Here it is, the Grand Canyon. This one shows one of the worst encounters with officials regarding our UAV projects to date. Nevertheless, it's one of the most beautiful places to fly at. To stay out of trouble, fly into the Grand Canyon from outside the National Park fences.
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Clearly the necessary thing to do is to get the rangers' actions mentioned on television.
"Park Rangers steal tourist's videos of Grand Canyon!" (and other such juicy headlines).
You really should go ahead and crucify them. That ranger is saying that they will steal any tourists' videos just because they didn't like the camera used, and that's the kind of attitude that will have a serious effect on tourism.
Who wants to go to the Grand Canyon if a park ranger can arbitrarily decide to take away your photos and videos?
I certainly don't!
Pictures of the invalid citation (complete with the ranger's ID number, yes?), choice quotes from the ranger issuing it, coupled with the beautiful videos you did take the day before will go quite a long way in 'outrage points', and is pretty much the only way they will behave.
I'm pretty sure you can find a TV station willing to take up the cause, especially given the quality of your video footage.
I'm not a lawyer (and don't play one on TV either) but I'm pretty sure that if you do not get your SD cards back then they have committed an act of theft of both the SD card and intangible, and if they do return them but have deleted anything from the SD cards they have deliberately and knowingly destroyed your rightful and valuable property.
(If they copy anything, then apparently existing caselaw puts the going rate for copyright infringement at several million USD per minute.)
The minimum value of the data on the cards is also quite high - for example, the UK NUJ suggests £270 for 8 seconds of video*, and £1182 for 2-3min shot and edited on your own kit.
(Fees actually paid vary considerably, and I would suggest that your high quality UAV footage is valued considerably higher given the specialist nature of the work.)
*Essentially the You've Been Framed/Funniest Home Videos rate.
(My day job is in television. Dammit, I promised myself I wouldn't combine these!)
Just sounds like a bunch of glorified gardeners power tripping.
Were you trying to nab some pic-a-nic baskets?
They must have seen this training video for Park Rangers, about the Pic-A-Nic Basket Nabber 2000:
Paul Marsh, missed the first paragraph there. The rangers admitted that we didn't break any rules. and that the citation they gave us did not apply. They said, however, that if we were to contest that we'd need to get back to Arizona, get a lawyer and get a court date. They also said they'd make sure they'd throw us in jail for a series of other violations if we were to contest the ticket. I'm not really sure as to why they would do that, but my assumption is to avoid any kind of legal ramicifactions as well as bad publicity for them breaking the law (illegal search & seizure). I don't really think that law enforcement follow laws in the USA. I mean, theoretically they're supposed to ... sure. but practically ... well, they just do as they please.
Paul Marsh, and your reasononing for that is what exactly? if model airplanes fly below the rim of the canyon there will be fatalities? :)
Ellison Chan, they just don't like stuff in the air there. that's pretty much all
Andreas Antonopoulos, haha agreed. Watching big brother sure is fun :)
@Ellison, they are hiding evidence of evolution from creationists.
We've been living in a (mild for now) police state for a while. All you have to do is flex your rights and you will encounter immediate resistance and suspicion. They especially dislike cameras or anything else that can watch back. Which is why I love this hobby ;-)
I wonder what they're trying to cover up in the Grand Canyon. I thought we lived in a democracy and not a police state.
If the rangers said you didn't break any rules, than I don't understand the problem. However, given that there is an apparent problem, I can understand why they would be particularly sensitive at the Grand Canyon.
Whether or not this would apply to the specific area where you were flying I can't say, but I can see how it could be an issue. In the past, private aircraft could fly at least somewhat unresticted in the canyon (actually, I just saw it referred to as "an airborne free-for-all"). So, you had private planes, helicopters and commercial sight-seeing tours flying around, often with aircraft below the rim of the canyon. There were fatal accidents. As a result, there is now a Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) in effect around the Grand Canyon. If model aircraft are not specifically mentioned, it can only be an oversight. They'll most likely be mentioned now.
I stumbled onto diy drones about a week ago and am new to UAV From the quality of the video and the skill of the operator the venue you are flying from and the landing I can tell this is not your first day"Very well Done" Who can truly get away with any thing now a days? Little kids and old people ! It is better to ask forgiveness than ask permission . You got a ticket . I think the officer might have been standing there a little bit envious if not totally jealous! Some times you have to break the law ! once again "Well Done!"
you got a permit? lol ...
haha, thanks for the advice. we are actually camping in the park, so no luck there. I should find some good spots along the way though.
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