The UAV/Personal Drone thread

[GoinAllTheWay]

No it's not really an over reaction. Do you feel model rockets or planes gained anywhere near the popularity that drones did? While this may not outright kill the industry, it is going to have a significant impact. How could it not? This will discourage a number of existing hobbyists and certainly ones that were considering trying it out. Looking at that map, there is no where in the city to go and fly. You have to travel a ways out of the city now. And where does one go to respect this new regs and not intrude on private property?

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

No it's not really an over reaction.

Yeah I'm not really sure where the over reaction was.

I guess I could have said it's effectively shut down the drone industry in every major centre in Canada, instead of saying all of Canada?

Looking at the map bigtime posted, Calgary is out. It could be argued that 75m from people and animals takes out any town in Alberta as well.

So it's now relegated to the middle of nowhere? Crown land, maybe?

I don't think you're going to attract anyone other than those extremely into drones after any of this.

And over reaction or not, you can't tell me the Canadian government was trying to find any sort of balance with these regs. They designed them to shut drones down.

[Fuzz]

The entire town of Canmore is a no fly zone due to the heliport.

[Frequitude]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

This kind of reaction genuinely surprises me and I ask this honestly, have you had a number of negative run ins with private use drones?

I've flown a great deal in the past in public park near my place and have only encountered curiosity.

No major run ins that made me want a city wide ban. My primary issue is privacy. I don't want a drone with a camera flying over my house. So the only regulation that really matters to me is "Within 75 metres of buildings, vehicles, vessels, animals or people.". I think that's great.

I've only had three encounters with them. One was playing with one at my buddy's ranch. I had a blast. They're freakin cool and I totally get how they make for a great hobby. The other two were at off leash dog parks in the city. A couple of the dogs were freaking out at the whining noise and the thing flying around. I wanted to go over and tell the folks they were inconsiderate dbags and to GTFO. I also personally found the whining noise annoying but that's just a minor complaint not exactly worthy of banning them.

To sum it all up, they just shouldn't be allowed in the city. At most they should be restricted to certain parks in the city. If we can have off-leash dog parks then we should be able to have drone parks. But apparently the 9km from an aircraft thing neuters that (9km seems crazy far but what do I know).

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

So it's now relegated to the middle of nowhere? Crown land, maybe?

Nope. I actually take that back.

75m from animals. No verbiage on specific animals. So dogs. Cats. Deer. Squirrels. Marmots. Gophers.

Tell me where in Alberta you can get within 75m of any of those? Because I assume they include launching along with flying.

[Ryan Coke]

This does seem pretty overreaching. Having said that, my experiences are almost hitting a couple in the air, including once at about 4000' and 15 nm from an airport. The other one was recently watching the sunrise at Haleakala in Maui, and as the first light started to creep across the crater some idiot decides it a good idea to send up this buzzing annoyance above the crowd of people. It is a peaceful, almost spiritual moment, and he figures this is a reasonable idea? Thankfully there was a park employee that stopped it and they do have a rule against drones.

Unfortunately the reality is the laws have to account for the lowest common denominator. You have to legislate against stupid.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by Frequitude

No major run ins that made me want a city wide ban. My primary issue is privacy. I don't want a drone with a camera flying over my house. So the only regulation that really matters to me is "Within 75 metres of buildings, vehicles, vessels, animals or people.". I think that's great.

I can appreciate that. I see that complaint a lot and tend to think that people are worrying about something that hasn't happened to them nor is it likely to but regardless, I can understand it.

I think some form of regulation was required and was certainly expecting it but this has gone too far. I was hoping for something reasonable like the regs in the states. Hopefully there is still time to fight this and make it work for everyone.

[speede5]

So basically you need to apply for a certificate if you need to fly in the restricted areas? Realtors are using these to list houses, home inspections are done with them, filming etc.

Sounds like professional drone operator could be a lucrative opportunity.

I live 3 miles out of town on an acreage and I am now a no fly zone due to the muni airport being slightly less than 9 km away. Bummer.

Be interesting to see how they enforce this, like we need police chasing down drone operators everytime an annoyed neighbor calls 911.

I'll never forget the time we were flying a kite in Toronto and a cop showed up at the park to inform my dad the airport had complained that it was too high and had been spotted by approaching aircraft. That was back in the 70's.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by speede5

I live 3 miles out of town on an acreage and I am now a no fly zone due to the muni airport being slightly less than 9 km away. Bummer.

I think you'd have no issues with flying around your property unless you have some really cranky neighbours. Can I come play too?

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by Cube Inmate

The Minister supposedly enacts these rules under the authority of the Aeronautical Act to mitigate risks to aviation. I'll acknowledge that the height restriction makes sense then, but the proximity restrictions respecting buildings, people, and animals clearly do not fall within the scope of the authority granted.

I will continue to fly my toy quadcopter safely and respectfully, irrespective of these rules.

that's part of the problem, those who don't fly respectfully. a friend of mine can't spend any time in her yard because some pervert keeps spying on her with his drone. (especially in the summer, of course)

gives the hobby a bad rep and ruins it for everyone.

[Diemenz]

Originally Posted by Frequitude

No major run ins that made me want a city wide ban. My primary issue is privacy. I don't want a drone with a camera flying over my house. So the only regulation that really matters to me is "Within 75 metres of buildings, vehicles, vessels, animals or people.". I think that's great.

