There are lots of laws on the books to deal with bad drone users. Enforcement may not start until a jet making a take off or landing sucks one into an engine. But that would never happen if drone users realized that they are in restricted air space and shouldn't be flying there. In Canada you can hobby fly with some restrictions any time. The minute you charge somebody to perform a service, say look at their chimney, you have to file a flight plan for approval with Transport Canada.
 
It was never a problem in the past because you had to have some tech chops and a brain to fly RC aircraft. Technology has created a device that can be successfully flown without a brain or tech chops. A RC helicopter is a pig to fly but a drone is simple/ If you panic just take your hands off the controls and it will "park" itself in mid air. RC enthusiasts are also aware of the fact that they share the frequency spectrum and identify their broadcast freq.
 
No, the whole problem is that stupid and/or devious people have a new toy.

i guess there will be something awful soon that will shut down the industry. maybe a drone with nfc tech that steals everyone's money or a radioactive drone causing criticality incidents or something. anywho.... merry christmas everybody.

X

When my associate and i are out getting footage we often get asked about whether it could be used for spying.  Anyone who thinks one of those could effective for spying knows absolutely nothing about them.  They are loud and the opposite of stealthy.  They use a camera that is great for GoPro type shots but awful for snooping. Flyin one of these things by a window would be pointless since it would sound like a small lawnmower .  A good  nearby tree and a telephoto lens or even the latest batch of camcorders would be a much better choice to spy.
 
people watch way too much tv .  fear is a funny thing.  it makes people irrational. The payload a drone could deliver is not worth the coast.  An amateur rocket builder (something perfectly legal and available for decades) would be far more effective and cost exponentially less.

Oh well... I guess you have to take yer chances. I guess there are other ways. I really know nothing about drones, it doesn't interest me but I don't want one looking in my window or yard. I guess I could flash it from the deck... that would likely run it away, lol. I do have a private, fenced back yard.
 
Seems like drones will open up a lot of grey areas. What one person will consider a right another person will consider an intrusion.
 
J

I would think some of the google street view litigation would provide precedent.

bitflipper
According to the company that owned and operated the drone involved in the skier incident, the drone lost control due to "strong and unforeseen interference on the operating frequency".
 
The question should be: where would a sudden blast of 2.4 to 5.8 GHz come from up on a mountaintop? It would have had to be either a very strong signal, or a narrow beam aimed directly at the drone. Either way, it's unlikely to be an accident. More likely, it was either sabotage or a prank.

I'm guessing, and a sort of bad guess, that there was a TV/Radio antenna around but even then, that's just way too much ... fictional creativity ... to take.
 
Up here in Mt. Hood, there is at least one antenna way up there, and as far as I can see it is way off the snow path'ing for most skiers. The majority of the antennae are in the Beaverton area overseeing the Columbia River on top of the hills, which is on the other side of Portland away from Mt. Hood.

I've always been concerned about the ones in the Bagpipes.

I'm not concerned about drones, but I Am concerned about some people that drone on and on.  I quit worrying though as soon as I escape to a different room.

I don't know.....is there a bag limit on them?

Actually ... "cow counting" is already a serious concern.  There are a ton of fights going on between governments and citizens that raise livestock.  Many attempts have been made to pass legislation that would require anybody raising livestock to register their animals with the government.
 
 

MandolinPicker
What I have been most worried about has happened in this area. I live about 25 miles from DC, but now we cannot fly anything within a 30-mile radius of Reagan National Airport. Model airplane clubs in the area have been told that if they fly an RC airplane, law enforcement will be called and take legal action. This involves ANY model aircraft - drone, RC airplane, model rocket. An activity that has been done in this area safety for over 50 years has been brought to a grinding halt. And to add icing to the cake, the new 'rule' went into effect Christmas day, after everyone received a new drone for Christmas.

As others have noted, hobbyist quadcopters add little to the already present risk with radio controlled model airplanes, except in their numbers. The national security over-reaction is, however, not really so surprising. An unauthorized small drone has already landed on the White House lawn after all. After the government and media trumpeting over the killing of terrorists by the CIA piloted 'drones,' it would be surprising if some enterprising terrorist did not see it as poetic justice to pilot his own drone into a target with its own symbolism in the Washington, DC area. While a toy designed to carry a GoPro might not have the payload of a goose being sucked into a jet engine, a single non-lethal attack on a jet at a regional airport could make it inconvenient for congressmen to commute. It would undoubtedly take more than ordinary skill and luck to pilot a toy to strike a plane on takeoff or landing, but success is not always required to instill fear and paralysis, and these toys are cheaper and easier to acquire than stinger missiles in the DC area. And within the size range of freely available UAS's there are models that could carry a payload of explosives or toxins large enough to qualify as a weapon of mass destruction suitable for use against a crowd or stationary target. The clear advantage to a drone over  hijacking an airliner is that you would not need to take lessons at an FAA registered flight school or die during the deployment of your weapon. A truck bomb like that used by domestic terrorists in Oklahoma City in 1995 would of course be a more serious threat, but in some ways it would be easier to defend against with barriers and blast shields. Let us hope that disgruntled citizens upset by government overreach in banning the toy they got from Santa do not feel moved to action. 

dubdisciple

jbow it doesn't interest me but I don't want one looking in my window or yard. I guess I could flash it from the deck... that would likely run it away, lol.

I guarantee you no drone of this type is looking in your window. If you have ever used a GoPro, imagine the view of one from a drone. Just not very likely.

Well dang...

I actually wanted to purchase one of those "drone" toys to try to lift a pull string over a tree limb to erect a ham radio wire antenna, but most of the >200 dollar ones are toys and cannot lift a string, and its not worth the expense to buy one just for that,
 
 
one computer science nerd tookj a dorne over a year ago and flew it over our university campus and either it was real time or an AVI but he put together a montage of aerial  views, it was kinda neat.

Ham N Egz
I actually wanted to purchase one of those "drone" toys to try to lift a pull string over a tree limb to erect a ham radio wire antenna, but most of the >200 dollar ones are toys and cannot lift a string, and its not worth the expense to buy one just for that,

I used to know an arborist who used a fishing bow setup to do that: