Flying Etiquette - Man Attacks my Drone with a Fishing Rod after Boat Grounding

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I own/fly a drone myself... wouldn't be here if I didn't. If the shoe was on the other foot, I myself would have been angry if someone was hanging around me and my friends/family just recording us. That would be like you and your family walking down the street and some stranger was just following you with a camera at close range just taping you the whole time. You're in the public and they have every right to video you but it's very rude and ignorant.

My 2 cents but this is how I would feel.
 
To give you some perspective (pardon the pun) the P3P focal length is not huge. It is not a long focal length. Its a 35mm full frame equivalent of 20mm, a short focal length any photigrapher would consider wide angle. Objects appear significantly further away than a natural unaided perspective as seen with the eye (50mm 35mm equivalent). From your footage you were way closer than most people would consider reasonable, including those whe are comfortable with drones. For your chosen style of filming you may like to consider an inspire with x5 and 12 to 42mm pankake zoom. You will probably still annoy people however you might be far enough away from the action to avoid being taken out of the sky by someone who takes offence.
 
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I have several boats, if I was behind the wheel, a phantom wouldn't affect me at any distance.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
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I think you got too close for too long after the boat was grounded. I don't think you broke any privacy laws, but it was definitely rude and I don't blame the boat passengers for being upset or for thinking you were an butt.

It would be like going to the park and standing 5 feet away from a picnic table and staring at or taking pictures of a family of strangers enjoying a picnic lunch. It may not be an invasion of privacy because they are in a public place - but it could also be considered stalking. (And the same is true about your flight.)

I don't think the guy with the fishing rod did anything wrong whatsoever! I assume it's legal to fish there and he had all necessary licenses and permits. If your drone was close enough that you were worried it could be hit by a lure cast from the boat - you were too frigging close. If he had thrown rocks at you - or shot at you with a gun, sure - he would have been an butthole deserving prosecution. But he was a fisherman, in a fishing boat, and he was just fishing.

He was as at least as much "in the right" as you were!
 
not even close, I was waiting at the 4:30 mark for you to get "close" you were no closer then another boat would be docked up, so those guys were total butts.

it was an awesome thing to film and they were wrong not you
 
I had the most incredible encounter with a boater a little while back. I went out to film the sunrise from my Drone one Beautiful Morning. I was a little late and the light/weather wasn't that good, so I fly around a little more and I saw this boat. I descended and followed the boat from a close distance. The closest I got to the boat while it was moving was, I would estimate about 34-40ft. Lo and behold, the boat crashes into the shallows, while I'm filming it. I descend even further and get to about 10-15ft away from the boat.

I know that the people on the boat were upset, but I can't figure out for the life of me why? As you pilot a boat on a public waterway in public, You should not expect privacy. You're out in public!!!

I cut out some of the footage for time reasons, but, take a look at the vid. Did I do something wrong? Was I following poor flying etiquette. Do you think I got too close to them?

Having read your youtube description, I just have to ask, are you serious? Are you really feeling like you were victimized by the people in that boat?

Had you stayed up a 150' or so, they never would have known you were there, and you would have had some funny footage of inexperienced dude wrecking an expensive and most likely rented boat.

But you had to get right down in their faces; so close that they were trying to take you out with a fishing pole. You made yourself look like an butt. And by posting that crap on youtube, you made yourself look like an butt x2. Then, by posting it here, you look like an butt x3.
 
Just curious. In your state how close are you allowed to fly to people not involved in the filming. In Australia what you did is illegal just for safety reasons. Flying 10 to 15 feet from someone without there permission is just dumb.
 
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If I'd reversed my car into a post in a car park the last thing I'd want is for a passer by to stop and poke me in the ribs and tell me I should of seen it then keep on poking me and going on about it, I know exactly how those guys more so the captain of the boat felt
 
I think the YouTube description says a lot. "The thought of returning and tormenting them further weighed heavily on my mind, but in the end, I had better things to do than play around with Jerks. Enjoy!!!"

The fact that it was even a consideration speaks to mindset. And we wonder how our hobby gets a bad name. Like they say, takes only one to spoil it for others. I think we found one. As to the jerks, it's like "Pot, meet kettle"
 
To give you some perspective (pardon the pun) the P3P focal length is not huge. It is not a long focal length. Its a 35mm full frame equivalent of 20mm, a short focal length any photigrapher would consider wide angle. Objects appear significantly further away than a natural unaided perspective as seen with the eye (50mm 35mm equivalent). From your footage you were way closer than most people would consider reasonable, including those whe are comfortable with drones. For your chosen style of filming you may like to consider an inspire with x5 and 12 to 42mm pankake zoom. You will probably still annoy people however you might be far enough away from the action to avoid being taken out of the sky by someone who takes offence.


