The first question I have for anyone wanting to know how to fly is why? Are you just looking to fly around for fun or do you want to take some nice pictures somewhere? Most of us fall into the nice pictures category because we just spent a lot of cash on a flying camera. However, new owners may want to try flying first for a bit to get the hang of it. ** Rant about attutiudes begins here please feel free to skip.** I feel I need to discuss the attitude and culture people have towards drones. This generates a lot of anxiety and frustration for people. It is very unlikely anyone will approach you or question you on your drone. Most of the time people don’t care enough to bother as they have become ubiquitous. That being said, in my experience the person that does bother you is usually uninformed, ignorant, stupid, crazy or a combo of all of that. You have to stick to the rules of the country you are operating in to cover your butt on any potential liability. Additionally, in the US a lot of local governments are passing laws superseding the federal ones by saying that you can’t fly over private property (lol virginia). Although you are technically in the right on that front local law enforcement will follow their state guidelines and do you really want litigation to prove you’re right? Just avoid the entire situation. For crazies, just pack up and leave do not engage do not talk to the person. Get the hell outta dodge. You have to understand that the public “knows” about your UAS: 1. It has a massively powerful zoom lens that can pinpoint a pimple on their face. 2. If you are ANYWHERE near the private property, windows of a crazy person they will assume your powerful zoom lens is watching them do unthinkable things to their stuffed animals. You could be 1,000 feet away to the crazy person, you’re looking in their window. 3. Your drone is the same thing as military equipment. You’re flying a predator drone that can do damage and destroy property. Scary, get away from my kids. 4. If you are lingering anywhere over private property you are using your super powerful zoom lens to spy on their kids. 5. For Law Enforcement, some think drones taking pictures of ANY private property is illegal in any form. They also believe state law supersedes federal or will ignore federal law. All this being said, most people don’t give one iota what you’re doing. But my point with all of this is that the crazies, including some law enforcement will have all of those things in mind. It can feel overwhelming to find a place to fly a drone. You will, eventually annoy or piss someone off. You have to live with that fact and understand it is exceedingly rare.** End rant about the rare crazy person** What you, as a responsible drone pilot must do is combat these issues one at a time by educating yourself. By now, you know all the FAA rules, follow them. Make sure the place you’re flying in is clear for flight in Airmap/B4ufly. Don’t be the dummy that goes over a crowded beach or into class D airspace. For photography know and keep with you a copy of the photographer’s rights: https://ift.tt/K8wnE4 This website is a great guidebook on state regulations: https://jrupprechtlaw.com/drone-regulations For now, let’s make the assumption federal wilderness areas, local parks, state parks are almost always out of the question for flight. Private property, a crazy may assume your super powers of enhance image will show their wild orgies at home. So what do we do? For photography: There’s the road option: o Use Google maps and find a road with something cool you want to take pictures of. For the love of all that is holy don’t pull off a highway but find a smaller-ish road you can pull off with a little clearing. Technically, as long as you’re not on private property you should be able to take off away from the road. Do not fly over cars unless they’re parked. Here’s an example of that type of road: https://goo.gl/maps/HTKJ6je5uDB2 Fly away from the road and over, if you must fly over private property fly as high as you can. Chances are they won’t even notice you’re there. However, flying high comes with a consequence. You are now at the height helicopters in particular fly at and you start losing visual line of sight pretty quickly. You may even encounter private/small aircraft at that level. However you should have hopefully followed instructions and called local airports that may have flights at those levels. Additionally, even if you don’t need to you should try to have a spotter check for incoming flights. This is also where visual line of sight becomes critical as you need to monitor for this kind of traffic. Helicopter near misses seem to be one of the major reasons the FAA hands out fines to people. • There’s the park option, which as you probably know by now is a bit of a legal nightmare. Federal parks are out of the question. Local and state parks require you to look up the regulations and guidelines or apply for a permit. You can.. technically launch from the side of the road and over into the park but as stated earlier local law enforcement are not going to be amused. Although local/state parks only have control over you launch and landing in them many of them have written rules saying they also can keep you from flying over them. This contradicts the FAA regulations and they know this so many violators are slapped with a “noise, disturbing wildlife etc fine”. • Another option is to ask, places that have community properties after they close. School yards, community centers etc. This is risky as the mentality of crazy dangerous object will apply. Some folks opt to just launch there and ask for forgiveness if they’re stopped. However, you run the risk of trouble with people if you take that policy. For general flying/hovering/learning: • An option most people don’t consider is the AMA or Academy of Model Aeronautics. Membership is $75 and the clubs that are members are plentiful and dispersed throughout the country. Most clubs have their own membership fees. Some are very anti-UAS some welcome them. If you are new to a uas I recommend visiting your local club and introducing yourself. Tell them what you have and they may let you fly, practice and/or hover in their club if they’re friendly to it as long as you have an AMA card as that provides an insurance policy for them. If you plan to visit the club regularly it’s considered rude if you don’t join the local club. Each will have their own fees and policies on top of the AMA stuff. They’re also a great place to learn about local places to fly, get some mentorship and a local in person community if you’re into that sort of thing. • Many local parks now have designated UAS areas for flight. Stick to those if you can for learning how to fly. If you don’t see any regulations prohibiting use you could try to learn in one of those parks. Remember that you may be asked to leave just pack yourself up and go. • Do you have a friend with a large private property? You can take off vertically, hover, practice your controls and camera settings there as well. The owner has given you permission. Beware of crazy neighbors. Take your drone everywhere! Get an insurance policy from someone. Droneinsurance.com covers fly aways for a mavic 2 pro at $35 an entire day of flight. They cover theft for $14 a month. There are many other companies that offer liability insurance now. This is important if something does happen over private property. However, very few of these companies will cover people for recreational flight. They will, however cover private commercial “practice” flight with a part 107 in the US. You could go with state farm and cover just theft or “fly always” for $60 a year at the risk of increasing your home owners insurance in the event of a loss. Most importantly, you have to be a little proactive in where you want to fly. As long as you’re following regulations and are on non-regulated land for a launch and landing you’re usually fine. Bodies of water are a huge open area for you to explore and photograph. Remember, in the US at least the only on paper restriction is the launch and landing area, a small chunk of land the size of your drone. That’s what you’re looking for when you go out. via /r/drones https://ift.tt/2wm8RmE
Comments
Post a Comment