Drone Shot Out of the Sky- Conroe Texas

[Tswilliam]

I am a certified 107 guy doing a real estate shoot out in a rural area. I was just about done when I flew backwards to get a wide angle shot about 100 feet up. The lot sizes are about 1 acre. I crossed over the other guys backyard at the back of his property about 150 from his house. He shot it down with a silenced 22 rifle. I am weighing my options but I understand that it is a federal offense for him to shoot my drone. He knocked it off the sky but very little damage other than an ESC error which I take to mean I have to replace the main board.?

What are my options about having him pay for repairs?

 

[GMack]

Get a quote on the repairs and maybe try small claims court and let the judge decide? Might try claiming you lost other jobs due to repair downtime too ad add it to the claim.

I have yet to see where anyone has been prosecuted for shooting down a drone though with their sundry excuses as to why. FAA seems to run from them, and police chalk it up to a civil matter.

Good luck.

 

[Richard R]

Go for small claims. Have all your info on repair costs as well as any evidence you can provide that he was the one together. You can only recover actual costs, not 'loss of revenue", but that should put a burr under your neighbor. Ideally, he won't show up, you get the judgement and then can file a lien against his house! As a community, we need to start putting some teeth in protecting our rights and property. And I would report it to the FAA too. Let local LEO know what happened, that your bird is a fully registered aircraft and that you want to file a destruction of private property complaint against your neighbor.

 

[Stew-2]

I'm a little surprised that the FAA isn't more on top of shooting drones out of the sky. Even if they don't care, if they don't get on top of it it will become more common as more people get them, and that seems real risky to manned aircraft or other people and structures in the bullets trajectory.

 

[tech_drone]

At least no one was hurt. Wish you the best on this one, let us know what happens.

 

[rich_schultz]

Hope you called the police and filed a claim. If you have the round keep it as evidence if needed. If the drone was in record during that should help. Illegal to discharge a firearm in most of Montgomery county unless your life is at risk


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[skyacramer]

You can't shoot a gun at anything unless it's yours with out getting in trouble! You can't just shoot a bird out of the air when every you want, in some cases you can't even shoot at the ground with out getting in trouble!


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[redbusdriver]

Well, it is Texas. Don't they have a "castle law" there? (not that it would apply, but that is the mindset)

I would get the local law involved and call the local FAA as well. You may or may not get the guy to pay up but you certainly will get him in hot water. The local law should take a dim view of shooting up into the air in a populated area. Even a .22 can go quite far and kill someone when it comes down.

Call the local TV station, they may run a story about the legal use of drones which would be a positive for drones in general and your business.