Nosey Drone

At our archaeological society, we use a drone and also have a married couple with a light plane (C42) who photograph ancient sites from the air. Sue uses a proper digital SLR and the photos are superb, far surpassing anything we take with the drone. Their lectures include loads of pics of the local big houses from the air, and are also good enough to identify individual people on the ground (A dig director was amused at a recent talk when they showed him a photo of himself scratching his head at a local dig) Their talks are very popular and no-one has so far complained :scratchhead:
Out of the thousands of drone pics we have taken, I think the only identifiable person I have seen is myself, and that is only due to an itchy finger at take off. :)
 
Location
East Mids
Having seen our herd stampede when they took exception to a hot air balloon (luckily only half heartedly so no harm done) I do worry that one of our neighbours is going to get a drone and start playing with it over our main grazing field. Cows don't like buzzing noises....
 

GenuineRisk

Member
Location
Somerset
So it's OK if it's kids 'being nosey' or those pursuing an occupation like archeology (the latter I would have thought would have the nouse to restrict their aerial photography to historical sites, having gained the landowner's permission to do so beforehand, I hope) ? So how would it stand if the drone was operating at below 500' - is that legal ? Does the landowner then have the right to remove it? If they don't, then what's to stop them being used at much lower altitudes, looking in houses etc, which is what I guess those up to no good will eventually start using them for. I've got no beef with folk using them for proper leisure or research purposes as long ask they ask permission.

We have logged our OS coordinates for those flying hot air balloons commercially, as mares and foals and cow and calves don't mix with one coming low over them and firing the burners. The pilots have to make every reasonable effort to avoid the farm.
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
I believe must not fly closer than 50m to people or private buildings, not closer than 150m to crowds. All these unless the building, for instance, is under the control of the pilot. The drone must be under 20kgs. If flown commercially or larger than 20kgs the CAA license must be held as well as insurance.
No more than 120m above nominal ground level and within line of sight horizontally.

Also must not be flown in or near 'restricted areas', which includes airports, defence establishments, power stations and other common-sense places. Problem is that today's users may completely lack common sense. Its the price we pay for allowing the lowest common denominators to multiply faster then other demographics.
 
The most common types that would take decent pictures are limited to 120m altitude and also have built-in restrictions on airport approaches, etc.I still reckon that if you want to take a useful photograph looking through someone's upstairs window, there are much easier, cheaper and more discreet ways of doing it than using a drone- a compact camera on a stick for instance (not that I ever do that, of course) :)
 

Forever Fendt

Member
Location
Derbyshire
Having seen our herd stampede when they took exception to a hot air balloon (luckily only half heartedly so no harm done) I do worry that one of our neighbours is going to get a drone and start playing with it over our main grazing field. Cows don't like buzzing noises....
I have one you can fly it 10 ft above the sheep no problem at all, go anywhere near cattle at even 80 ft they go mental ,just to add i have only used it near my own stock
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
twit. I am not feeling bad

Dji advise no higher that 100m on start up screen which you have to manually over ride to go higher.

There's more than three times difference between 100ft and 100m.
The official advice, possibly the legal limit, is 122m/400ft. DJI are giving a safety margin.
That is presumably 400ft above the level of the control box at the time and level ground, but where there's valleys, who knows how to measure it?
 

Andy004

Member
Location
Herts
If it's under 3.5kg and has a live link from the camera to goggles worn by the pilot it can fly up to 1000feet. If it's under 7 kg and has no camera it can be flown to unlimited height. And if the operator has an approved (by CAA) safety case then they may have permission to operate closer to people, or at greater height or range than the standard rules.
Standard rule of 400feet is designed to keep them at least 100feet from full size aircraft, which typically aren't allowed below 500feet unless taking off or landing
Cheers
Andy
 
I have one you can fly it 10 ft above the sheep no problem at all, go anywhere near cattle at even 80 ft they go mental ,just to add i have only used it near my own stock
I find our cattle don't mind the Ph3, I use it all the time now for rounding up and they just treat it like a large insect or something, with mild apprehension. They walk away but don't panic, and tend to just move to the next field to be out of the way. :) I wish I'd run the camera for our TB roundup on Tuesday, but will do so for the retest on Friday to get some photos.
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
Not a lot of individual pellets in an 8gauge loaded with BB. Can you hit a flying drone at, say, 70 yards? No idea how fast these things fly, but a general question to which I would like to know the answer.
They can fly quite quick but they can also hover. The trick is in knowing how much lead to allow them.
I'm not very good with a shotgun but I bet my Black Widow would stop one. :)
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
It doesn't matter if it 's flying at 300' or 1000', both would be out of shotgun range.:(
Full choke and 1 1/4 oz of #3 would get close enough to 300' to rock the bugger
(y)
Maybe.
We had a tin shed well out of range behind the old high skeet house at Balclutha (it's now been moved away from the airfield) and we'd always hear the shot landing on the roof from station 5, even 9's go a way..
Bet their rainwater drum was heavy! :dead:
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,293
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top