How do people react to your Phantom?

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This morning, I logged about a half hour of flight time at a park. There were a few joggers, but it was a very large grass area where I was flying. None of the joggers said anything, but a few stopped and watched it for a minute. Then a little boy (I would say maybe five years old) came up and asked if he could fly it.
 
When i fly mostly around Southern California i get many many people, animals, and cops who simply gather around just so they can see it fly. They really enjoy take offs and landings but you have to be really careful as small children love to run up to them as they are landing.

I have had people ask me to come to the park at a certain time so i can exercise their dogs for them lol.

Beverly Hills SWAT loved my setup so much they had me email them specs and two of them have since taken up the hobby.

I never not one time have had any negative experiences and i have traveled to Colorado, Texas, and Washington with them.
 
GeneralKitFisto said:
This morning, I logged about a half hour of flight time at a park. There were a few joggers, but it was a very large grass area where I was flying. None of the joggers said anything, but a few stopped and watched it for a minute. Then a little boy (I would say maybe five years old) came up and asked if he could fly it.
Glad ya had a great flight this time Youngblood ! :D
That's normally the reaction I get and have never had any negative reactions from folks here . ;)
 
Most stop to watch, or watch as they walk past. Some come up to talk, and I show them the FPV screen and chat to them about it.
Closest I've had to a bad experience was a guy who just kept saying over and over that he doesn't trust these things, people spying on him and all that.
Unfortunately he was also 75% blind, and followed the sound to find me, and had to peer REALLY close to the screen to see that any "spying" would be very unsuccessful with this setup, as the video feed is very low quality, and I wouldn't be able to identify my own kids with it. And I also pointed out that the wide angle on the lens means that even to be able to get any useful information from the onboard video which is higher resolution, I'd still have to be flying just about within reach of him. So he really doesn't need to worry about these ones. If it was spying on him, he'd well and truly know it was there.
I think he still suspects that there are government ones with ultra powerful zoom lenses following him everywhere he goes from way up out of hearing range, but he was still very nice about it all, and definitely quite relieved to see how low resolution these are (I didn't point out to him that there are people with Lighbridge systems etc ;) )
 
Ezookiel said:
...I show them the FPV screen and chat to them about it.

+1
It's great to share the monitor. People are always amazed by the goggles, too.
 
Ditto on the kids and dogs - they both love to chase drones! My last experience was a gentleman walking across the field where I was flying. Without breaking stride he said, "Don't land that thing on the White House Lawn!" - we both had a chuckle since I fly in St. Pete Beach, Florida!
 
Monte55 said:
Whenever I show up....they run screaming and pissing their pants

Sorry Monte, but it's not the drone. :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
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Touche' ;)
 
eckoner said:
When i fly mostly around Southern California i get many many people, animals, and cops who simply gather around just so they can see it fly. They really enjoy take offs and landings but you have to be really careful as small children love to run up to them as they are landing.

I have had people ask me to come to the park at a certain time so i can exercise their dogs for them lol.

Beverly Hills SWAT loved my setup so much they had me email them specs and two of them have since taken up the hobby.

I never not one time have had any negative experiences and i have traveled to Colorado, Texas, and Washington with them.

+1 - all positive. Took it to La Jolla Cove yesterday and had so many questions and comments it made it tough to fly. Had one woman who had to be pushing 80 who came up to me and asked "Is that your $2,000 toy?" I told her the old saying that the difference between a man and a boy is the price of his toys! She was a dear and really thought it was neat.
 
Monte55 said:
Whenever I show up....they run screaming and pissing their pants

That's because you frequently show up unclothed?
 
sdtrojan said:
eckoner said:
When i fly mostly around Southern California i get many many people, animals, and cops who simply gather around just so they can see it fly. They really enjoy take offs and landings but you have to be really careful as small children love to run up to them as they are landing.

I have had people ask me to come to the park at a certain time so i can exercise their dogs for them lol.

Beverly Hills SWAT loved my setup so much they had me email them specs and two of them have since taken up the hobby.

I never not one time have had any negative experiences and i have traveled to Colorado, Texas, and Washington with them.

+1 - all positive. Took it to La Jolla Cove yesterday and had so many questions and comments it made it tough to fly. Had one woman who had to be pushing 80 who came up to me and asked "Is that your $2,000 toy?" I told her the old saying that the difference between a man and a boy is the price of his toys! She was a dear and really thought it was neat.

Totally unrelated to flying, but I love La Jolla. Went there for Thanksgiving in last year with the family.
 
all positive for me so far. get a lot of people looking up and waving at it. I was out the other day and a 7 yr old and his dad came up and watched me fly through 3 batteries. I let him touch the sticks (supervised) with the bird 50 feet in front of us about 10 feet off the ground so he could see it react. Prior to that I was out in a park down the street from my house, and 10 minutes into my flight another phantom showed up from somewhere in the neighborhood to scope out who else had one :) It's been a real blast... best $$'s I've spent in a long time (not including my first one that flew away, lol).
 
Around Ireland, people are always curious. Sometimes it's a bit annoying, over the weekend I was flying filming the coast and was on my last battery and few people approached me and started asking me questions, the most common question is "how much does that machine cost" . Its distracting and the sunset I was looking for was lost . But these things are to be expected .
 
Polite Curiosity. Once I show them how loud they are privacy concerns seem to fade away. Most are fascinated by the FPV view on the iPad.
 
I have a little multi that I sometimes fly into my yard, just my yard...when neighbours see it, you can hear them close their shutters! :D
 
Another great experience with people today.
A lovely older couple came up to chat, and commented on how perfectly in control of it I seem to be (If they only knew the truth :() and thankfully this time - unlike so many others who've come up as my last battery was dying - they came up as I was just starting up a fresh battery, so I still had plenty of battery to do a demo for them, where they could watch the FPV screen as it counted off the distance away from me, as I took it across to the buildings on the other side of the lake (400m), and show them how it puts a diamond on the screen to show where I am in relation to the view it's feeding etc. When I brought it back, I gave them a rough run through of the controls, and then talked about prices, mods, licences, etc. They were still there chatting when that battery - my last for the day - got down to 25% and I had to pack it up, so they got to hold the Phantom and feel how much it weighs, see how the gimbal works, and even see how neatly it all packs up into the Go Professional case. They were very impressed (especially when I brought it right up to myself, and just reached out and took it from the air by hand). They were totally polite, and a lovely couple to chat with. These are the only experiences I've had so far. All good, and one semi-neutral one, and no bad ones yet.
Even for those who've had bad experiences, these good experiences seem to outweigh the bad for the majority of us, so it's best to dwell on those and remember those, and let the experiences with the cranky sods you meet, just fade into history.
 

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