Public Opinions on UAV's

ThunderChicken · May 10, 2017

There are criminal charges for filing frivolous law suits. Although not many people utilize this course of action.
If some one files a law suit against me, they better be prepared for one **** of a Nantucket Sleigh ride.
I do have connections to make their life miserable with out anything more than a phone call.

FlushVision · May 10, 2017

mcbutler said:
Hi, where did you get your definition of a 'congested area' from? I thought it was 50m from properties or crowds and gatherings? Who would you ask for permission?

The way I read his post was that the 'permission' he was referring to was the PfCO granted by the CAA.

For those not well up on the definition of a 'congested' area, it goes like this (copied and pasted directly from the CAAs web site):
The Air Navigation Order defines a congested area as being 'any area of a city, town or settlement which is substantially used for residential, industrial, commercial or recreational purposes'.

The key word is 'substantially'. A public field, then, would not be a congested area if it wasn't substantially used by the public. The difficulty lies in what people define as 'substantially'. The CAA would not see an area as substantially used for recreational purposes if it is only expected to be used by a small number of people at any one time. They would not see the odd dog walker as a substantial use of the area and it would be quite legal to fly in such an area so long as you stayed at least 50m away from the dog walker (you can also fly above the dog walker so long as you maintain a 50m separation). On the other hand, if the area was regularly used by a large number of people and that it could be expected that a larger number of people would use it, a public playground on a Saturday afternoon say, then that area would be congested.

For the below 7Kg MTOM category of UAS there are two distance rules relating to congested areas. One for the hobby flier and one for the standard PfCO holder.
A hobby flier must keep his aircraft more than 150m away from a congested area;
A standard PfCO holder must keep his aircraft more than 50m away from a congested area.

A final note. For both the hobby flier and standard PfCO holder the distance rules are the same for places where a thousand people or more are present, a football stadium say, which is 150m.

Note that this is U.K law. The laws may be different in other countries.

PatR · May 10, 2017

Good to read there is a recognized difference between a recreational and professional operator.

spongella · May 10, 2017

If after all that explanation and politeness on your part her only response was to tell you she'll call the police the next time I'd say she was just a sour old control-freak hag. For every sport or hobby one enjoys there's always someone or some group at odds with you.

bill4725 · May 26, 2018

I've struggled with the whole congested area thing. I fly on the beach normally and apart from launching and landing I keep the H on the beachside of the sea wall I only fly at the far end of the beach as this is the least trafficked area on a really busy day you will probably only see 3-4 walking on the beach near my location as most people head in the opposite direction towards the café etc. The problem I have is the council and others consider the whole beach collectively as the beach so they could argue that even if its the nice quiet end its still the beach as they see it and thus a congested area (they have used this argument to impose dog walking sanctions already) also there is a row of houses along the prom but a gap between the end of the terrace and an isolated bungalow gives me the 50m distance according to the drone code, personally I dont see a row of 6 houses as a built up area if there are no other buildings near them (50m further inland is where the main village starts which is what I class as a built up area) but its still open to subjective reasoning I wish that the CAA would specify more specifically as to what a 'built up area' consists of in the terms of a number of buildings and persons likely to be in that area

mcbutler · May 27, 2018

bill4725 said:
I've struggled with the whole congested area thing. I fly on the beach normally and apart from launching and landing I keep the H on the beachside of the sea wall I only fly at the far end of the beach as this is the least trafficked area on a really busy day you will probably only see 3-4 walking on the beach near my location as most people head in the opposite direction towards the café etc. The problem I have is the council and others consider the whole beach collectively as the beach so they could argue that even if its the nice quiet end its still the beach as they see it and thus a congested area (they have used this argument to impose dog walking sanctions already) also there is a row of houses along the prom but a gap between the end of the terrace and an isolated bungalow gives me the 50m distance according to the drone code, personally I dont see a row of 6 houses as a built up area if there are no other buildings near them (50m further inland is where the main village starts which is what I class as a built up area) but its still open to subjective reasoning I wish that the CAA would specify more specifically as to what a 'built up area' consists of in the terms of a number of buildings and persons likely to be in that area

It’s worth knowing that no one has any right over any part of a beach covered by the high tide.

FlushVision · May 31, 2018

mcbutler said:
It’s worth knowing that no one has any right over any part of a beach covered by the high tide.

Ah. That's the Crown Estate. People who wish to fly a UAV over areas that are covered by a high tide AND is designated as Crown Estate have been granted a permission to do so by the Crown Estate (Not all areas covered by the high tide is Crown Estate). But if that foreshore is also subject to a local authority's by-laws restricting the use of a drone then a permission from that local authority will need to be obtained.
Look here UAD (Drones)

FlushVision · May 31, 2018

bill4725 said:
I've struggled with the whole congested area thing. I fly on the beach normally and apart from launching and landing I keep the H on the beachside of the sea wall I only fly at the far end of the beach as this is the least trafficked area on a really busy day you will probably only see 3-4 walking on the beach near my location as most people head in the opposite direction towards the café etc. The problem I have is the council and others consider the whole beach collectively as the beach so they could argue that even if its the nice quiet end its still the beach as they see it and thus a congested area (they have used this argument to impose dog walking sanctions already) also there is a row of houses along the prom but a gap between the end of the terrace and an isolated bungalow gives me the 50m distance according to the drone code, personally I dont see a row of 6 houses as a built up area if there are no other buildings near them (50m further inland is where the main village starts which is what I class as a built up area) but its still open to subjective reasoning I wish that the CAA would specify more specifically as to what a 'built up area' consists of in the terms of a number of buildings and persons likely to be in that area

What is seen as a 'Congested' area is open to some interpretation with regard to the number of dwellings. Some would see 6 dwellings isolated away from a more substantial urban area as not being congested. Others would probably not. As it happens, my view falls into the latter. One or two dwellings, yes, I would not see that as congested, but for me, six would be pushing it. But that's easy for me to say that since being a PfCO holder the 150m rule does not apply to me when doing a commercial flight.

BEC1 · Jun 4, 2018

ThunderChicken said:
I was down in Corpus Christi Texas last week flying over the water and there were no people close by.
And lo and behold up rolls the Texas Department of Public Safety.(State Trooper)
He parks right in front me get out of his vehicle, scans the sky behind me,(Sand Dunes)
And then locates my "H" over the water and not within 500 feet of any people. I asked If was breaking any laws.
He replied that I wasn't because he found my Multi-rotor in the sky. I should have asked him some questions but these guys get irritable real quick some times.
I thought the best thing I could do is finish shooting my videos and go back to the hotel. Some one must have reported me. There were no people close by and I was not going video people any way. Driving down the beach later we did come up on what I call a "Whale Tail" chewing on some sort of mammal bones.
You know the type, when you see it, you scream "Oh my god, my eyes!" Imagine a hippopotamus wearing a thong. Gruesome!
I have beach videos to show is there a place to share them here?

Just make sure you aren't on the national seashore. You can't fly a drone there. Mustang Island also is a no fly zone.