Busting the GoPro Drone Cowboys

Sol Rosenburg said:
Texas passed a law saying you can't photograph private property from the above airspace without permission. As far as I know its not been court challenged yet. Its not an outright ban on drone photo flying but it sort of negates it legally.
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There are an awful lot of "drone pilots" who do zero photography.
 
I believe one of the problems is that we are thinking of this stuff from a pilots point of view. When we say things like, "he's 2 miles from an airport 3 degrees off of the departure path, what is he thinking" he's not! I'm not saying he's an idiot, I'm saying he probably has no idea of how close that is or even where the departure path is. The problem with all of this is that the RC thing has gone from a hobbyist activity to one that anybody with a few hundred bucks can get into. The guys flying down at their local RC airport are not the problem, it's the teenager who just spent his birthday money buying a quad copter on the cheap and wants to get cool pictures of the neighbor girls down the street. We have to stop thinking that these people have even the slightest understanding of our world. To us, flying one of these things at 1200 ft 2 miles from an airport seems insane, but go to any public place and ask 100 people how high a The airplanes are 1 mile out from the nearest airport and you will see that people have no idea. The FAA should be educating the people that are both buying and selling these things. I think making people aware of the dangers is the first step to mitigating the risks involed
 
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I think eventually it'll end up much like the local ordinance versus state/federal law dilemma. The fed only cares about their regs and then states like NM I think it was that banned statewide seaplane landings. For the law industry it will be a developing area. You have your ground level photography from publicly assessable areas, tabloid photogs that use a 10 foot monopod to get over a privacy fence or use a drone at 20'. Who owns what? Do you own everything over your own property up to 400' then its the fed or is anything over 1" belonging to the faa? Their stance is saying well if you do anything over 1" and get paid for it no matter where it is its illegal. In the final determination of regulations the privacy and property rights will play as much a part as the safety aspect.
 
tomokc said:
Guys, I need a little help with rules & regs governing these GoPro-laden toys.

I just saw a FB post and YouTube video from a guy operating his GoPro dronemobile. The caption of his still image said "_____ (city name) from the Drone this morning. 1200 feet up." In the upper right corner was his email address which was flagrant and along the lines of hiremydronecamera@____.com.

Foreflight pegs the spot three nm from the center of the nearby airport about 30 degrees off extended runway centerline. This guy's gonna kill someone, so I want to throw every book at him that I can before that happens.

Can you guys help me identify applicable FARs (even though I suspect they don't apply to non-licensed aircraft operators), federal regulations, and anything in the state of Michigan?

I'd be most appreciative. I understand that FAA is way behind the power curve on drones, but guys like this need to be made an example of as a reminder that rules & regs are in place.
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Great, so now I gotta be looking for drones when I'm on final. This stuff is starting to scare me a little. It's crazy enough that lasers seem to keep popping up: and it can only be from the media reports (otherwise, why would so many people get the idea to buy a big laser and point it at an airplane). How long until the weekly news report of the idiot, who clearly bought their drone to merge with the airplanes in the local pattern, claims they had no idea that an airplane was right there?
 
falconvalley said:
Great, so now I gotta be looking for drones when I'm on final. This stuff is starting to scare me a little. It's crazy enough that lasers seem to keep popping up: and it can only be from the media reports (otherwise, why would so many people get the idea to buy a big laser and point it at an airplane). How long until the weekly news report of the idiot, who clearly bought their drone to merge with the airplanes in the local pattern, claims they had no idea that an airplane was right there?
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Scared that drones are going to show up flown by guys purposefully attempting to take out aircraft?

I'm amazed people with your mentality are able to get risk death and destruction by getting into an automobile and driving to the airport, much less leave the "safety" of the ground and endure the splendor of flight.
 
Tram said:
Scared that drones are going to show up flown by guys purposefully attempting to take out aircraft?

I'm amazed people with your mentality are able to get risk death and destruction by getting into an automobile and driving to the airport, much less leave the "safety" of the ground and endure the splendor of flight.
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Good grief. Do you assume the canned route is the clearance, also?
 
Dallen said:
I believe one of the problems is that we are thinking of this stuff from a pilots point of view. When we say things like, "he's 2 miles from an airport 3 degrees off of the departure path, what is he thinking" he's not! I'm not saying he's an idiot, I'm saying he probably has no idea of how close that is or even where the departure path is. The problem with all of this is that the RC thing has gone from a hobbyist activity to one that anybody with a few hundred bucks can get into. The guys flying down at their local RC airport are not the problem, it's the teenager who just spent his birthday money buying a quad copter on the cheap and wants to get cool pictures of the neighbor girls down the street. We have to stop thinking that these people have even the slightest understanding of our world. To us, flying one of these things at 1200 ft 2 miles from an airport seems insane, but go to any public place and ask 100 people how high a The airplanes are 1 mile out from the nearest airport and you will see that people have no idea. The FAA should be educating the people that are both buying and selling these things. I think making people aware of the dangers is the first step to mitigating the risks involed
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Agreed, but if you can buy these things from an online store and have them shipped directly to your home who is going to provide the recommended guidance?
 
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