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Drones - Useful tool, or excuse for fun?

 
Posts: 183
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Both! Anyways, searched around a bit, even in the "camera works" section and didn't find much. I find myself wanting a bird's eye view of my land regularly, for multiple reasons...

Opinions on these things would be fun to hear!

If you are like me, you've watched a lot of vids on youtube where overhead footage of land really makes for an enjoyable viewing experience which spurs these ideas in my mind to start...be used to inspire others, help you lay out your land, or even make some extra $ working with other property owners consulting/designing landscapes. Deliver a homegrown tomato to your neighbor :)

There are a lot of options out there, and things to understand like FAA regulations, terms like FPV and what that means, techie stuff like HD cameras, batteries, etc.

What do you think about drones? What are your personal experiences with them?
 
pollinator
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I resisted buying a drone for years, seemed frivolous despite seeing plenty of tempting footage online.

An acquaintance brought one over a month ago, and I am 100% sold. Way better visibility through trees yhan I had expected, in winter. Absolutely going to be worth the price, on a large property.
 
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I can see a purpose if an individual has many acres.   I can’t rationalize it for my 11 acres
 
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I can see the value, if only to document progress on your property.

However, be very careful about flying over neighbouring properties without informing your neighbours first and receiving permission. Otherwise, they don't know what's going on -- criminals doing a survey, peeping toms, nosey neighbours, people preparing a bylaw complaint or lawsuit, who knows? It's an invasion of privacy, possibly target practice, and a fast way to create bad blood.
 
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Yeah it varies by state and local/city laws, here's a site for Kentucky laws: https://drone-laws.com/drone-laws-in-kentucky/

I would probably check your state, county, and city sites directly to confirm all the rules too.
 
D Nikolls
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D Nikolls wrote:I resisted buying a drone for years, seemed frivolous despite seeing plenty of tempting footage online.

An acquaintance brought one over a month ago, and I am 100% sold. Way better visibility through trees than I had expected, in winter. Absolutely going to be worth the price, on a large property.



I should be more specific...

I am thinking of properties in the 100+ acre size.

The uses that immediately came to mind once I saw the actual capabilities of a small cheapish (DJI mini) drone were..

1) Locating old roads and skidder trails from above, way more visible than I would have guessed.

2) Checking on things like fencelines, water levels/flooding, downed trees, especially when access is time consuming..

3) Locating trespassers, like when there is 3ft of snow and you are wondering if that noise over yonder is some jackass snowmobiling on your land.

4) High rez mapping/planning/layout/progress documentation.
 
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My husband is learning to use his drone in order to map elevation, do 3D modelling, slope analysis for solar potential, analysis for water run off/water capture analysis.

It's also great to get a bird's eye view of our property over a season to track our progression and help plan for next season.
 
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My friend just got one and it's so useful for my situation... The acreage I'm on has a serious slope to about half of it, with an elevation gain of more than 200ft, and I also have access to a neighboring parcel that's a bit higher, so it makes it very easy to check out what is going on in the higher reaches. I was seriously surprised to find out how long their range can be, and how reliable they can be in general. There's something pretty special about getting the perfect birds-eye view. They sure get expensive though!
 
D Nikolls
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Ashley Cottonwood wrote:My husband is learning to use his drone in order to map elevation, do 3D modelling, slope analysis for solar potential, analysis for water run off/water capture analysis.



Cool! That is definitely a level up from what I have envisioned; do you have a thread about this, or details to share?
 
pollinator
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Technically I find them fascinating.
I see a use for them on large properties, but I am dead against the use of them on public land.
Otherwise I see them as pests.
Issues I have with them;
- crashing into myself, we had one at the race track recently flying 6 feet of the ground down pit lane.
 I thought of eye injury, property damage, lacerations etc if it dropped.
- Complete lack of basic privacy
- annoying noise
- use by perverts
- If they were ever used to deliver good it may be caos and very annoying. Who pays if they crash?
- I see not purposeful benefit to society if they are used within residential areas.
I shoot them out of the sky when I see them, just for the shear pleasure of ruining somebodies day.

