Ornoth

It’s been a year, so let’s debrief about my experience as a drone aircraft owner/operator.

I’m not terribly good at spatial orientation in three dimensions, so I bought a cheap $50 quadcopter, mostly to see whether I could develop the skills to become a competent remote operator before dropping real money on a quality drone. The craft—a Syma x5c—had a low-quality video camera, but no live video feed or stabilization or other advanced features. And it was light enough to elude most FAA regulation.

Syma quadcopter

Over the winter I flew it around our apartment in an effort to learn fine control, but of course that was pretty limited in terms of the flying I could do. I did get the cat’s attention, tho.

Meanwhile, I educated myself on the existing regulations for drone pilots. What I learned is that you are not legally allowed to fly a drone, period.

That might be overstating the case, but just barely. You cannot fly one within five miles of any airport or hospital. You cannot fly over any public property, including schools, parks, ballfields, streets, cemeteries, etc. You can’t fly over other people, nor on private property without the owner’s permission.

After thinking it through, I think there’s only two places you might be allowed to fly.

I haven’t seen anything prohibiting operating directly over an unregulated body of water like a large lake or river. Of course, that’s not the best place for an unskilled pilot to operate an electronic device with limited radio controller range and a very short battery life… Bloop!

Or theoretically you could operate on private property that’s more than five miles away from any airport or hospital, with the owner’s expressed permission. Which is a resource I don’t really have any access to.

So, basically, I haven’t used my quad outside at all.

No, I did take it outside just once and flew around the tiny cement driveway between our apartment house and the next. That sucked, because the quad’s light weight meant it drifted about in the wind, which increased the danger of crashing into one of the buildings (larger drones are much more stable in the wind). And I was probably still violating some law about flying too close to people’s windows.

There are UAV clubs that rent flying space for group events, but they expect dues, and are for enthusiasts with expensive professional or racing rigs costing hundreds if not thousands of dollars; they’re not accommodating of newbies just learning to fly with cheap, off the shelf toy-store equipment.

So my big aerial adventure was an unmitigated failure. I guess that explains why you never see drones around, even though their prices have come down to the point where anyone could afford one.

It feels a lot like getting a shiny new bike for Xmas as a kid, but having to store it in the attic until all the snow melted and you could ride. Except in this case there’s no summer to look forward to, because recreational drone use will never be allowed to get off the ground.