Over-flying houses.

[Blacksails]

We've been asked to get a shot for a short film. The shot requires flying out and upwards from close to an upstairs window and getting an overall shot of the area. Problem is, they want the area to be residential/built up.

My answer was to say that this isn't possible. I said that they should find a house in a secluded area... and then only if we had owners permission would we fly it. BNUC-S training.

Out of curiosity, what would you guys have decided? Would you have said it was reasonable to overfly a residential area that you know is inaccessible to the general public/traffic (private gardens) and have the express permission to overfly the properties.

 

[15crewdawg]

I would think if you had written permission from all of the property owners affected that it would be OK.

 

[matwelli]

I would think if you had written permission from all of the property owners affected that it would be OK.

agree, as long as you have written permission, and public access is controlled

 

[bensid54]

I agree because if they don't want you on their driveway they sure won't want you in their airspace. I'm afraid the paparazzi will find this as a way into the lives of all who want their privacy and not want to hide in their own back yards. Another thing is your craft could get shot out of the air by someone good with a gun and I'm sure you don't need that.

 

[Blacksails]

If it gets shot out of the air over a residential area in the UK then I think there are much bigger problems at hand =D

 

[bensid54]

I see..... Then again in some countries that would be expected.

 

[ZAxis]

I'd say it's the client's problem and they need to arrange things. From your point of view, it's important to get everyone on your side so invite any neighbours to watch things as they happen on the downlink. We've had far more positive reactions than negative when we've operated in public.

andy

 

[Blacksails]

The shot was rearranged over a secluded little country house as they were adamant that they wanted the aerial shot.

Interesting to see that most of you would have flown it with the relevant permissions etc. I'd still be worried about loss of control over a residential area if it decided to fire off in one direction or another. Very, very unlikely...but things like that play on my mind.

 

[matwelli]

Interesting point - about losing control and it flying away

That would make a case for using non-autonomous flight controllers ( no gps position hold ) and making sure your fail safe is set to cut the motors. That way if you loose control it will drop to the ground within your "controlled area"

You see numerous cases of "fly-aways" and that would eliminate that possibility

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

[bensid54]

So from what I'm hearing a Naza GPS could have a fly away situation and the electronics can fail causing more problems. I hope you are being cheeky Matwelli and failure isn't that frequent because if this is the case I may just remain with using a Blade QX.

 

[Blacksails]

So from what I'm hearing a Naza GPS could have a fly away situation and the electronics can fail causing more problems. I hope you are being cheeky Matwelli and failure isn't that frequent because if this is the case I may just remain with using a Blade QX.

If your not aware, flying on a day with very high solar activity can cause fly always, flips and crashes quite easily...and that's with a perfectly functioning gps/controller.

Even the very best controllers can occasionally do weird things. DJI products can suffer from a drift problem. I fly the WKM and its a lovely controller, but I'm always aware of what can happen and never allow myself to get too comfortable with it.

 

[bensid54]

How often can this happen?

 

[matwelli]

So from what I'm hearing a Naza GPS could have a fly away situation and the electronics can fail causing more problems. I hope you are being cheeky Matwelli and failure isn't that frequent because if this is the case I may just remain with using a Blade QX.

Was/am being serious.

I think there is a case that non-autonomous multirotors/helicopters/planes are used when around property and public - as it eliminates another very real risk - regardles of the brand of flight controller

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

[swisser]

If your not aware, flying on a day with very high solar activity can cause fly always, flips and crashes quite easily...and that's with a perfectly functioning gps/controller.

I don't agree with this statement.

Solar activity can cause erroneous GPS signals and therefore, perhaps, erroneous position data for the flight controller. But in a decent flight controller that doesn't cause flips - GPS data isn't used to keep the craft upright. And if you find that a bad GPS signal is causing the craft to fly away then switching to a non-GPS mode (i.e. ATTI mode on a DJI WKM or Naza) would stop it immediately. So on that basis it wouldn't cause crashes either.

