toddstevenson
lvl.2
United States
Offline
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Pleased you enjoyed the picture. i appreciate the warning of caution, but your statements are not entirely accurate. The Amazon employee was merely questioned because reports were made that he crashed into the space needle. After police investigated the video, which showed no crash, the investigation was over. No "almost thrown in jail". It is true that most of South downtown Seattle is a no fly zone without prior ATC contact/permission, due to the 5 mile restriction of nearby Boeing Field. This picture is well clear of that area. Other than the standard limits the FAA impose (under 400ft not within 5 miles of an airport) there is not currently a morritorium on flying drones in Seattle, and neither the FAA nor the SPD will issue fines for not breaking these rules. So I don't think posting this picture, or my video would be a cause for any authorities action.
Of course being careful, to avoid harm to person or property is always a fair caution, I do take those things very seriously. I, as all should, researched local regulations prior to my flight, chose a 2am flight time over a closed area of the park (it's quite populated during the daytime, so although technically not illegal...risky if there is a flight failure)...stayed well below 400ft, and always kept my bird in line of sight.
I think it's important to be accurate and not toss out phrases like "thrown in jail", "bust", and "fine" that are uniformed (not trying to be contradictory, just feel others reading these statements might find them misleading and inflammatory). Although I can't say there is zero possibility to property damage (my drone could have damaged a commercial building roof if it fell out of the sky--no people, cars or residential buildings under my flight path)--I did follow all regulations, and chose a time/flight path with safety as a priority. |
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