Has this happened to anyone else?
My husband and I are cruising on the coast of Maine, and I have enjoyed sending my Phantom up on several occasions to photograph the harbors and scenery. Each time. I have attracted curiosity and enthusiasm, and a fair amount of envy, from passerby who want to know all about my toy.
Yesterday, in Northeast Harbor on Mt. Desert Island, I was flying over the harbor on a beautiful evening. The normal crowd gathered, lots of questions, enthusiasm, normal stuff. Then, as I was bringing it down, with some folks looking over my shoulder trying to see the images live on my iPhone (that was fine, they were all happy and respectful), I became aware of some woman saying stuff like "I RESENT THAT. WHAT ARE YOU TAKING PICTURES OF? HOW DO I KNOW IF YOU'RE TAKING PICTURES OF ME? YOU CAN'T DO THAT." And on and on and on and on. Totally in my face.
I'm trying to get the Phantom down. The battery is getting low, the warning is squawking at me, there are people around and I'm trying to hover to hand-catch the thing (the nice folks backed off as I brought it down), and this woman is completely IN MY FACE. I try to say something like "I'm just taking pictures of the harbor." "It's really no different from anyone with a regular camera, or a cell phone camera, or a video camera." "I'm happy to show you the pictures." etc. She won't back off.
I finally get the copter down in my hands and turned off. She's still all over me, in my face. I get everything shut down and she still won't let up. I'm a pretty low key person and I always tend to diffuse situations if I can. I did my best: polite, friendly, open. I'm thankful my husband wasn't with me because he would not have kept his cool. He'd have ramped it up and probably called 9-1-1. Eventually I was able to back away from her, mumbling my same lines about "just taking pictures of a pretty evening" and "sorry if I offended you", and eventually I got separation, gathered my stuff and got back to my dinghy.
I should add that I try not to fly when there are a lot of people around, but there's always someone, especially in these coastal working harbors.
I was pretty shaken by this. I got no sleep last night as the scene replayed over and over in my head. I told my husband about it and he's on the warpath (figuratively speaking).
So what do you guys think? Anyone else had to deal with this anywhere?