FAA Registration & Irate Bystanders Killing My Drone Flying Mojo

The last time I flew any of my birds was last year. I was SO excited to build and fly, and capture amazing videos and photos from above. Winter hurt a bit. Wet snow and rain, wind and cold make it very difficult to enjoy flying. But worse than that, I have found that I’ve lost my mojo for drones and flying because of the new FAA registration and because of clueless idiots getting in my face every time I fly.

The Big Bird

FAA

I have yet to fly commercially, but that’s a dream for me. I’d love to get hired to fly for any number of reasons like photography, video, surveying, real estate etc. But I have not had the time, or the funds to hire an attorney to draft me up a “Section 333” request for a commercial drone license.

So that leaves non-commercial, or “hobby” flying. To do that now the FAA requires registration as well, which is I think only $5.00. Fine. But the problem I have with that is that the FAA puts the registrant’s name and personal information in a public database. That policy grounded me.

Irate Bystanders

The last time I flew I was taking pictures of my neighbor’s house, at his request. A person who lived in an apartment a block away saw my bird flying and tracked me down. Despite my assuring him that I was not invading his privacy and not breaking any laws, this guy got in my face and threatened me, all the while with a beer in his hand. He’s breaking the law with an open container of alcohol and getting in my face.  That’s just one of many situations where paranoid people have gotten irate at me and simply assume I’m there to invade their privacy.

Perhaps I’ll get the bug to fly now that the weather has finally improved. I’ll re-evaluate and probably get the hobby license to fly, but I’m considering just giving it up as well.