Dealing with people

[Mark J Colbert]

While flying my drone, I've had people come up to me - more out of curiosity than anything else - and ask what I was doing. Without saying a word, I look down at my controller, up at my drone (if I can see it), back at my controller, then back at them and smile. It's as if they're sometimes looking for you to respond in a manner that warrants an attack. It's as if they're begging for a reason to whip out their cell phone, take your picture, and call Channel 5. "Look at me, I found a guy using his drone to take pictures of school children - from 300 feet up." In America, your business is no longer, well, yours. You are no longer allowed to have an expectation of privacy. People want to know what's going on, who you're spying on, who your hurting, what you're planning, if you're smoking pot while doing it, and if you're wearing your special I heart Hillary socks. If not, you obviously have criminal intentions and they're calling CNN.
I love showing people how much fun it is to fly drones and take pictures. I'll show them how to control it, how the camera works, landing, sport mode, whatever. Try this sometime: with them standing there, take your drone out to where it's barely visible, turn off the controller, set it down, and start talking with them about something totally different "How 'bout those Cubs?" The looks on their faces is often priceless.
Treat people the way they deserve to be treated and don't cater to anyone out for their 15 minutes of fame.

 

[KCadby]

I've been flying from Beaches and a Inlet where there are a lot of people (I fly out over the water, NOT over the people) and many of those people young and old ask me questions about the Drone...
I enjoy answering, explaining and showing them things about it and I have no doubt that being nice goes a long way in helping/changing people's thoughts and attitude towards things they might not like (or even fear) just because they don't know anything about it...
"Everyone" that I've taken the time to talk to has walked away with a positive feeling about me and the drone and most of them have thanked me for taking the time to talk with them...

 

[Russ43Phantom]

I explain my mission and that I am a photographer. I then show them my website (www.schundlerphoto.com) and ask them what they think of my photography in general and my aerial photography in particular. Most say "Oh ... nice work!".

Some will take their time to explain to me how drones invade privacy. Much like a previous response above, I ask them if they feel a loud drone with a wide angle lens is more or less of a privacy threat than a quiet, stealthy long lens on the ground. They admit a long lens on the ground that emits no warning sounds. Then I ask them their stance on cameras and long lenses. They go away quietly ... so far.

 

[ReelHighMedia]

Why argue .. why be antagonistic as one here is prompting ?

I often get people ask me all sorts while flying. I am polite, I answer their questions but nicely remind them that I have to keep mind on the business of flying. I've even held the controller and display so they can see for themselves ... I have never had anyone create a problem yet. They have all received answers, and retreated wishing well in my flying. You would be amazed at how their attitude changes when they start to understand.

Personally I think we have a duty to be polite and inform those who do not understand. Only this way can we avoid such ridiculous media scandals such as the Hogwart incident and court cases etc. We are the flyers who can alter public conception of our hobby.
Trappy / Hogwart and idiots such as they - do a lot of damage to public image of all RC flying whatever model type. If we adopt a 'leave me alone' attitude - is it no wonder we end up with no flying in a park etc.

Packing up and leaving - in my view is a last resort only if the encounter risks turning bad. I would rather briing it into land ... and show them the setup ... literally a guided tour ....

Remember that one person if you gain positive encounter will speak to others ... we NEED to educate / change opinion about us.

My 2c's worth anyway.

Nigel

I agree. Recently I was looking for a quick spot to test a minor antenna tweak and I live too close to an airport to just take off from my house. I was driving up a road, looking for the closest spot, far enough away, with good line of sight for a while. The first place that looked good was a valley behind a gun shop up on a ridge. I pulled in to the back of their parking lot and started flying out over the valley. Once I was out to about 2500 feet, I heard a voice, "what's going on out here?". The gun store owner must have sent out his most intimidating looking employee to deal with me...about 7' tall, looked like a bodybuilder, shaved head, etc. I calming looked back and him and smiled, showed him the screen, and explained I was testing out a minor change I had made on my drone. I flew it back while showing him the screen, explaining things, his demeanor changed completely. It went from suspicion to "wow...that's so cool" and asked a lot of questions, obviously genuinely interested. I even offered to let him fly it, which he passed on. After about 15 minutes he realized how long he had been out there checking out the drone with almost childlike excitement, and said he needed to get back to work. I asked if it was OK to fly another battery there and he said something like "oh yeah, you're not hurting anything, come fly here anytime".

It felt much better to change someones opinion rather than piss them off more by arguing, or just leaving

 

[SmokeyWaterz]

The only problem interaction I have had was with my landlady, who lives about 2 blocks away.

