On Sunday the federal fire fighters were able to put out a small wild fire that had broken out on Corps of Engineers Property that surrounds a lake not far from my home. I could see the smoke coming up through the pine trees and thankfully the wind was blowing away from where most folks live. There were no helicopters or any type of aircraft involved in this fire fighting operation.
I drove over and found the rallying point for all the equipment, which they were in the process of loading up so they could leave. I began talking to a woman fire fighter as she seemed to be the one in charge and I told her I was wanting to put my drone up to get a birds eye view of the burnt property. She was nice and of course gave me the ole thing about not flying over federal property, about flying with helicopters and planes, all of which I agreed with and told her that I would not fly if they were present, but she did agree with me that drone such as mine and I showed her, would be far less expensive to put in the air instead of a helicopter for observation purposes. She was glad to see that I held a FAA License, not that it would make any difference in flying over fed property.
Basically, I almost got into debating with her that the property we were standing on, was in actuality, state property and that the federal government owns no property, they manage it, supposedly, for the general public and citizens of the United States. I am a firm believer in States Rights if you can not tell from this writing.
Anyway, I could not have flown, I had forgot to bring a set of props with me, but if I really wanted to, could have taken off from private property and very easily flown over the rallying point and burned out area after going home and grabbing a set of props.
All in all, I hopefully left the young lady with a Positive Outlook about Drone Pilots, which I am sure will be passed along to her higher ups.
I drove over and found the rallying point for all the equipment, which they were in the process of loading up so they could leave. I began talking to a woman fire fighter as she seemed to be the one in charge and I told her I was wanting to put my drone up to get a birds eye view of the burnt property. She was nice and of course gave me the ole thing about not flying over federal property, about flying with helicopters and planes, all of which I agreed with and told her that I would not fly if they were present, but she did agree with me that drone such as mine and I showed her, would be far less expensive to put in the air instead of a helicopter for observation purposes. She was glad to see that I held a FAA License, not that it would make any difference in flying over fed property.
Basically, I almost got into debating with her that the property we were standing on, was in actuality, state property and that the federal government owns no property, they manage it, supposedly, for the general public and citizens of the United States. I am a firm believer in States Rights if you can not tell from this writing.
Anyway, I could not have flown, I had forgot to bring a set of props with me, but if I really wanted to, could have taken off from private property and very easily flown over the rallying point and burned out area after going home and grabbing a set of props.
All in all, I hopefully left the young lady with a Positive Outlook about Drone Pilots, which I am sure will be passed along to her higher ups.