Thanks for your opinion. I like to film cruise ships and other Marine traffic. This was one of my first flights over Biscayne Bay. We had the Drone like a week before this incident. As stated I was angling for a complete sunrise from altitude. I was late and conditions were good for it. So I looked for another subject to film. I have done some reading on the Camera. The Camera itself has no Zoom but it has auto-focus. I am so hesitant to put this figure down on paper because I haven't found the exact quotable figure, but There is absolutely no way, the camera has an effective focal length of 50mm. After having taken DSLR picture for 15 years and owning 4 variable zoom Lenses. The effective focal length is a lot closer to 150-200mm. You can't frame a shot with a 1100ft cruise ship, 30 story buildings and others boats several miles, have it all in frame and all objects are in-focus with a 50mm equiv. Simple optically impossible.

When, I fly now, especially around Cruise Ships, I plan the route in advance. The video in question is all happenstance. I perfectly understand some posters objection to the perceived distance away from the grounded boat. I just don't feel the same way. If the Bird was dangerously close, Attacker would have just grabbed it or thrown an object at it. He didn't because it wasn't that close. A previous poster reminded me of the Bee-Buzzing noise, which I love. But which highlighted my presence, to them.

Not to be argumentative, but, I (The Pilot) know that I was in the right. While a situation like that has never arisen again. I'm not interested in the people. I'm interested in the awesome machines (Cruise Ships). Got one coming out with the Goodyear Blimp from that same spot.

Finally, In this world, the only thing that I can control is myself. The occupants of the boat were so concerned with the Drone, they didn't pay attention to where the were going. having looked at every frame I can tell when they became aware of it. It's also apparent they were unhappy with it's mere presence. Hence the crash. As previously stated, I live close to there and am constantly out there. Fishing, relaxing, Flying the Drone. I KNEW they were going to crash when the made their turn at the speed they were going. I suppose that's my fault too. Just kidding.

Some of the posters here have used words like voyeuristic. I find that term ill-suited for this situation. And I suppose all the righteous posters here turn their heads away from a Train-Wreck.
 
I think you got too close for too long after the boat was grounded. I don't think you broke any privacy laws, but it was definitely rude and I don't blame the boat passengers for being upset or for thinking you were an ***.

It would be like going to the park and standing 5 feet away from a picnic table and staring at or taking pictures of a family of strangers enjoying a picnic lunch. It may not be an invasion of privacy because they are in a public place - but it could also be considered stalking. (And the same is true about your flight.)

I don't think the guy with the fishing rod did anything wrong whatsoever! I assume it's legal to fish there and he had all necessary licenses and permits. If your drone was close enough that you were worried it could be hit by a lure cast from the boat - you were too frigging close. If he had thrown rocks at you - or shot at you with a gun, sure - he would have been an butthole deserving prosecution. But he was a fisherman, in a fishing boat, and he was just fishing.

He was as at least as much "in the right" as you were!

Your opinion is valid, but your facts are laughably wrong. Stalking!, really? The word stalking has a legal and dictionary definition. Neither of which are even close to applicability here.
 
Thanks for your opinion. I like to film cruise ships and other Marine traffic. This was one of my first flights over Biscayne Bay. We had the Drone like a week before this incident. As stated I was angling for a complete sunrise from altitude. I was late and conditions were good for it. So I looked for another subject to film. I have done some reading on the Camera. The Camera itself has no Zoom but it has auto-focus. I am so hesitant to put this figure down on paper because I haven't found the exact quotable figure, but There is absolutely no way, the camera has an effective focal length of 50mm. After having taken DSLR picture for 15 years and owning 4 variable zoom Lenses. The effective focal length is a lot closer to 150-200mm. You can't frame a shot with a 1100ft cruise ship, 30 story buildings and others boats several miles, have it all in frame and all objects are in-focus with a 50mm equiv. Simple optically impossible.

When, I fly now, especially around Cruise Ships, I plan the route in advance. The video in question is all happenstance. I perfectly understand some posters objection to the perceived distance away from the grounded boat. I just don't feel the same way. If the Bird was dangerously close, Attacker would have just grabbed it or thrown an object at it. He didn't because it wasn't that close. A previous poster reminded me of the Bee-Buzzing noise, which I love. But which highlighted my presence, to them.

Not to be argumentative, but, I (The Pilot) know that I was in the right. While a situation like that has never arisen again. I'm not interested in the people. I'm interested in the awesome machines (Cruise Ships). Got one coming out with the Goodyear Blimp from that same spot.

Finally, In this world, the only thing that I can control is myself. The occupants of the boat were so concerned with the Drone, they didn't pay attention to where the were going. having looked at every frame I can tell when they became aware of it. It's also apparent they were unhappy with it's mere presence. Hence the crash. As previously stated, I live close to there and am constantly out there. Fishing, relaxing, Flying the Drone. I KNEW they were going to crash when the made their turn at the speed they were going. I suppose that's my fault too. Just kidding.

