Drone sniping

[Seahawk]

Since I do commercial UAS for a living, I have spent some time trying to understand the rules. which are a bit obtuse.

Start with United States v. Causby - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The general drift of regs are that a property owner owns and controls the airspace to the altitude of 500 feet agl about their property.

From another website: "The reason for this is simply aircraft flying overhead. The FAA requires any aircraft to fly NO LESS than 500 feet above the ground. Therefore "if a land owner is to have full enjoyment of his land, he must have exclusive control of the immediate reaches of the enveloping atmosphere.....Thus a landowner owns at least as much of the space above the ground as he can occupy or use in connection with the land", and the invasion of that space "are in the same category as an invasion of the ground."

Here is what I do. If I am flying (I do it all legally) and I think there may be a question in terms of intrusion or the perception of intrusion, I make sure I let people know we are flying. I make sure everyone KNOWS we are flying.

I follow the FAA rules and common sense. If anyone who flys for me parks a quad next to a pool and ogles the talent they are fired.

If someone shoots a UAS of mine parked near a pool, I just lost a UAS.

Think about it. If I saw my neighbor watching/leering at my daughter though binoculars from his yard, he and I are going to have a chat.

[intakexhaust]

Let's not forget one could fly a drone equipped with cam, over their own property but take vid / zoom pics from adjacent private property.

What are you going to do about that? Sure you might have a talk with that neighbor but no court or law is going to come to your defense.

[RedBaron]

I can see these being used to stake out a house before a robbery.

Why use a shotgun? Just use a frequency jammer then throw the drone in the trash.

[intakexhaust]

^ LOL, yeah sure, even if one is techno RF genius, just think about if ever the FCC found out. No mercy.

If I was pestered by one of these things, I'm in agreement with the others and do what you gotta do under the radar.

Just the other day, local TV news had a report of some drone heads demonstrating flying over others homes with open WiFi networks. Stupid of course by the homeowners but anyways, these guys showed how they were in on the homeowners PC and info grabbed. Quite elaborate but I suppose stuff like this is another possibility of what malicious drone activity can do.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by intakexhaust

Let's not forget one could fly a drone equipped with cam, over their own property but take vid / zoom pics from adjacent private property.

What are you going to do about that? Sure you might have a talk with that neighbor but no court or law is going to come to your defense.

I believe a court would agree that you have a reasonable expectation of privacy inside your fenced back yard or pool and that taking photos of you while you are in your protected area is an invasion of your privacy.

[widebody911]

Originally Posted by intakexhaust

^ LOL, yeah sure, even if one is techno RF genius, just think about if ever the FCC found out. No mercy.

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/a-florida-resident-drove-around-with-a-cellphone-jammer-84369099229.html

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/10/fcc-targets-craigslist-cellphone-jammer-vendors-issues-six-citations/

[reachme]

Powerful HERF guns can be roughly made from easily obtainable old components like microwave ovens. Aiming would be simple for close flying drones and I doubt anything small and flying will have the shielding to withstand a focused, amplified shot. Nothing.
It goes from spying to a doorstop in about 300ms
But don't do it. The risk of sensitive electronics on airplane/jet/satellite miles beyond that or atmospheric echo you are not even considering is just too great and you would never want to be responsible for any human fatalities. Your safest shot is only straight overhead.


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[MBAtarga]

Originally Posted by vash

I'd put on a home made cellophane "speedo"and camp out at the pool. Legs akimbo. If I can't shoot the thing down, I'm at least tainting the operators minds-eye.

So I guess you are assuming the drone is equipped with a magnifying glass lens?

[vash]

It's short but at least it's thin too!

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by VINMAN

It troubles me that a few of you guys have no problem with someone watching you.

But haven't you heard of the "war on terror"?

"It became necessary to destroy freedom to protect it!

[aschen]

Except nobody want to watch me. Probably no perv wants to fly over your house for months in the off chance that he might catch a glimpse of your wife in her one piece. Its not like these things are totally silent and she wouldnt notice.

