This was only my second ever ‘encounter’ with someone who had an issue with me flying. Farmer pulled into the (public) lay-by where I was flying from, which was next to his main drive / gates so I came in and landed. His opener was ‘Should you be doing that? - Do you have permission to do that?’ and whilst he was arsey, his approach was more questioning rather than aggressive. His next was ‘So what if I got my shotgun and shot it down?’ I genuinely smiled inside and thought, well you’d be shoe in for the Paris olympics next year but I just breezily kept chatting to him about how much fun I was having.
On this occasion I was flying fully within the letter of the law so I told him very politely that I didn’t need permission to fly from public land, that there were no buildings / people within literally miles of where we were standing, that I was flying within LOS and my spotter was with me. (Not that any of that was a fluke at all 
)
His concern was that the eponymous ‘they’ were using drones to scout out stuff to steal. He’s in North Wales and his source of info was possibly the following (now old) article (was also in Farmers Weekly):
Hi-tech thieves using drones to case out farm and rural North Wales homes - North Wales Live.
Of course the ‘story’ then doesn’t quite match the headline and indeed the police confirm that…
“We know a couple of white vans have been seen near the farms at the time but there is nothing that links them directly to the drones. It’s quite possible they were just making local deliveries.”
And - of course…
"“We don’t have anything evidential to connect this activity with crimes being committed on farms and much of it is anecdotal.”
But, if this is a source of information that is being read and believed, I think there is value in showing that drone pilots are not criminals or idiots (well, FPV pilots anyway 
)
I also showed him the ID on the quad I was flying, and my CAA licence, told him if he was suspicious about anyone to ask for that and they’d run a mile. Also told him I was insured etc.
My final move was showing him the view through the goggles and I after that, I think it was time for him to go and have a lie down after all the excitement.
I am genuinely pleased with how the encounter worked out tbh. I am not a people person and the urge to tell someone to go jump can be overwhelming. I managed not to bite at any of his initial comments and I hope he actually learned a bit and will be more accepting the next time he sees someone flying. 
- didn’t think of that.