I've never owned a quadcopter, but have often thought of getting one. I work in the remote robotics industry and have been a fan of quadcopters, FPV and personal "drones" for years. That may change, though, if what I experienced yesterday is what we can expect in the future.
My wife and I were at the beach most of the day yesterday. There were probably a hundred other people in our small area, mostly families with kids. People had their awnings set up, bar-b-ques grilling, and kids running around just having fun. About mid afternoon a fellow showed up with a DJI Phantom (I recognized it because I often thought of buying one) and full FPV gear, not 10 feet from where my wife and I were, and not more than 30 feet from all the kids running around. He then launched and flew the drone up and down the beach, sometimes hovering over people, sometimes flying over boats and paddleboards that were passing by.
While I was in the water, his drone buzzed over my head, hovering maybe 5 feet away from me and stayed there. Just out of reach but definitely "studying me" like a buzzing giant mosquito. It was my first experience like this and I gotta tell you, it was creepy. I don't know this guy. I don't know his flying skills. I don't know how well he maintains his equipment. I don't know if he's shooting video of me and, if he is, what he plans on doing with that video. Is he a convict? Is he a child molester? I know nothing about this guy who is flying his quad just feet above me and is watching me so intently. The one thing I did know was that this guy's drone was invading my space and my privacy. He was watching (and probably videoing me) and I didn't like it. And I'm a guy, I can only imagine how I would have felt if I were a woman. Or a parent watching this drone hover over my small child. In that brief moment my feelings about personal drones reversed 180 degrees.
If what I just witnessed is the future of the technology, where people no can no longer live with any degree of privacy or space, I, for one, can no longer support it.
Comments
Although I do not condone flying recklessly directly over people I get a feeling from your description that you are over reacting. Did you bother to go over to this person and tell him you did not want him to fly over you and your family or to ask him why he was flying close over your position? Like most people I bet you probably did not. If you had I am certain you would have left with a different opinion. Most people I know that fly drones will be more than willing to abide by your concerns if asked to do so. Sadly this does not happen often as it should. Instead people immediately start advocating new laws to restrict behavior that could easily be curtailed with some simple civility. It is very possible this person had a good reason for doing what he did or it could have been shear recklessness. Either way I think a direct response from you would probably have been a valuable learning experience for all those concerned.
I am continually amazed that people go out of their way to criticize drone users when then the government is literally in every corner of our lives watching, listening and recording every detail of our lives but yet you freak out because a person with a drone might be filming you? I certainly am not aware of any drone using child molester who sneaks around beaches to find his next suspect. I think you may want to reserve that sort of judgement for anyone who potentially has a camera skulking in the background indiscriminately filming children at parks, etc. I hardly think someone bent on fiendish activities would use an attention grabbing device such as a drone for nefarious activities. I would hope that eventually common sense will prevail regarding the use of drones in public places...
@Dave Bozarth - Thanks for that info. I find it ironic that the site claims to be so authoritative but has a huge disclaimer at the top. Which is it? Nonetheless it is very information and I appreciate the link.
I still think any lawyer just out of law school could make a winnable argument in court that it's quite reckless to fly in the manner that the OP stated. Given how litigious people can be I wouldn't want to test it if my copter hurt someone.
It's just common sense really. How do you feel about having someone fly a UAV a few feet away from you? Let alone photographing you. I'm really surprised someone didn't approach the person and just have a conversation. It doesn't have to be confrontational. Who knows, maybe the guy would listen? Or maybe he has a good argument that people are over reacting? But unless we speak to each other we will never know.
Hi Gary,
While I generally share the concerns indicate by your statement, "Completely incompetent, untrained and otherwise irresponsible people in large numbers are now deploying these things.", some of the worst offenders that I seen are those with decades of experience with model aircraft. Personally, I came to this hobby with a background in amateur radio, amateur photography and professional industrial chemistry so two areas that immediately apply to a multirotor with a camera and FPV. RC flying is just part of the puzzle.
