drones

[Markopolo]

Yes.. a system of waypoint checkpoints is possible.

[Markopolo]

Very informative thread. I'm also in the boat of "would love to get one".

Yea yea yea scorpion…. Keep talking old friend!!!

[Markopolo]

"Do you need wifi or line of sight for them."

It depends upon the control unit. Most of mine use a dedicated control unit. No wifi or internet etc necessary. I do have one that I operate with a tablet,, or IPhone,, but I'm not sure if it needs the wifi or not. (I've never questioned that.) It's never failed to operate either.

The DJI’s use a wifi type signal called Occu-sync and it is a proprietary Wi-Fi system..

[Markopolo]

Jeeeez, radar too?
One of my old gliders had a control receiver with GPS. Handy if I got it so high that I lost visual contact. Send it the "home" command and it would fly a straight line to a preset lat/lon, close enough that I could regain visual on it. That was 13 years ago. I assume these drones have the same thing. but much smaller and lighter.

you are correct.. they can.

[rbuck351]

I have nothing against drones until they start spying on me. Here I can use 4th of July type fireworks anytime I want. I would suggest not flying a drone into a fireworks display especially over private property.

[country gent]

A few years back twice I caught a drone looking in windows, first time was in the patio doors of the house the second time was in the garage windows between the house and garage. I called the township county and sheriff, all were the same its gone now nothing we can do. both times the drones were under 20' altitude and 20-30' from the buildings. Im pretty sure who was operating them but no proof. It was a simple fluke I saw them and have no idea how many times I didnt.

While they have uses and offer a lot of benefits ( the contractor used a small one to inspect the roof before we put the new one on) they can also be used to intimidate and threaten or illegal surveillance with almost no worry of the person doing it being caught.

From whats being said here there is no recourse for the person being harassed

[uscra112]

Be hard to do, but a laser into the camera probably wouldn't do it any good.

I read once that a particular stadium had a hawk trained to attack drones.

Rather glad I live rural, where I just don't have that kind of neighbors.

[country gent]

I am rural but when you get a busy body neighbor that wants to turn the neighborhood into a gated community complete with HOA and her as the head, a lot of things go on.

[MT Gianni]

THIS is the LEGAL truth of the matter. As private property owners, we own ZERO airspace. It is, however, technically possible to 'trespass' with a drone, but generally, legally speaking, that would only be possible after a complaint had been filed/confirmed for some kind of surveillance/peeping tom/etc. ONLY after such had been legally established, and a restrictive order in place, would a drone incursion be considered a legal trespass. To shoot one down absent of such an order is unquestionably a crime.
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It is your position then, that I as your neighbor could build a suspension bridge across your property to my other friends property as long as nothing was on the ground in your property?
I believe we each own some air space. That may vary as far as State or other jurisdictional areas but I could not put a still on such a bridge and claim it was not on my property.

[uscra112]

There are few forms of human on earth more obnoxious than HOA administrators. Or wannabees.

[Rapier]

I checked the Mini 3 Pro on PC Magazine, it is an editor's choice. Which is a good thing.

Is the elevation reading altitude or above terrain? My floor is 247', so if altitude, it is not much allowance if 400' total is a problem, especially with 150 ft tall trees

Still not sure about the return button, is that a straight line return, or by the route it took reversed return? Flying around a fence line is one thing, but returning across the trees is entirely another matter.

[rancher1913]

i may need to pick your brain markopolo, i have the mini pro 3 as well but can only push it to a little over a mile before it turns yellow. i would love to get about 2 miles because then i could see the nearest city and keep an eye out for the zombie hoards that may head my way.

[trails4u]

It is your position then, that I as your neighbor could build a suspension bridge across your property to my other friends property as long as nothing was on the ground in your property?
I believe we each own some air space. That may vary as far as State or other jurisdictional areas but I could not put a still on such a bridge and claim it was not on my property.

It's gray legal area for sure these days.... The very old doctrine was 'to the core of the earth and to the heavens' if you will...which is where mineral rights to subterranean assets stems from. Of course the very old doctrine was pre air-travel, so the concept of airspace wasn't really a consideration then. The modern 'interpretation' seems to be that yes, we can 'own' some airspace above ground level, but only to the extent that it's of a reasonable height that we would need it for some practical purpose. Say....you own a 4-story house and are an amateur radio operator and have an antenna on top of your house, that would in theory meet said, very gray, very unspecific 'legal' definition of 'owning' that airspace. So, what's the answer....? I honestly can't tell you. Your suspension bridge concept I would personally consider a trespass, for sure. But what if your suspension bridge is 100' above the ground? Then I don't know.... I do think the drone thing will eventually clear some of this up. There will be, and I'm sure there have been legal challenges. Hopefully these will eventually result in more clarity. I also think it will present some conflicts for the courts. It is absolutely a criminal offense to shoot down ANY aircraft, and a drone is classified as such. However, being a peeping tom is also illegal....and REALLY hard to catch and prove if said pervert is using a drone for nefarious reasons. That will have to be reconciled at some point.

My original point was a response to the OP suggesting that you have a legal right to shoot down and confiscate any drone above your property. This is not legal, and I just wanted to reinforce that so that others don't get themselves in trouble.

[uscra112]

I surmise the requirement that drones transmit a unique ID corresponding to an owner registration must come into play here. What sort of receiver or app is necessary to capture that ID?

[Ed K]

I am a drone person.. I own more of them then my wife knows about.. I also research the laws. I can tell you that if somebody shoots my drone, I would absolutely press charges and call the state troopers. It is NOT allowed.

I have done modifications to the controller and added aftermarket antenna’s and hacked the firmware of both of my primary drones to customize the limitations.

MarkoPolo

Have you also researched this?

DJI UAS PRODUCTS TERMS OF USE
Lastly updated: January 1, 2022
.
.
.
4. YOUR OBLIGATIONS.
By using the Product, and by entering into these Terms, you represent and warrant that your use of the Product and your involvement of events or activities incidental to your use of the Product comply and will comply with all applicable laws, statutes, and regulations, and that you will not use the Product except as expressly permitted under these Terms or otherwise authorized by DJI. You further agree not to:

Attempt to “hack”, “crack”, reverse engineer or modify the Product or the DJI Apps, or discover, download or publish source code, bypass or circumvent measures employed to prevent or limit access to any area, content or code of the Product;

Extracted from: https://www.dji.com/terms

[trails4u]

I surmise the requirement that drones transmit a unique ID corresponding to an owner registration must come into play here. What sort of receiver or app is necessary to capture that ID?

If you, or anyone, has paid more than a few hundred bucks for it...then in all likelihood it's GPS enabled. This is how they know where they are, where they left from and how they find their way home as others have mentioned above. The ones I fly far exceed the weight limit to be classified 'recreational' so they require a Part 107 FAA license to operate, are considered commercial, and are required to display an FAA registration # physically on the aircraft. I assure you they know exactly where I've been every time I fly! I believe that technology is also coming for recreational use. I hate it....I'm definitely not a big fan of big brother, but this is a brave new world where X person's freedom vs. X person's privacy is being challenged in new ways.

[uscra112]

Have you also researched this?

DJI UAS PRODUCTS TERMS OF USE
Lastly updated: January 1, 2022
.
.
.
4. YOUR OBLIGATIONS.
By using the Product, and by entering into these Terms, you represent and warrant that your use of the Product and your involvement of events or activities incidental to your use of the Product comply and will comply with all applicable laws, statutes, and regulations, and that you will not use the Product except as expressly permitted under these Terms or otherwise authorized by DJI. You further agree not to:

Attempt to “hack”, “crack”, reverse engineer or modify the Product or the DJI Apps, or discover, download or publish source code, bypass or circumvent measures employed to prevent or limit access to any area, content or code of the Product;

Extracted from: https://www.dji.com/terms

And there you have another beef I have with a certain class of humans, be they drone operators or Harley riders or snowmobilers They positively revel in violating property laws and/or other peoples' personal space.

[trails4u]

And there you have another beef I have with a certain class of humans, be they drone operators or Harley riders or snowmobilers They positively revel in violating property laws and/or other peoples' personal space.

I see your point....but have you read the terms of service on your toaster oven? I'm guessing it says the same. As for bad apples...yeah, they're out there, everywhere. I like to think it's the job of us good apples to spread knowledge and educate, perhaps preventing others from unknowingly becoming a bad apple....

[Markopolo]

I checked the Mini 3 Pro on PC Magazine, it is an editor's choice. Which is a good thing.

Is the elevation reading altitude or above terrain? My floor is 247', so if altitude, it is not much allowance if 400' total is a problem, especially with 150 ft tall trees

Still not sure about the return button, is that a straight line return, or by the route it took reversed return? Flying around a fence line is one thing, but returning across the trees is entirely another matter.

Above terrain is correct, and the return trip starts at a height you predetermine.. mine is set to about 200ft. I press the home, it climbs up, makes a beeline, then descends and lands at the point of take off using GPS

[trails4u]

Above terrain

Correct, it's AGL, above ground level. And depending on the drone in question, you can program the RTL (return to launch) to your preference. It's generally straight-line, but you can predetermine an altitude for the RTL, meaning it will climb to that altitude in place before it starts its RTL.