I
have no personal experience with drones; I’ve never seen one in action. I would be interested in seeing how one operates
but I have absolutely no interest in owning one. What?
More stuff? Get away.
The
subject of drones hit the headlines before Christmas when Gatwick Airport in
England, was closed for more than a day while the authorities attempted to
track down the perpetrators. As for the actual outcome of that exercise the
result seems to be a blank; suggesting there was no outcome or maybe there is
someone, in a bathroom somewhere, still cleaning egg off their face. The presence
of a drone in the airspace at Gatwick did however throw the travel plans of
many people into chaos.
Closer
to home, another drone flying incident caused problems when a bushfire started
on Bruny Island, south of Tasmania, in December just prior to Christmas Day. It
was not a huge fire but it needed to be contained and extinguished. Ground
fire-crews, supported by water bombing aircraft worked hard to gain the upper hand
over the fire. The water bombing aircraft were grounded when a drone was
discovered flying in their airspace. Police were able to pinpoint where the
drone was controlled from and put an end to this dangerous business.
Drone
owners have responsibilities and there are laws in this country governing the
use of drones. It is possible, that in the excitement of unpackaging the drone
and taking it out to a nearby open area, you might completely disregard the few
guidelines suggested by the authorities.
Do not fly your drone above 120 metres;
above that you are in controlled airspace.
You must always be able to see your drone by line of sight and it must
not be flown at night. Hard to see your drone when it is dark, you know.
Keep
it away from crowded areas and do not record or take photos of people without
their consent. All pretty straight forward but for those who like to push
legality to its limit, maybe not so much fun.
Enough
of this droning on….
 |
| Not a drone in sight here Timor Rock. Coonabarabran NSW Circa November 2006 |
Ah drones... love them or hate them they are producing some awesome photos! A new way of looking at our landscape. No I don't own one, but we did have one on farm 6 years ago for filming when they we quite rare and only the serious videographers had them.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, they are very useful for ariel photography; I'm sure they are a boon for photographers providing overheads for real estate agents here in the city, for example.
ReplyDeleteAlphie