Odd No Fly Zone incident with Police

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Hello all. I recently had an odd incident with my drone involving the Police and thought it was interesting.

There is a huge park near me which has soccer fields, baseball fields, tennis courts, etc. A really big place and deserted during the day, perfect for drone practice. It is inside the city limits, and about a half mile outside the 5 mile NFZ of a big airport. It is also on the edge of a hospital 3 mile NFZ.

I pulled my car into the parking lot and got out and proceeded to get my Phantom out, as a couple city police cars meandered through. I walked onto the edge of a big soccer field and put the bird on the ground and was fooling around with DJI Go.

Then suddenly 3 cop cars came careening in from 3 directions and these guys get out and walk ‘briskly’ toward me calling out that “You are the one we are looking for.” I stopped what I was doing and asked what they might be interested in.

They asked if I had been flying, and I said ’No, you guys were here a minute ago and saw me getting out of the car.’ They acted like that was believable. I asked why their interest and they said the airport radar, 5 and a half or maybe 6 miles away had reported a drone in the area, at 800 feet, and if that was me, I had violated the 400 foot ceiling.

I convinced them it was not me, secretly wondering if I had my transponder on by mistake. J They reminded me that I was NEAR a no fly zone and started educating me,,,blah blah blah. I chose to keep my big mouth shut, and listened.

OK let’s look closer. 800 feet on a 16 ounce drone heh? Then how do they deal with the thousands of these geese, storks, herons and egrets here in FloriDuh?

Second. 800 feet off the ground when our drones do not have transponders to tell them? Hmmm

Third, math. Let’s just be generous and say the tower is 100 feet up. I am 6 miles away. And 800 feet up. For a right triangle opposite over adjacent tangent gives us an angle of 1.3 degrees. For all practical purposes this is horizontal.. I smell bullpoopie.

They told me they were just going to ask me not to fly there, just to simplify things for everyone. I went home.
 
More misinformed, untrained and over reaction to subject fueled by big media who have frighted the public as a way to raise ratings.

You probably did the right thing by not arguing with them but it is frustrating anyone with an RC aircraft of any kind
is now a criminal who is spying or endangering the population.
 
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There's something else going on, something in the area that the black boots do not want surveilled.

You should have as many NFZ apps as possible and politely share the data with the black boots. Educate the ignorant.
 

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