 
Ashley Cottonwood
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No, but I believe he was taking online courses through the drone academy? I can ask him when he's home.
 
Ashley Cottonwood
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I'm not sure if it's the same with all drones, but his drone will not take off if it is in a registered flight path. He has to apply for a special licence if he wants to fly even near a flight path.
 
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I've been looking into them to monitor for poachers & potential wildfires. The main problem I have is we are in a cell phone black hole & most of the consumer type drones operate via cell phone.

FAR part 107 is the official FAA regulations regarding small drones in the US. Not too difficult, especially if you already have a pilot certificate. YMMV.

https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/small-unmanned-aircraft-systems-uas-regulations-part-107
 
John F Dean
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Few things can tick off a neighbor like a drone.
 
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I would be concerned about how the wildlife would feel about it - I want this land to be a refuge for them.  Bears, cougars, fisher cats, otters, woodrats, owls, ravens, hundreds of squirrels, and so much more.  It would be a completely new sound and they would probably be freaked out hearing it so close to them, it would probably scare some of them into leaving.  That's enough to outweigh any convenience I could hypothetically get from using a drone.

I hate when people use them in public places, that should be banned.  Especially on the coast here I saw someone fly a drone out over seals trying to hide out on the rocks.  It's horrible.
 
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The one thing that pisses me off more than a cow in Wilderness, is a fucking drone. They have their legitimate uses, but please do not use them over wild land, which belongs to living things, not our toys.
 
Cole Tyler
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Lots to consider...Up on a ridge surrounded by valleys and there are a lot of birds of prey here. Some redtail hawks have a nest in one location and the family hung around here for a while. Now I'm thinking how terrible it would be for one to go after the drone and injure themselves :(
 
D Nikolls
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Philip McGarvey wrote:I would be concerned about how the wildlife would feel about it - I want this land to be a refuge for them.  Bears, cougars, fisher cats, otters, woodrats, owls, ravens, hundreds of squirrels, and so much more.  It would be a completely new sound and they would probably be freaked out hearing it so close to them, it would probably scare some of them into leaving.  That's enough to outweigh any convenience I could hypothetically get from using a drone.

I hate when people use them in public places, that should be banned.  Especially on the coast here I saw someone fly a drone out over seals trying to hide out on the rocks.  It's horrible.



I thought of them as loud and annoying.. but this particular one was pretty quiet, once it got up a few hundred ft. And, nearly all the uses I have for one will involve staying up high.

I figure the impact on wildlife is relative; is it being used as a toy, or a tool that replaces some other impact?

I think it is pretty possible that sending a drone to look at something will be less intrusive than me going out on foot to check it; I am loud, to avoid surprising a bear..

I literally don't know anybody else in my region who doesn't own an atv for those quick checks.. WAY more distruptive than a drone!


I see a lot of really cringey wildlife videos shot by amateur drone people. The cameras are pretty good, there is no excuse for sending your drone near the wildlife. IMO, if the animals show any signs of noticing the drone, the pilot has fucked up.


Here, the wildlife have had to become accustomed to fuckwits in airplanes and choppers.. in theory those assholes are supposed to stay above 1000/500ft, but a chopper at 500ft is loud as fuck, literally earthshaking for some of them, many orders of magnitude worse than a drone. And in practice, I have had both planes and choppers at treetop height more than once.

There is no need for permitting of very small drones under 500ft here. Maybe if more drones were in the air the goddamn planes would fuck off to their designated altitude.. which is still waaay too low..
 
Mike Barkley
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500 feet AGL (above ground level) is the minimum altitude here in the US too. Agreed, that's waaaaay too low. Beside bothering people & animals on the ground if the engine(s) die there better be a good landing spot right there because there just isn't much time to search or to glide far. That's exactly why airplanes do such steep climbs at takeoff. Altitude = options.

If you do see a plane lower than that try to get the tail number. The aviation authorities take that sort of thing very seriously.
 
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