Some of the posters here have used words like voyeuristic. I find that term ill-suited for this situation. And I suppose all the righteous posters here turn their heads away from a Train-Wreck.
The Camera itself has no Zoom but it has auto-focus. I am so hesitant to put this figure down on paper because I haven't found the exact quotable figure, but There is absolutely no way, the camera has an effective focal length of 50mm. After having taken DSLR picture for 15 years and owning 4 variable zoom Lenses. The effective focal length is a lot closer to 150-200mm. You can't frame a shot with a 1100ft cruise ship, 30 story buildings and others boats several miles, have it all in frame and all objects are in-focus with a 50mm equiv. Simple optically impossible.

None of this makes any sense to me. As far as I know all of these cameras are fixed focus lenses. They are wide angle lenses. The 50mm focal length many talk about is comparing a 35 mm camera and which lens relates to what the human eye will see or close to it. That's why, on a 35 mm camera, a 50 mm is considered a NORMAL lens. That same lens on a larger format camera will be more wide angle and smaller format, have a telephoto effect compared to a normal lens. .
 
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Nothing wrong with capturing a sunrise or a boat gently sailing up a river, put it all through an editing suite and I'm sure you'll have yourself a nice video clip, but to hang around and keep filming like some sort of news crew, even avoiding their attempts to down your aircraft, they were clearly p****d at running aground and by hanging around you weren't making their situation any better, did you do anything illegal; probably not but flying etiquette you did not show IMO
 
not even close, I was waiting at the 4:30 mark for you to get "close" you were no closer then another boat would be docked up, so those guys were total douche's.

it was an awesome thing to film and they were wrong not you

I appreciate your opinion. If you apply the logic some of the posters here are using the boaters control a sphere of privacy that is miles big and Nothing can be filmed without the blessings of the subject. I realize most of them fly over corn fields and filming the barn and 'bessie' over and over again. I'm after something a little more scenic. I;m usually not concerned with the people. They became concerned with me (The Drone).

Just so poster know my position. I was right. I maintained a safe distance, I never flew in there path, I never directly flew overhead at less then 200-300ft, as they moved under. Right out of the box, I figured that this thing has the potential to injure people and that I have to fly in such a way as not endanger unsuspecting people. I have always tried to do that.

:) i.e. Whatever I feel is the way it is. If I don't like something it's wrong, regardless.

The world simply doesn't work that way.
 
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A rude person doesn't recognize himself as rude even when it's pointed out to him. That is one of the characteristics of being rude. Instead, he continues to defend his actions, even though the opinions of the majority of people around him are in agreement that his actions were rude.
 
The Camera itself has no Zoom but it has auto-focus. I am so hesitant to put this figure down on paper because I haven't found the exact quotable figure, but There is absolutely no way, the camera has an effective focal length of 50mm. After having taken DSLR picture for 15 years and owning 4 variable zoom Lenses. The effective focal length is a lot closer to 150-200mm. You can't frame a shot with a 1100ft cruise ship, 30 story buildings and others boats several miles, have it all in frame and all objects are in-focus with a 50mm equiv. Simple optically impossible.

None of this makes any sense to me. As far as I know all of these cameras are fixed focus lenses. They are wide angle lenses. The 50mm focal length many talk about is comparing a 35 mm camera and which lens relates to what the human eye will see or close to it. That's why, on a 35 mm camera, a 50 mm is considered a NORMAL lens. That same lens on a larger format camera will be more wide angle and smaller format, have a telephoto effect compared to a normal lens. .

Use your 35mm camera as an example. If you're using a 35mm lens and you take a picture of a subject in the middle of the frame. If you're close enough. you can take a picture with the subject clearly in focus. The objects behind are out of focus. Phantom cam is very wide angled. Phantom uses computer to continually maintain focus. You've peeked my interest. I'm going to research focal length. I'll bet it's a lot closer to 150 than 50. Meaning the shot looks like I'm right next too, but I'm actually a good (Safe distance) away.

After a quick perusal I think you are closer to being right than me. I'm thinking of a different measurement/spec that measures how close things appear in relation to the actual distance. I'll investigate some more.to see if I can find it.



Thanks for your opinion.
 
Use your 35mm camera as an example. If you're using a 35mm lens and you take a picture of a subject in the middle of the frame. If you're close enough. you can take a picture with the subject clearly in focus. The objects behind are out of focus. Phantom cam is very wide angled. Phantom uses computer to continually maintain focus. You've peeked my interest. I'm going to research focal length. I'll bet it's a lot closer to 150 than 50. Meaning the shot looks like I'm right next too, but I'm actually a good (Safe distance) away.

After a quick perusal I think you are closer to being right than me. I'm thinking of a different measurement/spec that measures how close things appear in relation to the actual distance. I'll investigate some more.to see if I can find it.



Thanks for your opinion.
A 35 mm lens on a 35mm camera is a moderate wide angle lens.
specs for P4
94° Wide-Angle Lens
The camera features a 94° angle-of-view lens, which is a narrower angle than a fisheye for less distortion while still being wide enough to capture establishing shots. The lens features an f/2.8 aperture and is comprised of 9 elements, including an aspherical element
 
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