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This pertains primarily to US PART 107 Remote Pilots. Last night, I was at a local “Small” Non-Towered airport giving a demonstration of the Matrice 30T RTK. I was given permission by the Airport Manager to fly the drone. I am a PART 61 pilot for SEL, LTA, and Gliders, and for over 30 years now. While flying the drone near the hanger I was doing the demonstration and at an altitude of 119’AGL, the drone warned me of an approaching aircraft, which is proof that the DJI AIRSENSE works. I had the drone descend to 50’ AGL and stayed clear while a glider crossed mid-field and entered the pattern. I was asked to video the gliders pattern and landing. After the glider entered the downwind leg, base and final. I moved the drone closer, but clear of the runway so not to interfere and avoid an incurstion, and climbed to 119’AGL to look toward the downwind pattern, which also gave me a clear view of the gliders landing. After the glider landed and made a complete stop, I lowered the drone and moved closer to the intersection. I took some photos while the pilot secured his glider. The drone had its lights and strobes during the entire flight for visibility, and I made it a point to stay clear until after he landed and remained a clear distance of 50 away from him and behind the hold line. I turned the drone toward the hanger to return to land. While in the process, the pilot of the glider stormed over to where we were standing (about 300 feet from where he left his glider), and walked straight to my face (two feet) and began yelling at me. His yelling rant told me “get that S..t away from here and that he didn't like this S..t (pointing to the drone inflight" (an abridged version). The way he behaved in front of us, I felt threatened as thou he was about to start throwing punches while I was holding the controller. If the drone was on the ground, I would have expected that he would have damaged it for sure and that would be willful destruction of a US Registered Aircraft! He then turned and stormed back to his glider. After talking with the FAA, his action by walking to us from the intersection to where we were constitutes the intent to do harm, this falls under a violation of 18 U.S. Code § 32, but since there has been no precedence with drone operations, these are the only codes that come close. Their direct quote is "
The applicable statute is 18 U.S. Code § 32 a(5): (1) "(5) interferes with or disables, with intent to endanger the safety of any person or with a reckless disregard for the safety of human life, anyone engaged in the authorized operation of such aircraft or any air navigation facility aiding in the navigation of any such aircraft;"
We are expected to be licensed FAA pilots in order to have the "Privilege" to fly the drones in accordance to the rules and regulation provided by the FAA and it's time for people to respect the holders of these certificates, since I was flying the aircraft in a legal and safe manner and NOT doing anything wrong and with permission to be on site. I would recommend that you keep a copy of these US Codes with you while flying your drone, and call the police if things look sketchy! It’s time we stop this aggressive attitude toward flying drones. We have paid our dues for the privilege, it’s time we are given the same respect as fixed wing and rotor-wing pilots.
While this pertains mainly to US Remote Pilots, I would suggest passing this information around among your groups and pass the US Code out to keep with you while flying.
18 U.S. Code § 32 The whole point of this post was to give the PART 107 community some sort of shield in case you are confronted with a similar situation.
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lvl.4
Core User of DJI
Captain
