( with permission ) there’s a golf course next door I was flying right were there teeing off say no more
On the whole most people who have approached me when the drone was up in the air have always took an interest and just asked the normal questions.
I did have to deal with one very unpleasant old lady on Walls Hill Torquay once. She came marching up to me and started shouting “does that thing have a camera on it?” When I replied yes, she said, I am not happy if you have been taking photos of me “
I politely pointed out that she was out in public where there can be on expectancy of privacy. She demanded I showed her any pictures I may have taken and was happy to do so as at the time the drone was 400ft up in the air.
I pointed to one she was in and said to her I think that little dot is you and the even smaller dot must be your dog. She walked off still moaning away while I smiled away. Why do people think we have a drone up in the air to take pictures of them?
Get this some of the time in London but we wear yellow hi-vis vests and this deters most of the confrontations, usually just polite enquiries. Once the police did turn up even though we had NATS consent and the building owner’s consent. It’s a shame that idiots with drones caused the problems at Heathrow a few years ago as Joe Public seems to think we are all potential trouble-makers.
I once had to young coppers telling me it was against the law to take pictures of buildings without the owner’s consent and I am a building surveyor with 40 years experience of taking pics of buildings. I argued with them and they went away.
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