Thoughts from the floor please...

[Oscar Cymru]

I managed to get a couple of hours this morning to test the firmware updates to my H520. I have a regular place for testing out changes/updates, it's near a large salt marsh on the north side of the Gower (those of you who know the Gower in Wales will know exactly where I mean). Basic Risk Assessment & mitigation done I put everything together and set up a survey of about 200m * 100m. Just before uploading survey to drone a chap drives past and then stops and comes over for a chat. Well, not so much as a chat but to challenge me for flying a drone. According to him I was in a 'nature reserve' (later he referred to it as a 'bird sanctuary') and I was not allowed to fly. I had to refer him to my CAA accreditation, the CAA website, my UK aeronautical map (current edition) and the Ordinance Survey map before he would accept an alternate view. I also pointed out that it was neither a nature reserve or a bird sanctuary and that I have a standard risk and mitigation section in my RA for wild animal and birds.

Then he asked if I could video 'a friend's property' a little further up the road, and could he have my contact details??? I've given him a business card but I reckon this was a spurious request as firstly you don't ask to video someone else's property and secondly the property location is even closer to an area he was concerned with me avoiding in his initial query.

Do other drone pilots get challenged in an unfriendly way?

 

[Murray Martz]

I managed to get a couple of hours this morning to test the firmware updates to my H520. I have a regular place for testing out changes/updates, it's near a large salt marsh on the north side of the Gower (those of you who know the Gower in Wales will know exactly where I mean). Basic Risk Assessment & mitigation done I put everything together and set up a survey of about 200m * 100m. Just before uploading survey to drone a chap drives past and then stops and comes over for a chat. Well, not so much as a chat but to challenge me for flying a drone. According to him I was in a 'nature reserve' (later he referred to it as a 'bird sanctuary') and I was not allowed to fly. I had to refer him to my CAA accreditation, the CAA website, my UK aeronautical map (current edition) and the Ordinance Survey map before he would accept an alternate view. I also pointed out that it was neither a nature reserve or a bird sanctuary and that I have a standard risk and mitigation section in my RA for wild animal and birds.

Then he asked if I could video 'a friend's property' a little further up the road, and could he have my contact details??? I've given him a business card but I reckon this was a spurious request as firstly you don't ask to video someone else's property and secondly the property location is even closer to an area he was concerned with me avoiding in his initial query.

Do other drone pilots get challenged in an unfriendly way?

Some people out there will, but I use it as an opportunity to educate them. Often I will ask them if they would like a shot of themselves from above and I can email it to them. I always stay friendly with them and smile no matter what.

 

[Oscar Cymru]

Some people out there will, but I use it as an opportunity to educate them. Often I will ask them if they would like a shot of themselves from above and I can email it to them. I always stay friendly with them and smile no matter what.

Good advice Murray, I shall keep it in mind...

 

[PatR]

I managed to get a couple of hours this morning to test the firmware updates to my H520. I have a regular place for testing out changes/updates, it's near a large salt marsh on the north side of the Gower (those of you who know the Gower in Wales will know exactly where I mean). Basic Risk Assessment & mitigation done I put everything together and set up a survey of about 200m * 100m. Just before uploading survey to drone a chap drives past and then stops and comes over for a chat. Well, not so much as a chat but to challenge me for flying a drone. According to him I was in a 'nature reserve' (later he referred to it as a 'bird sanctuary') and I was not allowed to fly. I had to refer him to my CAA accreditation, the CAA website, my UK aeronautical map (current edition) and the Ordinance Survey map before he would accept an alternate view. I also pointed out that it was neither a nature reserve or a bird sanctuary and that I have a standard risk and mitigation section in my RA for wild animal and birds.

Then he asked if I could video 'a friend's property' a little further up the road, and could he have my contact details??? I've given him a business card but I reckon this was a spurious request as firstly you don't ask to video someone else's property and secondly the property location is even closer to an area he was concerned with me avoiding in his initial query.

Do other drone pilots get challenged in an unfriendly way?

The manner in which you were challenged would have made me extremely suspicious of his true intentions with regard to a “friend’s” property. A devious person, and there are many, would use such a ploy to obtain contact info to enable them to cause you grief in civil investigations and litigation.

 

[AH-1G]

The manner in which you were challenged would have made me extremely suspicious of his true intentions with regard to a “friend’s” property. A devious person, and there are many, would use such a ploy to obtain contact info to enable them to cause you grief in civil investigations and litigation.

Not all is conspiracy.

 

[Oscar Cymru]

Not all is conspiracy.

Lucky I've written the conversation down (contemporaneously) and had it witnessed. Also offered to show the man the Risk Assessment but he declined...

 

[PatR]

I fear the manner in which you were approached is to become a lot more common for UK operators. The Gatwick debacle will have made much of the population more unfriendly than they already were.

 

[Phaedrus]

Not all is conspiracy.

But always keep in mind that just because you are paranoid does not mean they are not really out to get you !!

 

[AH-1G]

I'm not saying that the Government will make things worse for our lives, in fact they will.
They have been applying the slow methodical tactic, from kindergarten and up. (frog in water slowly boiling, didn't know it was being cooked to death).
We now see it accelerating into socialism and beyond, what's next, monarchy/communism?

 

[FlushVision]

I managed to get a couple of hours this morning to test the firmware updates to my H520. I have a regular place for testing out changes/updates, it's near a large salt marsh on the north side of the Gower (those of you who know the Gower in Wales will know exactly where I mean). Basic Risk Assessment & mitigation done I put everything together and set up a survey of about 200m * 100m. Just before uploading survey to drone a chap drives past and then stops and comes over for a chat. Well, not so much as a chat but to challenge me for flying a drone. According to him I was in a 'nature reserve' (later he referred to it as a 'bird sanctuary') and I was not allowed to fly. I had to refer him to my CAA accreditation, the CAA website, my UK aeronautical map (current edition) and the Ordinance Survey map before he would accept an alternate view. I also pointed out that it was neither a nature reserve or a bird sanctuary and that I have a standard risk and mitigation section in my RA for wild animal and birds.

Then he asked if I could video 'a friend's property' a little further up the road, and could he have my contact details??? I've given him a business card but I reckon this was a spurious request as firstly you don't ask to video someone else's property and secondly the property location is even closer to an area he was concerned with me avoiding in his initial query.

Do other drone pilots get challenged in an unfriendly way?

I've been challenged a couple of times but my experience is that, generally, the people I meet are friendly...sometimes just curious. When asked for my details I give a business card that points them to my web page.

My take is that he was after your details to try and cause grief. Once a person has decided that you shouldn't fly at a place it is very hard to make that person to change that view no matter how much you try.

 

[PatR]

I saw it the same way. Unless it’s a woman in menopause I’ve never encountered a person that started out angry and flipped to being happy in the course of just a few minutes of explanation.