Conversations

[Soulnet]

I had a first time today where I was at a beach in a more public place. It's still winter here in Australia, but enough to have a few conversations with people.

I found particularly those who didn't want to say something were the ones who could be more concerned with what I was doing, so I kept talking to them while flying and encouraged them to step forward to me to see what I could see in the sky and on the phone. Once I think they realised it was pretty much impossible to identify them from the footage they became a lot friendlier and I could fly in peace. Those who were friendly enough I also made the point to speak a bit louder than usual so anyone walking by can also catch on. A bit of education seems to have done everyone good!

No one was in the water though so I flew the bird about 50m off shore. Was great fun as i've never flew out over a beach till today.

 

[DownunderPhantom]

Where are you located Soulnet, I am also in Australia. I usually fly on the Coffs Coast and in Sydney.

I have found that in Sydney people are more stand off ish but on the North coast people will come up to me and
start a conversation no probs. Most of the time they are curious about what it is, what it can do etc etc.

Yes I have had an off handed question about it being able to spy but only once.

I have also noticed that people take a of of pictures of it while it is in the air, also quite frequently people wave at it.

 

[Soulnet]

I'm in Melbourne. Photo was at the entrance to Patterson River in Seaford.

Coffs would be really nice to fly at. It's a real coastline after all! I need to get to Apollo Bay to fly around, but need to arrange a way to charge in the car first

 

[DownunderPhantom]

One of these days I will get down to Melbourne again but will go via the coast road, more to see and video.

there are fantastic places to fly and video up near Coffs, even inland, waterfalls etc.

Charging in the car is quite easy, all I have done is bought a 12v to 240v inverter from Jarcar, plugged it into the cigarette lighter socket, plugged the phantom charger into the inverter and charge the batteries. I have not found any difference in the time taken to charge batteries, the advantage with the way
I do it is that the batteries are charging while I am driving to different sites.

 

[Meta4]

Coastal flying is great. Nothing to bump into, perfect GPS conditions and the best scenery.
I'm up north of Brisbane and have fun on our coast but would also like to fly some of the many headlands in northern NSW.

 

[DownunderPhantom]

I was up on the Sunshine Coast not so long ago, I flew the bird near Maroochydore but the first flight forgot to press record. I would have liked to fly around the Glass house Mountains but ran out of time.

I plan to film as many headlands and interesting places as time and travel will permit. These quad copters have opened up a whole new world of video which was only open to a select few not so long ago.

Currently I have not encountered any adverse reactions to my flying the bird, only curiosity and fascination by people who are near. I am careful and not not fly near people.

 

[Meta4]

Currently I have not encountered any adverse reactions to my flying the bird, only curiosity and fascination by people who are near. I am careful and not not fly near people.

I think you'll be fine as long as you don't fly near Americans. The rest of the world just doesn't have that paranoid phobia.

 

[cahutch]

Every time I fly in a public place I get people who are interested and ask a lot of questions. Usually, "what is it", "does it have a camera" and "where can i get one".

 

[Fplvert]

Yes, the media hasn't done our hobby much good. I've had several people stop and ask "is that a DRONE?" I always smile and say no...remote control quadcopter. I also avoid flying close to people as much as possible.

 

[Geoelectro]

I was flying in a master planned community's old town square over a river walk. It was early in the morning so not many people around. A lady jogging by said hey, that's a cool toy. I said, look at this showing here the FPV. She said OMG! I said cool huh? She said no, I'm a professional photographer...OMG!!

Then we talked about where to buy and what it was called etc. Fun morning...

Geo

 

[DownunderPhantom]

I was flying in a master planned community's old town square over a river walk. It was early in the morning so not many people around. A lady jogging by said hey, that's a cool toy. I said, look at this showing here the FPV. She said OMG! I said cool huh? She said no, I'm a professional photographer...OMG!!

Then we talked about where to buy and what it was called etc. Fun morning...

Geo

What would her reaction have been to the full size video or photo's.

Just goes to show how the general public view our "TOY's". Maybe DJI should start an aggressive marketing campaign to try and educate the masses that our quadcopter's are not toys.

 

[Clipper707]

Currently I have not encountered any adverse reactions to my flying the bird, only curiosity and fascination by people who are near. I am careful and not not fly near people.

I think you'll be fine as long as you don't fly near Americans. The rest of the world just doesn't have that paranoid phobia.

I fly near Americans all the time. Curiosity and fascination and friendly conversations are what usually occur.