Does anybody here have a drone?

I have a Phantom 3 but I have mandatory overtime all weekend and every evening.

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You could try reaching out to a drone store. We were able to secure one for a non-profit fundraiser coming up in September. I believe it was RI Drone, but could find out for certain if you'd like.


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Where did he go? It has been 6 hours... I hope they didn't discover some devious plan and come get you before you got to borrow the drone and do something fun with it.

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I spoke with a friend who's been flying RC aircraft for a couple decades, after the news reported the "hundreds" of people (3 hours post-event) at the last State House rally.

For Boston Common / State House / rally, there's a list of problems due to the recent changes the FAA made.
- FAA licensing of the drone if it weighs (???) grams (approx. weight of 2 sticks of butter).
- Flight plan filed multiple places, due to proximity to Logan/people.
- Potential requirement for FAA licensing of the pilot due to proximity to Logan/people (~$2000 total fees, class time).
- Prohibition on filming if there is any profit made from it. This includes putting it on a monetized YouTube channel, taking donations from anything related to the footage, donating it to a news station that runs ads, etc, etc.

This is a slightly different situation with a rolling rally, but many of the things remain the same.
 
The DJI Phantom 3 several of us have is very easy to fly. It has two joysticks, an automatic takeoff mode, and an automatic "home" mode. IT HAS A GPS and altimeter. You use a smartphone or tablet for display and there is almost no lag in the video feed.

Max altitude is set at 120 meters / 395 feet AGL.it also has a database of airports built in and will not take off within 1.8 miles of a major airport.Flight time is about 20 minutes and range varies with conditions. If it loses contact with the controller it flies home.

The FAA regulation is a mess. Registered mine with the FAA and taped the # right on top of it. You are supposed to register drones that weigh over .55 lbs / 250 grams. There will soon be a HUGE class of 249 gram drones. This DJI is over 2 lbs with battery.

We live almost exactly five miles from Logan. If I want to fly over the harbor, I'm supposed to contact them. Only they don't want me to call them, because they have no one to take the calls and don't want to be in the drone-approving business! They told me it isn't even clear who should enforce the rules or had the authority to do so!

The FAA has an app called B4UFLY that shows if you are in a restricted zone. It appears the Battle Road is not near a controlle air space, except possibly a section closest to Hanscom.

My experience thus far is that these things are small anf pretty unobtrusive and unless you fly near the ground, no one notices. In fact even with the video feed and GPS map, it can be hard to see. Like the WWII movies if you "fly out of the sun" you can't see a damned thing.
 
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I'm looking for someone to take overhead footage of the Rolling Rally Sunday morning as it passes by, pretty much anywhere along the route from Burlington to Hanson.

The video that will be produced after this rally will be the most important take-away from the whole event. I think good overhead footage will be important.

If anybody can do this, please PM me A.S.A.P.
 
Just make sure the drone isn't "over" people... The FAA makes that requirement.

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I'm looking for someone to take overhead footage of the Rolling Rally Sunday morning as it passes by, pretty much anywhere along the route from Burlington to Hanson.

The video that will be produced after this rally will be the most important take-away from the whole event. I think good overhead footage will be important.

If anybody can do this, please PM me A.S.A.P.

I'd love to help but wouldn't touch this. Too close to an airport, over people, over public roads. Too much of a risk of confiscation and I don't want to spend another question $1500 to replace it. They would look to Crack down on drones almost as much as guns.
 
I'd like to support the rally, just can't be there to do it myself.

It appears drones are prohibited in National Parks. What is the status of the Battle Road?
 
I'd like to support the rally, just can't be there to do it myself.

It appears drones are prohibited in National Parks. What is the status of the Battle Road?

Our route doesnt cover the battle road. We are leaving from Billerica, going Rt.3 to 95 to Rt 24 into Hanson.
 
You're not going to find anyone responsible person who would be willing to do this and I wouldn't trust anyone who would agree to. The FAA restrictions forbid any flight within 5 miles of any airport without prior approval and flying over people or moving vehicles is also prohibited. The only real way to get this done would be from a company who has a waiver to use them for commercial use who would file a flight plan ahead of time.
 
You're not going to find anyone responsible person who would be willing to do this and I wouldn't trust anyone who would agree to. The FAA restrictions forbid any flight within 5 miles of any airport without prior approval and flying over people or moving vehicles is also prohibited. The only real way to get this done would be from a company who has a waiver to use them for commercial use who would file a flight plan ahead of time.
Don't think so.

I looked at the B4UFLY app. Virtually all of the route described above is clear, except for an occasional heliport. It's quite easy to take video at a turn so you can see all the vehicles go by, without being overhead.

Currently, enforcing the regulations set by the FAA is something that cannot be undertaken by the FAA themselves. As a result, it has been left up to local law enforcement to ensure operators are using drones responsibly within their respective communities.

In other communities enforcing the regulations is a bit more difficult than it sounds. In Salem, chief of police Mary Butler said the police have yet to respond to a case where someone was operating irresponsibly or without a proper registration. If such a case were to occur though, Butler said there’s not a lot of action the police could take anyway.

“There’s not a lot of teeth in what we can do outside of contacting the FAA,” she said. “We would check the ID and if there’s a violation we report it.”
 
I'm not asking anyone to break any laws and/or fly with the rally. I would just like some footage of the rally from above.
 
Don't think so.

I looked at the B4UFLY app. Virtually all of the route described above is clear, except for an occasional heliport. It's quite easy to take video at a turn so you can see all the vehicles go by, without being overhead.

Either way you still run into the commercial use issue. The FAA considers it commercial use when they are used by any organization or person, for anything other than personal use, even if no money changes hands. Trust me, I've been in the hobby for a long time and I was in the process of starting my own aerial videography business right when the FAA screwed us all over. If you want to use any type of RC aircraft to video public events (legally) then you need to have a commercial license with a licensed pilot on staff. They'll soon be permitting commercial operations to have a staff member who holds a remote pilot airman certificate with a small UAS rating, but they haven't started the training courses for that program yet. All the people with little experience who bought Phantoms have caused us a ton of problems by misunderstanding (or just ignoring) the rules we all followed for decades, and that's why things have become so strict over the last 2 years. While the chances of anyone getting in serious trouble are slim, the chances of it getting on the news and causing more BS for the hobby/business are huge.
 
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