First, check the pic below.
The arrow is pointing at my house. The star is my aunt & uncle's house (more like mom & dad really, they raised me...anywho). I thought it woule be a good idea to zip the P3 over to their house. Uncle knows I have it and gets a kick out of it, my aunt has no clue. The plan was to bring it over their front lawn as they sit on their porch like old folks do. He'd laugh as she shi*s a brick. I get over here an hover somehwere over where the red marker is. My camera was facing their house actually so I had no clue that I was over that other property, I thought was I a lot closer, moving on. I realize no cars are there and the wife reminds me that they were going somewhere today, so I come back home. I'm going back and forth around my neighborhood when a car pulls up. I know the guy, it's our townshiop's Mayor.

Oh, also, I completely forgot, that house next door to my uncle, where I hovered over...is where the Mayor lives.

Oh, and he is in his car shirtless because he was in his pool and jumped out to follow what appeared to be a spying drone.

Sigh.

We spoke for a while, I explained a lot. Like many he was unaware of what they can and can't do. Told him how we are using them for work and he said they though about bringing them to this town as well, for the same purpose. They're not sure about many things though (case law, restrictions, quad capabilites, etc) so he was pretty interested in my knowledge base. All ended well and he was pretty happy actually, I miht even get a consulting gig out of it.

Next time I go to my uncles house, I'll give him a heads up.

Yeah I had a similar situation.. Flying in a farmers field behind my house and happened to stop behind a neighbor's house that also backs up to the farmers field (had the camera facing the field) I hovered there for about 15 seconds before continuing to fly. When I got inside this email had been sent to the neighborhood distribution group:
" ATTENTION DRONE!! Yesterday I was on my back deck and a drone was flying over and hovered in my backyard looking at me. I just want to bring this to the attention of my neighbors. I did call the xxxxxxx police and they informed me that if anyone sees this in your yard to call them xxx-xxx-xxxx.
After a few hours to stewing about it I ended up sending this back out to the entire neighborhood:

I wanted to clear the air before this thread gets blown out of proportion. The drone pilot was myself but I had been flying it over the farmer's field behind my house and never intentionally went into or over anyone's yard. This was my 1st flight and I went out several times over the field and turned around to come right back to my property and was flying the majority of the time from 100ft to 390ft. Can’t go over 400ft (FAA law)

xxxxx - I apologize to you and can send you the flight video as well if you are interested

So everyone is aware, my quadracopter (and most) have a wide angle camera WITHOUT a zoom feature. I did call the xxxxxxx Police to let them know I was the drone pilot, so that they can contact me if they have any more questions.

I have attached my flight path for verification purposes, so that others in this neighborhood can feel better about this situation. Every flight is logged and viewable, you can be assured that I am flying responsibly.

Remember to get your 333 exemption if you're going to make money in anyway from your P3...  You switch from hobbyist to commercial aviator, which requires an exemption and the PIC (Pilot In Charge) to have at least a sports aviation certificate or higher...

If you don't mind me asking how you utilize your phantom at your job ? what do with it at work ?

heyandy Posted at 2015-9-7 20:00
Remember to get your 333 exemption if you're going to make money in anyway from your P3...  You swit ...

Yes... in ANYway whatsoever..... or not.....

Remember to not go straight home after a flight.... you need to act like you are settling down a couple times first... it really throws them off.

PIC = Pilot in Command
Not Pilot in Charge

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-9-8 11:10
If you don't mind me asking how you utilize your phantom at your job ? what do with it at work ?

I work in law enforcement. Drone back story in 3..2..

I'm tasked with a number of things including but certainly not limited to, special investigations, community relations, IT crap. (my office has become the dumping ground...a reminder to never show people how efficient you can be...they'll just add more to your plate)
Recently I was asked to look for a new in car video vendor as our system is outdated, hardly supported and unreliable. When I told them I was going for a vendor that will do both our cars and & outfit us with body cams, they sent me to a seminar on bodyworn devices. But the company giving the seminar also does "police drones". Naturally this was way more interesting than body cams. I got to talking with the owner and their tech guys. Told them I owned a P3 (which is what they use for training operators). It was nice interacting with other geeks.

The package they are offering is over 40, most likely closer to 50K. It'll include 2 Inspires, 2 P3P's, 4 iPad mini's, 6 remotes, custom pelican cases that hold the gear plus the crapload of extra batteries they also include. All remotes will be HDMI and they'll provide 2 17" Lenovo touch screen laptops (their video assist system). A bunch of other crap that I can't think of right now but it's pretty cool and I'm way excited (like revenge of the nerds we got bush excited).

The challenge is convincing city hall to spend money on something that for all they know, won't be received well. I've been advocating and educating the powers that be over here on what they can do and what they can't. what they'd be used for and how that will help. I've done demos using my P3 for them, the notion that we'll (or anyone else for that matter) will be spying on people went out the window once they saw what the ground looks like from 200 ft. What we do intend on using them for are things like  search and rescue & crime scene photos/video. We work in a fairly urban area, I've compared the use and cost of the inspire to that of a traditional helicopter. of course we don't have one but the next town over does. They barely have it in the air because of budget constraints. But what do we really use them for? Foot pursuits, bail outs etc. I explained that we could be deployed in minutes. The inspire builds come with FLIR and an LED array that'll light up a few backyards...yes, I tell them..it is like having our own mini helicopter. Then I explain how departments already have them and have already documented arrests and life saves with them. My chief is so excited, I keep my P3 at work and I'm just waiting for the next foot chase where the guy is going back and forth between backyards and I can see it from above and let the guy s know where they're running.

As for how the public will take it, I'm working on that too. I head our community relations and we have a rock solid relationship with the public. I've gotten a bunch of projects and programs running and they've all been received well. One of the things I plan on doing is giving demonstrations on the usefulness of the quads. There is a reservation here and people sometimes get lost in there, they have to send guys on ATV's to search for them. My demo will be to send a child and their parent into one of our parks or into the reservation. I'll have them find a spot and just sit but before they go in I'll explain to the parent...even though this is only a drill, imagine this being only your child, out here alone. We'll go up and locate them, and show live video to others while it's happening.

I have an event later this month, Closing down the center of town for "community play day" lots of things for kids, bands, all kids of stuff. I've got our mayor and town counsel reminding me...bring your Phantom.  

ace789nj@comcas Posted at 2015-9-8 22:12
I work in law enforcement. Drone back story in 3..2..

I'm tasked with a number of things includin ...

Hmm interesting, one last question in what county/state this stuff happening ?

ace789nj@comcas Posted at 2015-9-8 22:12
I work in law enforcement. Drone back story in 3..2..

I'm tasked with a number of things includin ...

Oh never mind I know where you are located, you don't need drones in that area you need armored tanks.

I figured someone would catch those lat/long's