[Sebastian]

I guess I need to vent and at the same time, hear how you guys are doing lately.

It seems like people are paranoid about drone these days because of the media.

I went out to fly the phantom today and Three people said I was invading a privacy.

1: I was in the back alley. It's a dirty part of the town you wouldn't park your car at night. I was away from the people. When I setting up the drone, this guy said people fly the drone by the window and invade the privacy. he asked me what I was going to film.
I said 'I am going to film the buildings' he said 'WHY?????'. I said because I want to and he said again 'but why????' I should've asked him why he lives. he left saying drones are pain in the ass these days.

2: I flew the drone near the water front. There were people. (in normal clothes. no women in bikinis lying around) But I gave a good distance and stayed away from people. This women approached me and also mentioned about invading a privacy and if drone was allowed here. she tried to be nice (she was taking pictures of sceneries there) but I think she was trying to say I was invading a privacy.

3: I was setting up the drone by the dock. This old women stopped and also asked me it's invading a privacy. There were people on the boat nearby. she asked me if I was going to film them. I said 'why do you think I am going to film them? I don't even know them' she said the other day, a drone flew right by her and filmed her. people sell those these days. I said 'unless they are hollywood celebrities, it's not worth anything'
She kept staying next to me and stared at me. I felt uncomfortable and had to leave.

For #1 and #3, I should've told them fuck off and mind your own business. But in states, people call police for anything and I didn't want to deal with it even though I didn't do anything wrong legally.

I also flew a drone when I was driving through California cost. I know I shouldn't fly it in national parks. I flew in state parks. this guy said how it's peaceful there and I am bothering him. I apologized and landed it after a minute. I saw him taking a picture of me. when I got to the parking lot, I saw ranger coming, looking for something. I don't know if he was looking for me.

I advise you to be very very careful. Even if you didn't do anything wrong legally, people will still harass you or report you to the police if you cross the law just little bit.

Are you guys experiencing these lately? did I have just a bad day?

[RichieP]

People just find this shit annoying. Some mechanical object buzzing around relatively closely over their heads that may or may not be filming them.

Regardless of current legality, many people simply find it mildly obnoxious.

Generally my rule of thumb for these things is this: If everyone did it, would it be unsustainably annoying? Answer is probably yes (Imagine every person in the park or in the street has a drone flying close over other ppls' heads, potentially filming everything). So, to me, it's in the "mildly obnoxious" category.

[Sidney Crosby]

Drones are fucking annoying, but if you weren't around people they should mind their own business.

[Razgriz]

Too many drone operators or just moronic. its the same reason we have so many stupid laws. Case in point there was a fire in Southern CA a year or two ago, and all the drone operators wanted to get some footage and were flying all over the fire, because the air was so congested with traffic the fire department couldn't fly and put out the fire. there tons of other stories about people just being complete idiots. I'd like to get one for myself but I don't think I'd ever fly it in any urban area.

[TheBlackNarwhal]

Tired of those pesky "drones"? Have you had enough of them filming your most recent bangs through your open window? Want to cause financial pain to those nerds followed closely by physical?

Check this out:

But really though, when government airspace opens up and de-regulates drones to be on par with manned aircraft you'll only see more of these.

To play the devils advocate, I think they have great functions to society.

The Military makes great use of it's UAVs for reconnaissance. Not all are Hellfire-armed Predators. From the larger end,

Shadow 200

To the smaller guys:

Arrowlite

The police have been using them for a while as well.

People are even racing these things!

The point is, it's an expanding industry. People are paying these guys serious cash to put a camera in places helicopters/skycranes can't go.

A guy at work has invested some cash into these and has gotten pretty good at flying them, and he can do it from his smart phone to. You don't need a whole lot of equipment to get good footage.

Try it out, maybe you'll find your next money making niche.