Met my first KEVIN – a thoroughly nasty pompous twat

General Drone Discussion
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Well I suppose it was inevitable that he would appear one day.

I did all my flight practice and training A2 CoC and GVC with commercial CAA issued PDRA-01 OA in my sister’s garden. It’s large with a mini orchard at the back end that leads through a back gate into a private lane. The gate is tall with tall hedging for security so you cannot see through or across into the orchard. I usually wear a yellow vest with the wording CAA registered pilot that contains a forward facing body cam when out and about doing filming. It tends to keep people away. Obviously I don’t bother wearing that gear when practicing and doing currency flights on my sister’s property. The TOAL distance in the orchard is 50m away from the neighbouring houses.

A couple of times since January the nearest neighbour, a single divorcee who my sister has had to stop encroaching and destroying the nearest boundary over the last couple of years, has shouted out from her garden “Keep the noise down please” if she hears the Mini 2 take of because she happens to be in her garden. I have just ignored her and moved the drone up and away from her garden to avoid confrontation.

So today my Mini 2 is up at around 150 ft doing practice circular and figure 8 flights over the area all within VLOS and I’m busy looking out for the high number of amateur flights from Biggin Hill coming over the area this afternoon at around 500 feet. Quite a few and the Spitfires are pretty damned noisy. You can hear those Rolls Royce Merlin engines from over a mile away.

Suddenly I hear this male voice screaming from the other side of the back gate and hedge. I can’t see a thing.

“Bring that drone down now, I’m not having it over my property. RIGHT NOW!!!

Me baffled. Totally dumb struck. Has divorcee Karen now got a Kevin boyfriend or what?

The drone is way over towards the front garden of my sister’s property. I bring the drone into land and power everything off. It takes around 2 minutes in total. I punch in the keycode security to the gate, go out round the garage, through the main gate into the narrow lane. Zilch. Voice has disappeared. I wander up and down the lane looking in the driveways for the source. Again zilch. Is this some sort of %^&^&* joke. I’ve just had my flight interrupted and he’s buggered off.

Re-locked the gate and returned to my TOAL and take off again. Within a minute the mystery voice returns and from somewhere in the back lane I hear,

“ I’ve told you to stop flying that drone. Get it down, this is your last warning. Get it down or I’ll take it down.”

Now I’m really pissed off. I accelerate the drone back into position over my sister’s land, bring the altitude down to 100 ft. and leave it on hover. I snatch my CAA laminated credentials hanging on a lanyard, swing it over my neck and go out through gate to face a late 40’s irate pompous twat who is leaning on the outer gate glaring at me.

Kevin, shouting like his lungs will burst; “You’re flying over the area and not over your property”

Me “I’m authorized to fly in this airspace, I’m over 100 feet and not over your property. I’m a CAA registered pilot”. I hold up the ID cards on the lanyard.

Kevin “I don’t care about that, that drone is not over your property. Look I can see. There it is. It’s not directly over your property.”

Me “It doesn’t need to be directly over my property.”

Kevin “I don’t want you flying your drone, it’s Sunday and I don’t want to put up with it.

Spitfire now roars over on full throttle. It doesn’t seem to bother Kevin.

Me “OK right that’s it! Call the police then”

Keven looking astonished and taken aback. Eventually recovers his composure.

“I will call the police.”

Me. “Go on, call them right now. I want them here to sort this out.”

Kevin. Opens mouth and shuts it not sure what to do.

I start to walk away leaving angry Kevin speechless. Eventually as I go through the hedge gate he calls out.

“You know you’re wrong!”

Me, slamming gate behind me. “GO AWAY!!! I needed to get back pronto, the drone was on hover and he had seriously interfered with the flight.

Continued flying until my batteries were down to 50% then packed up and went down to the house. No police and pompous twat has disappeared. A wasted afternoon. And to cap it all I’ve just read on the news an illegal drone has stopped Gatwick traffic at lunch time. Gatwick is 20 miles from here. At this rate we are going to end up being driven from the air by all and sundry.

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I feel for you. You did everything right and still subjected to the ahem uneducated.

I had a farmer threaten to go and fetch his shotgun to “shoot it out of the sky” whilst I was open field flying for the same reason. - Pissed old fart couldn’t hit a barn door with an elephant gun and a 100ft run-up, let alone a Mavic Air 2 in sport mode at 100 Metres but I don’t fly there anymore.

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Well done guys, It’s sad that there are so many ‘Kevins’ around these days

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Tell him while he’s getting his gun to look up the phrase ‘criminal damage’ and the likely legal issues attendant on shooting at drones :wink:

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Queue - ‘fuck off’

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I would have just laughed in his face and as @milkmanchris says told him to go forth and multiply

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The correct response is, (Black Country anyway) “Fuck off before I rip your 'ed off and shit down the 'ole”, normally goes down a treat!

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Alternatively “I’ll rip yer arm off and beat yer to death with the soggy end”

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I’ve had similar with folks in my area, but only after posting a video on YouTube. Complaints ranged from “You’re allowing criminals to see what’s in my backyard ( literally a few wheelie bins and a rotten trampoline), to “ You might inadvertently video children in their garden playing innocently” ( this one kept on, and on about children, until I told him, he was the one that kept mentioning children ) Then there were the various “privacy” comments, such as the classic, “ You cannot film/ video me, without my express written permission, or “ I have not given you permission to post this video which clearly shows my house ( for all of two seconds) on YouTube ”
Sod em. I told them to go shopping in town for an hour, then guess how many times they’d been filmed without their “express permission”. :joy::joy:

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Google Street view anyone?

  • Google earth or satellite imagery???
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You would be within your rights to remind the grumpy man to A) Keep it polite and B) The police would withdraw his shotgun license.

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Not only are you within your rights to fly but to keep up your license you need a min 2hrs in the air every 3 months… on each drone :innocent:

Then go and fire up the screemin’ FPV;-)

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I’m at that stage in my life where I don’t give two “f’s” if someone decides they’re going to rant and rave about what I’m legally entitled to do. For a start they are completely ignorant on the subject matter they are protesting about, like the Republicans and abortion rights or the Catholic Church and Science. And if they become physical either way it will end badly for them, either they suffer the embarrassment that they lost a fight to a “non-able-bodied” person, or the public shame of picking a fight with a “non-able-bodied” person. They probably post their own irrelevant life all over social media so being worried about privacy is a weak argument anyway.

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@mpaull
2 hours every 3 months ON EACH drone???
Surely it’s 2 hours total flying in the 3 months before OA renewal/application?
Christ I hoped you’re wrong or my OA renewal request is going south. I’ve got less than 2 hours on my I2 this year in my flight logs. Can you point me to where it’s stated 2 hours on each drone?

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Till now I had understood that to be the case. I’ve just re-read the relevant it of my OA and it doesn’t specify 2hrs on each drone - so I would say you are right. Apologies for the heart attack!

It reads, ‘All RP operating under the OA must ensure they maintain a minimum of 2 hours flight time in a three month period. This can comprise of both commercial and training flights, to ensure that the human element of the system can perform its tasks competently and safely.’

I’m glad you have questioned this as I had taken it to mean keeping up familiarity with the drone. It seems the CAA are only interested in practice ‘in various flight modes, emergency procedures, various distances, heights, orientation and separation distances from obstacles’ regardless of the drone. Seems cock-eyed to me but who am I to question the CAA!

Again sorry for that and my wife will be happy I don’t spend so much time away from home flying!

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Do you have a link to this ? My operator ID is up for renewal in August . Seems strange that I didn’t have to fly for 2hrs before the initial registration ( but that would have meant flying without any sort of registration )
Very confusing at best

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@mpaull
Phew!!! Thank God. That would have been the last straw for me. I’m so fed up with the increasing costs, the back peddling by the DOT on drone category classifications, sniping from ignoramus Kevins, and the whole CAA bureaucracy Im close to chuck the whole thing in. TBH I can’t see myself redoing either my A2 CoC or GVC when they expire.

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@JockyB
You need to show you have done a minimum 2 hours flying in the 3 months prior to the month in which you apply for renewal. The flight hours can be non commercial, commercial or a mix of both. I got that info direct from my training organisation UAVHUB which got the directive from the CAA.
You need to submit your flight logs, maintenance logs for each drone and tick a box stating that you have done the minimum 2 hours in the previous 3 months.

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Canipus, is this for renewing A2CofC or GVC only ?

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I’m so sorry to hear you are fed up with the whole runaround by the CAA. I am too.
My belief is they do not want drones in the air in the same way councils don’t want cars on their roads.
I expect the regs to be even tighter next year. And should that happen we’ll know what the game is. So let’s continue to renew:-D