Those purchasing a ready to fly quadcopter package for aerial photography would benefit from the inclusion of some basic information on local rules, safety guidance and an overview of the limitations of radio equipment. The links that you provided earlier in this thread are a good start. My preference would be both a cheat sheet and detailed guide supplied at the point of sale. I understand that the brief brochure produced by the Australian regulator in commonly included here, see the PDF at the bottom of the linked page, however, this does not go far enough.
http://www.casa.gov.au/scripts/nc.dll?WCMS:STANDARD::pc=PC_100375
There are many videos posted on youtube and vimeo that show clearly irresponsible and potentially illegal flying. The general media seem to enjoy reporting alarmist stories of drones being used for spying, while they often continue to use drones themselves. It worries me that there are parties that will use this material, along with other published materials, to damage a hobby that I have only adopted or that over regulation will ruin the hobby. We see the overreaction here through councils banning RC flight in parks, even when done safely, and your own FAA seems to have set out to destroy FPV in the US.
This kind of thing can always be criminally prosecuted as reckless endangerment, especially flying directly over peoples heads with a Phantom or bigger.
I think you would be likely to lose in court trying to defend against it.
And it could be either misdemeanor or felony depending on how far they wanted to push it, just hope you don't get a prosecutor trying to make his bones.
I think you just witnessed an old-school idiot, who happened to have a drone. It could have been worse, he could have had a pellet gun or a baseball bat instead of a drone.
Putting all the opinions aside, this activity is illegal. In the same situation I would approach the pilot and suggest that it was not a good place to fly letting him know my interest/experience in flying. Depending in the reaction I would file a complaint or call the Police.
If you aren't comfortable doing that then speaking with the life guards or local Police would be an option. Again, that activity is illegal and people need to know it's simply not safe. Just imagine if that copter failed and hit someone. How would you feel about not saying anything then? C'mon people, it's simply not safe to fly over the public and that close to people.
As for photographing people in public, that's not illegal but it certainly is rude and disrespectful. I never photograph people without letting them know what I'm doing and making sure they are ok with it.
If I'm flying in a park where no one is around and people show up or come in from another direction I purposely move my copter far away or land it and go somewhere else. When people come up and ask me about the copter they typically are very friendly and I've met a lot of very nice people that way. I always mention how dangerous the equipment can be if not used properly and to always avoid anyone they see flying close to people. They are usually a bit surprised by that comment and some have mentioned that they never really considered that.
H Robert, an extremely responsible approach.
Unfortunately here in the US a lot of people want to get in aon the latest fad even if they know nothing about it.
Initially this worked out OK because the easy stuff to get for these people was the Parrot and the Hubsan X4 wich are small, light and have slow and easily stopped or broken props.
People could get one of those and fly it to there hearts content without anyone screaming either about safety or spying.
Un fortunately with the advent of the easy to fly Phantom with a GoPro dangling underneath peoples worst fears are being realized.
Completely incompetent, untrained and otherwise irresponsible people in large numbers are now deploying these things.
I personally have nothing against Phantoms and think they are an excellent quadcopter / photo / video platform in the hands of people who are truly equipped to deal with their threat level.
It's just that here that isn't what is primarily happening.
I fly quadcopters and did not start off from a model aircraft background. What I did was spend a lot of time on the internet tracking down rules, a safety guidelines, explanations of how to fly and a lot of technical information to build my own gear. Starting out wanting to do the right think meant that I was well informed before my first flight at a local park and flying safely, if not complying with every aspect of the relevant laws.
Idiots flying near people in public spaces is one of the reasons the public has a negative view of this hobby. Adding a camera just makes it more likely that people will complain. Since I started flying a couple of years ago, all powered RC flight in local parks has been banned and there are significant fines for anyone caught. Please note, this is Australia not the US and the ban is at the local government level (council).
This blog is fairly representative of the concerns of the general public when it comes to cameras flying close to them and their children. It is balanced and well written so it is sad to see people attacking the person posting the blog rather than the unnamed idiot flying around people just trying to enjoy a day at the beach.
