Busted!!

[RI_Shoota]

Thought this was pretty funny!

Pilot: HMMM....What do we have here??

Drone footage reveals man sunbathing on wind turbine | WPRO-AM

 

[DevRogue]

dude's a monk. how baldsy.

 

[Adimuzio513]

Ummm that dam "drones" invading that guy that's illegally up there's privacy, news at 11.

 

[1264_Solo]

surprised there wasn't russian teens up there doing pull-ups off the edge.

 

[Michael Stevenson]

So?

 

[DodgeP]

This is part of the problem with the hobby in many cases. You can clearly see that the guy is very uncomfortable with the drone in such close proximity and what does the pilot do? Moves in closer. Who's to say it's illegal for that monk to sunbathe up there? Actually if you agree with 1 report by the news stations they state that he is not up there illegally and he does it very often. With no safety gear on, there's no doubt in my mind that this is not that dudes first rodeo up there.

The drone operator got the shot and his 15 minutes of fame. Next!

 

[dmassphoto]

Agree with Dodge. Guy looked uncomfortable once the drone was there, and I highly doubt he was there illegally.

 

[tesmithp]

What idiot came up with that title? He doesn't look like he's sunbathing at all. The guy probably works on them and takes that opportunity to enjoy some peaceful sightseeing... at least until some nosy jerk with a toy flys by.

 

[User Name]

Not sure he looks particularly uncomfortable. He waves initially, shrugs when the drone comes in a little closer, and then lies back down as it backs off. But more to the point, while it's easy to criticize the pilot, you have to admit, anyone would be curious and amused to happen on someone sunbathing in a place like that.

I'm just saying, there's two sides to the story - one person's desire for peace and quiet and human nature's general curiosity. You just can't do something highly unusual and expect people not to be curious. Before camera equipped drones, the guy would likely never have been noticed. If we were to rule out flying anywhere you might happen to find someone doing something unusual, well, we might as well just quit flying all together.

If a general aviation aircraft or police helicopter noticed the guy there, there's no doubt they too would have circled a few times wondering why the guy was there and if he was OK.

There's enough alarm and outrage from the general public over drones. We should try to not feed into it ourselves when it's not clearly warranted.

 

[tesmithp]

I guess I read his gesture as "WTF do you want?"

I can imagine being him and sitting atop a structure like that with no safety gear. I would be uncomfortable with someone flying a vehicle near me.

How is this any different than flying into someone's backyard and invading their privacy by posting the video online? It gives us all a bad name.

 

[User Name]

How is this any different than flying into someone's backyard and invading their privacy by posting the video online? It gives us all a bad name.

It's different because he's presumably not in his back yard, unless he personally owns the windmill or it's located on his property.

If it was someone sun bathing in his own back yard, I would agree with you 100%. But I think this is a case where the situation is so unexpected that the pilot can be cut a little slack. That's all I'm saying. People are curious, and the more unexpected the situation, the more people's curiosity will be aroused.

 

[tesmithp]

It's different because he's presumably not in his back yard, unless he personally owns the windmill or it's located on his property.

If it was someone sun bathing in his own back yard, I would agree with you 100%. But I think this is a case where the situation is so unexpected that the pilot can be cut a little slack. That's all I'm saying. People are curious, and the more unexpected the situation, the more people's curiosity will be aroused.

I agree with cutting him slack for checking it out... But for posting the video? It doesn't matter if the guy up there owns the property; the pilot should not be posting video of anyone on private property without their permission.

That's the kind of stuff that makes every person who's already wary of drones ask "is that thing taking pictures?"

 

[GoodnNuff]

I agree with cutting him slack for checking it out... But for posting the video? It doesn't matter if the guy up there owns the property; the pilot should not be posting video of anyone on private property without their permission.

That's the kind of stuff that makes every person who's already wary of drones ask "is that thing taking pictures?"

Do we know he doesn't have the sunbather's permission? I haven't followed this closely, but weren't there suspicions that the video was staged as well?

 

[tesmithp]

Do we know he doesn't have the sunbather's permission? I haven't followed this closely, but weren't there suspicions that the video was staged as well?

I honestly don't know. I'm just tired of people looking at me like I'm some kind of creep or aerial peeping Tom so I'm probably overreacting.

I just want to take cool shots and play with my toy but I keep having to deal with inquires about my Solo's "spy cam".