Shoot a drone down if you feel justified. But odds are you are just killing the expensive toy of probably a 15 year old kid that has taken an interest in a technical hobby. A hobby that teaches about RF, signals, control systems, thermodynamics, electronics construction, programming, and aerodynamics. There is even a decent chance said kid is one of those elusive job holders that saved up for such a fancy toy.

There are a few idiots doing some dumb stuff with quads, but the incidents are pretty isolated, and I think some of yall are flattering yourselves if you think anyone wants to surveil your backyard.

Maybe we can make them illegal with all this drama so kids can get back to their TV and cheetos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8JyCGXrFbk

[aschen]

If a Porsche ever drives by my house with loud exhaust Im gonna throw a rock at it

He deserves it for messin with my auditory freedom

[GG Allin]

A wrist rocket and pachinko balls would work

[intakexhaust]

whata country!

[LEAKYSEALS951]

^^^Tracers at the end very cool.

[Racerbvd]

Easy fix.

[HHI944]

Originally Posted by Racerbvd

Easy fix.

Nah, something like a suppressed benelli m4 would be my choice.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

In all seriousness I'd try to capture it / net it. I could probably then use it myself by finding the right kind of controller, etc (it'd turn into a little project for me - how to get my "free drone" working for me now). If I couldn't I'd seriously consider using my 12 gauge on it. One has to consider they'd be firing up into the air so using 7.62, 5.56, .44, .45, .50 cal, 9mm, or .22 would be pretty reckless because regular bullets are going to travel a very long way (a mile or more) and who knows what they might hit on the way down. It's the same reason that firing into the air in general is pretty stupid unless you really are in the middle of nowhere and absolutely sure there's nothing for a very long way around that could be inadvertently hit by a descending bullet. Buckshot probably wouldn't go too terribly far and / or be terribly likely to hurt or kill someone on the way back down to terra firma so I think it's probably the best choice. Even lighter (birdshot) would probably be better still (better spread and less travel). I have a lot of woods around and most of what surrounds my property is conservation land so it's very unlikely any misses would impact anyone or anything. I doubt most of you have a whole lotta' nothin' around like I do so I'd question the wisdom of shooting anything that carries further than 00 buck up into the air for the sake and safety of other people.

If you do happen to live in the middle of nowhere and had a free shot, I'd say go for it. Situation dependent but it bothers me that these sorts of threads seem to bring out the macho-man / Rambo wanna' be streak in people. I hope they're just talking tough and wouldn't actually be launching FMJ or lead projectiles into the air indiscriminately in anything even remotely resembling a populated area.

Also consider there may be legal implications - some places allow you to own firearms but have laws against discharging them - even on your own property. Stupid, but many laws are. That doesn't mean they still can't get you in trouble potentially. If someone happened to hear or see you blasting away you might get a visit from the local popo and they probably wouldn't be too gentle about it knowing they were going up against a "mentally unstable individual with a firearm" or whatever it was dispatched as.

Like I said, it's situation dependent. If it could be done safely and without undue risk of getting arrested I say go for it. People should respect each others' privacy and property and that means not being stupid and flying camera-equipped drones around without property owners' permission. I know if anyone flew a drone (particularly one with a camera) over my property I'd have no reservations about capturing or destroying it.

[crustychief]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

The only recourse is go outside and find who is flying it. They are in sight of it.

By legal definition yes. I know a couple of guys that have some impressive FPV setups and fly on their own out in the desert, often out of sight.

[Rick V]

Like I said PULL!!
I live out in the sticks, in a small town and there would be no reason for flying a quad around my place, Now if it was one of the neighbor kids, They would be outside watching it as it flew, and it would be no trouble finding the owner and just asking them to buzz someone else. Now if the owner was not visible, Then we would have issues, well I wouldn't but someone would be out a quad.
You wouldn't come walking up to my house and just start looking in the windows, playing football in my yard, or using my hammock without asking me, why would someone think it would be okay to buzz my place with an RC toy?
12 ga. #8's problem solved