 

[matwelli]

I don't agree with this statement.

Solar activity can cause erroneous GPS signals and therefore, perhaps, erroneous position data for the flight controller. But in a decent flight controller that doesn't cause flips - GPS data isn't used to keep the craft upright. And if you find that a bad GPS signal is causing the craft to fly away then switching to a non-GPS mode (i.e. ATTI mode on a DJI WKM or Naza) would stop it immediately. So on that basis it wouldn't cause crashes either. [/COLOR]

I dont know of one brand of autonomous flight controller that has not unexpectedly had a "fly away"

It does happen - do a search

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

[swisser]

With respect Mat, that's pretty much completely unrelated to what I was saying. Someone said that solar activity caused crashes, flips and fly aways, and I was replying to that.

Fly away is a very broad term. Searching forum posts doesn't prove much either really, because there is a strong tendency on most forums to always blame the flight controller when a fly away is more likely caused by the TX/RX.

Anyway, like I say, I don't dispute that all brands of flight controller can go awry, but that's really not what I was talking about.

 

[matwelli]

With respect Mat, that's pretty much completely unrelated to what I was saying. Someone said that solar activity caused crashes, flips and fly aways, and I was replying to that.

Fly away is a very broad term. Searching forum posts doesn't prove much either really, because there is a strong tendency on most forums to always blame the flight controller when a fly away is more likely caused by the TX/RX.

Anyway, like I say, I don't dispute that all brands of flight controller can go awry, but that's really not what I was talking about.

fair point yes we are talking about different things

 

[bensid54]

With respect Mat, that's pretty much completely unrelated to what I was saying. Someone said that solar activity caused crashes, flips and fly aways, and I was replying to that.

Fly away is a very broad term. Searching forum posts doesn't prove much either really, because there is a strong tendency on most forums to always blame the flight controller when a fly away is more likely caused by the TX/RX.

Anyway, like I say, I don't dispute that all brands of flight controller can go awry, but that's really not what I was talking about.

I'm starting to feel a little better about this hobby. Thank you Swisser!

 

[Blacksails]

I don't agree with this statement.

Solar activity can cause erroneous GPS signals and therefore, perhaps, erroneous position data for the flight controller. But in a decent flight controller that doesn't cause flips - GPS data isn't used to keep the craft upright. And if you find that a bad GPS signal is causing the craft to fly away then switching to a non-GPS mode (i.e. ATTI mode on a DJI WKM or Naza) would stop it immediately. So on that basis it wouldn't cause crashes either. [/COLOR]

Thank you Swisser. I was going on what I had read in a thread months ago. Good to have a nice and concise answer.

Whether it's controller error or tx/rx failure, is it ever safe to overfly built up areas even with the relevant written permissions? If any of the above reasons for failure occur during the flight then your very likely to hit something you really don't want to.


I wonder how the authorities would view the situation if there was an accident and you had all of the relevant written permissions of the properties being overflown. If it was a fly away then it would most likely have landed outside of your "area of control" and therefore in or on property that you do not have permission to overfly. My first action in this situation would be to phone any local ATC and inform them of the fly away, heading and last known altitude. I'd then phone the local police and inform them of the same. After that, I'm unsure of the repercussions.

 

[dazzab]

I'm yet to be convinced that manual flying is any safer than autonomous flying. Remember, the flight controller is in charge regardless of what mode you are in. The receiver in your craft sends input to the flight controller which then either passes it on or modifies it in some way or another. If the flight controller fails or has an error I think it's just as likely to cause issues if you are in manual mode as in any other mode. It's not like manual mode bypasses the flight controller. Sometimes I wonder if autonomous flight might actually be safer considering how some people fly. Of course that's given your GPS is in order.

I'm curious about setting fail-safe to cut motors. Doesn't this mean if you experience signal loss for some reason that your craft just drops from the sky? Sounds more like a game of Russian roulette to me. I guess you could set it to land for a soft landing but wouldn't return home be a better option?