The last few weeks have not been very positive for drone pilots with the Gatwick and Heathrow events. Coventry even said they would bad drones entirely shortly after (which has been backtracked somewhat which is positive ) we have been having some interesting chats over on the dronetrest discord chat server
But now it’s good to see some of the big guys stepping in with DJI urging people to stop panicking as the two supposed drone incidents have not even been confirmed as being caused by drones yet.
You can read a nice summary article here:
Lets hope that the people in charge do realise that basically all of us drone pilots (professional/hobbyists) don’t want to see ether end of this industry.
And at the end of the day, if someone wanted to cause distruption with a drone, increasing the exclusion zone of an airport, or banning drones all together in an area is not going to make any difference to people who have alterior plans.
As someone who is relatively new to the hobby my main observation is the fractured approach to governance particularly from the BMFA. What you choose to fly is not a reflection of character or common sense yet we have seen recently that exceptions are being put in place that singles out multirotor pilots.
DJIs voice in the debate is useful but their motivations are relative to premium off the shelf machines which are a million miles away from race/freestyle enthusiasts.
We are in a predicament whereby the BMFA do not appear to represent multirotor users appropriately thereby we have to rely on DJI to apply some sort of balanced argument. This is frankly hilarious as a quick scan of any fpv social media group will evidence many enthusiasts view towards them and some would argue is why we are in this situation.
So what next? Public opinion is everything, I have been challenged a couple of times since Gatwick and none have been pleasant. Despite being a 40 year old man who considers himself extremely polite to strangers, I just wish people would take the time to talk to me rather than than screaming “you don’t belong in the countryside” from the lady surrounded by dogs.
Hopefully it will all be a bump in the road and not much will change, or maybe our media will take a balanced approach to the hobby rather than generating hysteria.
They will be new laws coming in no matter what happened , They has to be some rules of safety where people fly and they also need to be accountable for insurance when things go wrong , I would be the first to ring the police if I notice anyone breaking the laws , I think its important for everyone to do this to protect this hobby from people who give us a bad name.
) we have been having some interesting chats over on the dronetrest discord chat server 