I work in unmanned aircraft research at a university in Arizona and have been an avid RC enthusiast for 14+ years now and I find myself feeling physically unsafe a lot these days when there is a "drone" in the near vicinity. I love unmanned aircraft and I think they are an untapped potential source for a lot of good to come, but the way the general public perceives them and the way a vast majority of "amateur" UAV operators use them is unnerving. They have no respect for the inherent safety concerns you need to take into consideration every time you fly one of these systems.
An example. I was recently at a 4th of July event in the town where I live. As evening fell and the fire works show began I noticed three lights off to the side of the crowd and a very apparent buzzing sound. It took me a little bit, but I located the pilots and talked to them after they landed. They were hired to take aerial video of the fire work display and I would say they did their job both professionally and safely. They operated off to the side and away from the people and there was always three of them, so someone was watching for people that might have wandered up to them and presented a potential safety concern.
Later that same night however as I walked back to my car I saw another multi-rotor. This one was obviously not a professional setup, and it took me a really long time to find the person flying it. This person was not operating it safely. He was running it up and down the crowd at a high rate of speed. I don't know if he was taking video or what he was doing, but just being near this situation made me feel unsafe. I got in my car and left. Looking back on it, I wish I had confronted the pilot and told him to be more safe, however I have observed through my work at the university that you can tell these people how to operate them safely and they still will not because they don't believe you about the safety risks. They are so convinced that it is just a harmless toy.
It is not simply amateurs either though that have this attitude. In the past year, at the university I work at in the unmanned aircraft department we have had a number of injuries as well close calls with technical failures and inexperienced pilots. Back in the spring of this year I was supervising a class of unmanned aircraft system minors and I was struck in the back of the legs by a small 3DR quad copter. I had to go to the emergency room and received 7 stitches in my knee. This happened in a "safe" environment. There were two instructors, myself and the professor and while I was keeping a student from crashing their quad another hit me. Before this incident I had pleaded with the university to buy me buddy boxes and only allow one to fly at a time so that I could monitor their flying. They said that was unnecessary and I was over ruled. Look what happened. As if that wasn't enough, following that incident we recently had it happen again, however this time it was a high school student at a summer camp. Once again they ignored my advice to fly one at a time and or get buddy boxes as a safety precaution, saying it was unnecessary and would waste too much time and it results in a high schooler going to the ER with severe cuts on his hand. It amazes me really. The people making these calls are engineers and have PhD's and the way they talk about ethics in engineering you would think they should know better than to run up a large mutl-rotor inside a class room(yes, they do that to even after I refuse saying that's reckless). I was even at an RC event recently(club fun fly) and someone was flying a DJI Phatom right next to peoples faces trying to get video of everyone at the event and I cringed every time it came by, just waiting for there to be an electronics failure. And that was a pilot I knew knew what he was doing and would never try that with an RC plane, but he had abandoned his safe flying practices as soon as there was a camera on it and it was called drone.
While these are just a few examples from my personal experience, I know the problem is universal. It needs to be addressed, but unfortunately it is a very delicate subject and needs to approached correctly. I think the public needs to know more about this, but all they ever hear about is the invansion of privacy which I personally think is ridiculous. If your neighbor is spying on you with one of these that is a problem and you should deal with that as that is not okay. As for the rest of us(hopefully), I know I for sure have better things to do with unmanned aircraft than check up on my neighbors with a GoPro.
We are in agreement. We have to be careful about the perception of a camera, no matter how absurd it may be and not make our situation worse. I am not defending the Phantom pilot's flight as it was certainly bad enough to make someone come on DIYdrones and complain.
I do, however, take objection to the OP using "child molester" to potentially describe the RC pilot. Thinking something is 'creepy' or in poor taste is one thing, but labeling them as potentially being someone guilty of such heinous behavior is over the line and stretches even the most extreme interpretation of the situation. I hope people will think about it more before making such statements and I will call them out on that every time, even if it is common!
Best,
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