
Drones Outpacing Rules as Popularity Soars in New York - mcenedella
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/04/nyregion/drones-outpacing-rules-as-popularity-soars-in-new-york.html
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MindTwister
This is why we need regulation and rules:

    
    
      “They started jumping for it,” he said.
      “I started taunting them, bringing it down and then taking it up.
      They wouldn’t leave until their mom dragged them away.”
    

If he was flying a Phantom with carbon propellers somebody could have gotten
seriously hurt:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji3Hii_LZOc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji3Hii_LZOc)

The current rules in Denmark (which I believe to be slightly too strict).

* No flying within 150m of city areas

* No flying within 150m of larger roads

* Maximum flying height 100m

* No flying above crowded areas (including vacation houses etc)

* No flying within 5 km of airports

* No flying within 8 km of military airports

* No flying over specially protected areas (think wildlife preserves)

* Special care must be taken not to endanger lives and property

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psaintla
And that is why multicopter enthusiasts, including myself, absolutely hate DJI
phantoms. They are marketed as toys but they are powerful enough to do major
damage and people who buy them don't even realize it. I've personally
witnessed a DJI owner try to stop running propellers with his hands and
another who thought it was a good idea to fly dangerously close to the heads
of some girls who were sunbathing. It's gotten to the point where I seriously
believe you should have to take a safety course and get a license in order to
fly these things.

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ck2
When I was little we used to go watch the RC planes enthusiasts flew in a
remote field, it was fun to watch and they were on private property,
disturbing nobody.

With drones you better realize quickly you do not have the right to be in
someone else's private airspace. This should be prosecuted like trespassing.
The problem is, just like people who set off fireworks weeks before and after
holidays "just because they can and screw everyone else" or point lasers at
airplanes, that laws aren't going to matter to them, they are going to do
whatever they want to do.

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Varcht
In the US there is no such thing as personal airspace to trespass in. What one
has is a right of way to build structures into the airspace as a property
owner and a reasonable expectation of privacy neither preventing overflight.

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mercnet
It looks like land owners do have some rights to their properties airspace:

At the same time, the law, and the Supreme Court, recognized that a landowner
had property rights in the lower reaches of the airspace above their property.
The law, in balancing the public interest in using the airspace for air
navigation against the landowner's rights, declared that a landowner owns only
so much of the airspace above their property as they may reasonably use in
connection with their enjoyment of the underlying land.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_rights](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_rights)

[Edit] Completely missed your last sentence when commenting! I couldn't find
any cases where someone went to court over someone violating their airspace
besides people arguing over airport flight paths.

~~~
Zaephyr
United States v. Causby 328 U.S. 256 (1946)

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lsllc
Alright, not to add to the problem, but I've been thinking of getting a video
enabled drone for fun. Any advice on which model etc?

I'd like one that can possibly send back real time video, also maybe
"hackable"? No need for Hellfires though ... I promise to be good and fly it
in unpopulated areas.

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robotresearcher
Parrot ARDrone 2 is cheap and cheerful, and hackable - it has a ROS driver is
is well used in research labs. It's so lightweight that it's very safe and
survives crashes. Streams live video to your mobile device.

3 or 4 times the price is the DJI Phantom 2 range, which are great, easy to
use. Carries a GoPro or its own camera. A little more dangerous but still not
too scary. Not so hackable, as far as I know.

It's very easy to build your own, very powerful machine from parts using e.g
the Pixhawk controller. Also you can buy ready to fly machines from e.g. 3D
Robotics. Great fun. As dangerous as you want to make it. Take care!

~~~
lsllc
Hey, thanks for the info. I'll take a look!

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cylinder
They can go away. I don't need to worry about an aircraft with eight propeller
blades being operated by an amateur idiot landing on my face when I'm trying
to relax in a park.

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wehadfun
This is when taxes can be used for good. Obviously these things are too cheap.