I've only had three encounters with them. One was playing with one at my buddy's ranch. I had a blast. They're freakin cool and I totally get how they make for a great hobby. The other two were at off leash dog parks in the city. A couple of the dogs were freaking out at the whining noise and the thing flying around. I wanted to go over and tell the folks they were inconsiderate dbags and to GTFO. I also personally found the whining noise annoying but that's just a minor complaint not exactly worthy of banning them.

To sum it all up, they just shouldn't be allowed in the city. At most they should be restricted to certain parks in the city. If we can have off-leash dog parks then we should be able to have drone parks. But apparently the 9km from an aircraft thing neuters that (9km seems crazy far but what do I know).

I think you are greatly overestimating the ability of a drones camera 300ft in the air if you honestly think that it's seeing into your house. You lose more privacy from neighbours having windows and no one is up and arms about that. I get that dangerous situations can occur and I support some of the changes but not all of them as the 9km seems extreme. The distance and height I agree with, flying out of line of sight in populated areas is pretty darn stupid.

These changes will most likely kill the drone market in Canada all except those that use them for business and can wait 3 weeks for an approved flight plan with an SCOF. I won't bother to pay the fees any further if I can't also enjoy my drone as a hobbyist.

Easier solution here would be to require licence to ensure proper operation and insurance to cover accidents and then create rules that allow individuals to operate them recreationally. The old guidelines were reasonable the new ones remove the ability to be a hobbyist. If it's privacy Asking people to not film in populated areas makes zero sense as there is no privacy expectation in public places which is why hand held cameras are not banned in the city or 75m from people or animals. If it's a safety issue insurance is required, people can't tell me that there is more drone accidents then bike accidents each year and bikes are allowed within 75m of people and animals. I get that I'm being overly literal here but I'm trying to show this change was knee jerk and not a lot of thought went into it.

[MacDaddy77]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

that's part of the problem, those who don't fly respectfully. a friend of mine can't spend any time in her yard because some pervert keeps spying on her with his drone. (especially in the summer, of course)

gives the hobby a bad rep and ruins it for everyone.

you should use your friend as bait and have her go outside in a bikini and you can snipe the drone out of the air from an upstairs window with an airsoft gun

[Frequitude]

Originally Posted by Diemenz

I think you are greatly overestimating the ability of a drones camera 300ft in the air if you honestly think that it's seeing into your house. You lose more privacy from neighbours having windows and no one is up and arms about that.

What about 50' in the air. Or 10' in the air. Nothing was stopping that. It's just not right for anybody to be able to go fly around someone else's property with a camera.

And no it is not the same privacy loss as with my neighbours. Neighbour privacy is restricted to about 20 people who can look out their windows at my property. With drones on the other hand, anyone can gain that access.

That's why I like the 75m rule (which by the way is less than 300' so I don't really give a hoot about 300' I don't think). It's probably the only thing I care about. Well that and aircraft safety obviously.

[automaton 3]

Originally Posted by Ryan Coke

This does seem pretty overreaching. Having said that, my experiences are almost hitting a couple in the air, including once at about 4000' and 15 nm from an airport.

I recently saw one SE of YYC. We were at 7500' and it looked like about half our altitude, I was quite surprised to see one up that high. Have also had a number of drone activity warnings from FSS in the YQL area.

If a little bugsmasher like I operate bumped into one, I'm thinking it would be a bad day.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

that's part of the problem, those who don't fly respectfully. a friend of mine can't spend any time in her yard because some pervert keeps spying on her with his drone. (especially in the summer, of course)

gives the hobby a bad rep and ruins it for everyone.

If it's happening with that kind of frequency, why hasn't your friend made a complaint? And how does this guy know when she's out in the yard??

[Diemenz]

^

If there is a jackass flying that close to a house who's not doing an inspection I completely agree. The only time I have been under 300ft was takeoff and landing.

Now with the 90m height and 75m any object rule it leaves 15m. That's a pretty tight space of flight.

[Frequitude]

Originally Posted by Diemenz

^

If there is a jackass flying that close to a house who's not doing an inspection I completely agree. The only time I have been under 300ft was takeoff and landing.

Now with the 90m height and 75m any object rule it leaves 15m. That's a pretty tight space of flight.

Do these things even have altimeters or ground elevation monitors on them? How would you know how to follow those rules?

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

If it's happening with that kind of frequency, why hasn't your friend made a complaint? And how does this guy know when she's out in the yard??

because from what I understand creepy perverts flying drones up around to locate good looking women wasn't illegal. besides. how do you prove who is flying it and where it's coming from. not like the thing has a driver and lisence plate to take a picture of.

if it was that easy, how come people who fly their drone too close to airports and forest fires don't get caught more often?

just saying there are enough bad apples that are ruining drones as a hobby for responsible and respectful people.

[GoinAllTheWay]

I found this tool on a GOC website marking the location of all airports/landing strips.

Am I reading this right? In the TurnerValley/Black Diamond area there are 4 runways? Are they actually all active? One appears to be in a clump of trees?

https://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/solut...tion_tool.html

[Diemenz]

Originally Posted by Frequitude

Do these things even have altimeters or ground elevation monitors on them? How would you know how to follow those rules?

Yes most of the more expensive ones do.