While I was in my front yard, I was hovering my P4, experimenting with camera settings. My landlady and her daughter walked up. She insisted I was spying and told me that if I did not shut it down, she would evict me. I pointed out that I was hovering less than 10 feet off the ground, on my own front lawn, and that I was only capable of spying on myself. Again she threatened to evict me. I invited her to call the police, and start eviction proceedings as soon as she wanted. She stomped off, telling me she was going to tell her husband. An hour later, her husband came to my house, armed with curiosity and fascination.

End note: I went with my landlord to one of our hobby stores and helped him pick out a great little drone.

 

[aeronautic1]

Hi All,
I was flying my drone yesterday at a field where I normally fly and someone walked up to me and asked hat I was doing and thought I was spying. I tried to show them that I wasn't doing that but I landed it anyways and left. What is the best way to deal with people like that and what are the rules I live in Illinois in the USA.

I whip out my Airline Transport License and tell them to flock off.

 

[WV. Rootman]

I whip out my Airline Transport License and tell them to flock off.

No! when you fly, you are suppose to fly in uniform. lol

 

[Providian623]

Hi All,
I was flying my drone yesterday at a field where I normally fly and someone walked up to me and asked hat I was doing and thought I was spying. I tried to show them that I wasn't doing that but I landed it anyways and left. What is the best way to deal with people like that and what are the rules I live in Illinois in the USA.

No state law in Illinois forbidding drone flying. (I live in Illinois as well). There might be a local ordinance or something. Don't let people intimidate you. If they ask stupid questions then try to educate them in a polite way. However, if they are dickweeds then do what I do, just ignore them. When I get a tool interfering with my flying I just advise them to "Please Step Away at least 50 feet, for your safety". (from me, not the drone, LOL) .........

 

[Alan Russel]

I think wearing that safety vest you would stand out like the preferbable...my advice is dont draw attention to oneself.

 

[Jimmyjames]

I fly a P3 4K and I have not had any problems yet, but this is almost the same as when I used a metal detector in 1968. Mostly kids would surround and ask what was I doing (detectors were very rare back then).I usually told them I was with the police bomb squad and I was looking for mines. No problems, just fun.

 

[Mackie]

Hi All,
I was flying my drone yesterday at a field where I normally fly and someone walked up to me and asked hat I was doing and thought I was spying. I tried to show them that I wasn't doing that but I landed it anyways and left. What is the best way to deal with people like that and what are the rules I live in Illinois in the USA.

I carry with me laminated copies of current rules and regs to do with drones. Including laws on privacy. If approached by someone questioning me in a negative manner, I can hand them these to read. Then ask "now please tell me what I'm doing wrong?".
I do follow the rules as much as is reasonable and practical.
This is in Australia, where surprisingly there are NO laws regarding privacy in relation to UAV's.
But in saying that, I do respect people's privacy anyway.

Being right is one thing, dealing with unreasonable people is quite another, and sometimes pieces of paper won't mean diddly squat!

 

[idua]

Oddly enough, I hardly ever get approached while flying. My wife says it's it has something to do with how I look when I'm concentrating....
I don't understand what she means...
View attachment 81314

Hilarious

 

[GadgetGuy]

I avoid flying in public, and whenever I do so, I am as discrete as possible, and get in and get out with as little attention as I can, by flying at off times and from locations with minimal people around. Quick deployment (props already on, bird in hand, transmitter and iPad already on, and on a lanyard) and handcatching with a quick retreat work best. If someone approaches me, and asks if they can look over my shoulder, I politely state, "I would rather you didn't. No offense, but I really need to concentrate." Sometimes, they respond in a huff, but they usually back away, and leave me alone after that. As long as they can't see the drone, watching a guy holding a transmitter gets pretty boring very quickly.

 

[Donald Chovanec]

Why argue .. why be antagonistic as one here is prompting ?

I often get people ask me all sorts while flying. I am polite, I answer their questions but nicely remind them that I have to keep mind on the business of flying. I've even held the controller and display so they can see for themselves ... I have never had anyone create a problem yet. They have all received answers, and retreated wishing well in my flying. You would be amazed at how their attitude changes when they start to understand.

Personally I think we have a duty to be polite and inform those who do not understand. Only this way can we avoid such ridiculous media scandals such as the Hogwart incident and court cases etc. We are the flyers who can alter public conception of our hobby.
Trappy / Hogwart and idiots such as they - do a lot of damage to public image of all RC flying whatever model type. If we adopt a 'leave me alone' attitude - is it no wonder we end up with no flying in a park etc.

Packing up and leaving - in my view is a last resort only if the encounter risks turning bad. I would rather briing it into land ... and show them the setup ... literally a guided tour ....

Remember that one person if you gain positive encounter will speak to others ... we NEED to educate / change opinion about us.

My 2c's worth anyway.

Nigel

I agree with you completely! Let's make new future drone flyers not enemies.

