Quote:
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).
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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.