Drone Confrontation -  Scaring The Birds?

When I was out recording footage for the last tutorial I ended up Drone Confrontation initiated by me because I was about to fly over a farmers land and he did not seem too happy with me around I decided to the take confrontation up front.

What would you have done?

If it is his land than you have no right to fly over it without his permission. So if he says that you have to leave, you have to do so.

Hello and good day Henrik Olsen. Thank you for sharing this video and for sharing your previous experience in flying and operating your drone. Let us always use our drones responsively to avoid any confrontation in the future. Have a safe and happy flying always.

GhostWolf010 Posted at 6-17 03:18
If it is his land than you have no right to fly over it without his permission. So if he says that you have to leave, you have to do so.

That is actually incorrect - nobody owns the airspace. As long as he does not physically walk onto the private land &/or physically takes off/lands on the private land then it is perfectly legal to fly over it providing he takes off from an adjacent public access path whereby drones have not been restricted or banned by a local government authority or is an NFZ. He must also be more then 50m away from people, buildings and vehicles not in his control in a non congested area during flight i.e. puts the drone 165' above the land. The farmer has absolutely no legal right to walk onto public land and tell anyone to do anything.

AJC-W Posted at 6-17 22:30
That is actually incorrect - nobody owns the airspace. As long as he does not physically walk onto the private land &/or physically takes off/lands on the private land then it is perfectly legal to fly over it providing he takes off from an adjacent public access path whereby drones have not been restricted or banned by a local government authority or is an NFZ. He must also be more then 50m away from people, buildings and vehicles not in his control in a non congested area during flight i.e. puts the drone 165' above the land. The farmer has absolutely no legal right to walk onto public land and tell anyone to do anything.

in Denmark the difference is if the land has been marked clearly with a fence or bush. In that case, you are not allowed to fly over it without permission

Henrik Olsen Posted at 6-18 23:41
in Denmark the difference is if the land has been marked clearly with a fence or bush. In that case, you are not allowed to fly over it without permission

That is very restrictive - and totally different to the UK. Do you have a link where your aviation authority states you can not fly a UAV over private uninhabited land marked by a bush? You also state in your youtube video description that you were about to fly over the land before you initiated the 'confrontation' - were you therefore preparing to fly illegally?

AJC-W Posted at 6-19 00:20
That is very restrictive - and totally different to the UK. Do you have a link where your aviation authority states you can not fly a UAV over private uninhabited land marked by a bush? You also state in your youtube video description that you were about to fly over the land before you initiated the 'confrontation' - were you therefore preparing to fly illegally?

Hi Henrik, I've been a fan of your videos for sometime as they are well produced and informative.

Now I'm not sure if this is lost in translation or just a bit click baity, confrontation isn't really the right word yes he's lurking around and probably would have approached you if you started flying however confrontation would mean he is hostile or argumentative.   By initiating a conversation with him you've managed to deal with the situation before it potentially escalated (into a confrontation).

I don't know the laws in Denmark so from my point of view, it's always polite to ask but if you're legally allowed to fly you can then make a judgement call; from my experience you need to know the laws in your country (or where you're flying) as being able to cite them is often enough to persuade "angry" landowners

Ridg Posted at 6-19 01:34
Hi Henrik, I've been a fan of your videos for sometime as they are well produced and informative.

Now I'm not sure if this is lost in translation or just a bit click baity, confrontation isn't really the right word yes he's lurking around and probably would have approached you if you started flying however confrontation would mean he is hostile or argumentative.   By initiating a conversation with him you've managed to deal with the situation before it potentially escalated (into a confrontation).

Thank you

Yes, I'm properly guilty in click-baiting a little here :-)

Looking back I should properly have engaged with him and offered to film his property for free. It all happened so fast, and I'm happy it did not end up in a hostile situation.

AJC-W Posted at 6-19 00:20
That is very restrictive - and totally different to the UK. Do you have a link where your aviation authority states you can not fly a UAV over private uninhabited land marked by a bush? You also state in your youtube video description that you were about to fly over the land before you initiated the 'confrontation' - were you therefore preparing to fly illegally?

I have been flying there many times under the assumption this was ok as long as I took off from the roadside and not flew over his main property with his house on the other side of the road. But this situation made me look one more times at the rules and it says you are not allowed to fly over private proprty including associated areas clearly marked with a fence, wall, bush, etc.

This is the law for private drone pilots (§ 13, section 3): https://www.retsinformation.dk/F ... 6-9ce4-16b60850ddf3

Henrik Olsen Posted at 6-19 04:36
I have been flying there many times under the assumption this was ok as long as I took off from the roadside and not flew over his main property with his house on the other side of the road. But this situation made me look one more times at the rules and it says you are not allowed to fly over private proprty including associated areas clearly marked with a fence, wall, bush, etc.

This is the law for private drone pilots (§ 13, section 3): https://www.retsinformation.dk/Forms/R0710.aspx?id=194974#ida45b3e97-f466-4446-9ce4-16b60850ddf3

I'll have to take your word for it as not in English - that must make it very hard to find legally compliant flight locations. Rather you than me

AJC-W Posted at 6-19 05:29
I'll have to take your word for it as not in English - that must make it very hard to fine legally compliant flight locations. Rather you than me

Could not find it in English, sorry about that :-)

Just looked at your profile, it's quite an impressive fleet of drones you have flown

Henrik Olsen Posted at 6-19 05:54
Could not find it in English, sorry about that :-)

Just looked at your profile, it's quite an impressive fleet of drones you have flown

No worries mate.

Yeah, had ten DJI drones over the past few years. Just the Mavic 2 Pro left now (and all I need)

In Canada, land owners only have air space rights above their property that is needed for the maintenance of their land. However, most owners believe that they do have privacy rights and this can lead to an unpleasant confrontation. Arguing with land owners, or showing them the regulations and debating the legal points, will just exacerbate the situation, and could lead to tense moments. I think it’s better to just leave with an… Excuse me for bothering you. Or maybe offer to share the finished images with them. Who knows, it’s not every owner who have arial images of their property.

One other thought on privacy issues. I believe that it’s the drone noise that bothers people, more than the thoughts of privacy invasion. Drones have an annoying, large insect buzzing sound that seems to get on people’s nerves, and draws their attention to the aircraft. I’m certainly no aeronautical engineer, but maybe a different propeller design for drones might be the answer. Possibly a helical designed propeller that screws into the air, instead of the blades that slap it. It might mean a new motor design, who knows? I’m sure that engineers could come up with something. Then again, maybe blades are as quiet as they're ever going to be. Worth looking into. The designer that nails this problem will be doing everyone a great favour.