 

[omegaman1965]

Hi All,
I was flying my drone yesterday at a field where I normally fly and someone walked up to me and asked hat I was doing and thought I was spying. I tried to show them that I wasn't doing that but I landed it anyways and left. What is the best way to deal with people like that and what are the rules I live in Illinois in the USA.

Perception is reality as the old saying goes. People watch tv and movies and think these things are seeing in 3D INFRARED Ultraviolet and into the future. If most people could see the perspective that a drone see's in they would not think we are spying. More and more people are getting to see these in action and see more videos online. So this problem will lessen. What does need to be addressed is having a policy like Pilots have in the cockpit. I think its called a "sterol cockpit" Once the preflight starts all conversations about anything unrelated to the task of flying stops. I learned the hard way last summer when I had just taken my inspire1 with a brand new Raw camera up and was distracted by an overly excited bystander. Sparing you the gory details, the ship was a total loss because I was trying to be the nice drone pilot explaining what I was doing. I will not talk again except in the briefest of terms until I have landed in the future. Just my two cent.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Perception is reality as the old saying goes. People watch tv and movies and think these things are seeing in 3D INFRARED Ultraviolet and into the future. If most people could see the perspective that a drone see's in they would not think we are spying. More and more people are getting to see these in action and see more videos online. So this problem will lessen. What does need to be addressed is having a policy like Pilots have in the cockpit. I think its called a "sterol cockpit" Once the preflight starts all conversations about anything unrelated to the task of flying stops. I learned the hard way last summer when I had just taken my inspire1 with a brand new Raw camera up and was distracted by an overly excited bystander. Sparing you the gory details, the ship was a total loss because I was trying to be the nice drone pilot explaining what I was doing. I will not talk again except in the briefest of terms until I have landed in the future. Just my two cent.

Exactly my point! Any interruption from a bystander is a potential distraction from a task that requires 100% of your attention! Best discouraged immediately.

As to the inability of the aircraft to be used for spying, any time I have shared my videos, the high image quality only supports their suspicions. Showing them the video does nothing to allay their concerns! It clearly shows the potential for such abuse, even if the video being shown is obviously not being used for such a purpose! Have you seen the P4P image quality? Best to let sleeping dogs lie, rather than giving them teeth by showing them the video!

 

[Chuck1906]

Hi All,
I was flying my drone yesterday at a field where I normally fly and someone walked up to me and asked hat I was doing and thought I was spying. I tried to show them that I wasn't doing that but I landed it anyways and left. What is the best way to deal with people like that and what are the rules I live in Illinois in the USA.

I had a similar thing happen to me. I was flying one evening in a vacant parking lot except for a couple tractor trailers and the drivers were outside talking. I was flying and working on various maneuvers. So after a while I noticed they rolled over to where I was and the passenger began to ask me questions about the drone. Not to totally ignore him, I answered his question but clearly told him I had to pay attention to what I was doing and couldn't sit there and have a conversation with him. So then he proceeds to ask me if it had a camera on it. I was like yup! Tell me why this dude starts flipping out accusing me of spying on him! Thankfully I was doing a live broadcast on Periscope and I captured the whole ordeal and my viewers were able to watch too. This guy gets out of the truck and walks over to me and is in my face and continues to accuse me of spying! Normally I would have flipped out on that dude but in this day and age, people are crazy and I don't know if he was packing the heat so I just kept calm. Meanwhile I flew close enough that I got shots of him and I got shots of the license plate of the truck he was in too! LOL! He eventually left and everything was all good. I really hate dealing with people while I am flying. I am about to order a custom safety vest that says FAA Licensed Pilot - DO NOT DISTURB but you know what's going to happen, somebody will still come up and want to talk to me! Happens all the time Smh!

 

[macoman]

I am about to order a custom safety vest that says FAA Licensed Pilot - DO NOT DISTURB but you know what's going to happen, somebody will still come up and want to talk to me! Happens all the time Smh!

I don't like people approaching to me as well when I am flying. I ordered one of the vest and yes, they may not work at all but at least it identified you and what you doing in case one of these crazy people called the police.

 

[pauxier]

My vest says "UAV DRONE PILOT Do not disturb" as opposed to stand clear. The drone is usually not very close unless taking off or landing. I also prefer to fly away from folks as well. Sometimes I need to do some settings testing and find myself in the park.

 

[macoman]

My vest says "UAV DRONE PILOT Do not disturb" as opposed to stand clear. The drone is usually not very close unless taking off or landing. I also prefer to fly away from folks as well. Sometimes I need to do some settings testing and find myself in the park.

The more remote the area is and away from people, the flight experience is much better. You concentrate better, calculate easily the distance and altitude in your plan for flying. Abandoned sites like buildings or other things seem to be the golden treasure for drone pilots. I saw in YouTube a drone pilot that discovered an abandoned nuclear power plant in the state of Georgia. It was an amazing footage in how big these things are.