Drone flying over my garden, what should I do?

My next door but one neighbour has started flying a drone over mine and other gardens. It hovers over my garden at various heights and flies around the area doing the same. If it was just once I wouldn't mind but it's happened at least 3 times that I know of, and maybe more when I'm not outside to see it. I feel as though I'm being spied upon, and although I have nothing to hide it still feels like my privacy is being invaded. I know where it's coming from as I've seen it going down in that garden.

Is it reasonable for someone to do this?

What should my first move be? Do I just go and knock on the door? Or are there any other options?

The people doing it are Plymouth Brethren by the way, and I thought they were averse to such technical things?

Does he have a licence for it? If yes, it's like you complaining about a bloke driving past your window.

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Jimp has, unsurprisingly, got a BB gun for sale on SC!

But failing that I’d just ignore it.

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Originally Posted by uktotty

Does he have a licence for it? If yes, it's like you complaining about a bloke driving past your window.

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Provided he isn’t videoing
However it is a condition of the license that he doesn’t cause nuisance to others.

If it were me I’d shoot it down

The first step is probably to knock on the door and have a friendly conversation. Maybe see if other neighbours have similar concerns and would like to also voice them. The person flying may have assumed it wasn't doing any harm or it may have been an older son/daughter doing the flying. Keep it cordial, a drone flyer may well have done their research on where they can fly, so if you make demands and/or threaten legal action they may well call your bluff (if indeed they're not doing something illegal).

If that doesn't work, a lot depends on the drone being used, which is of course hard for you to determine. One option might be to take a picture of the drone in flight if it hovers and you have a camera with decent zoom. The shape of the model should be able to identify it. If it's under 250 grams in weigh, then it's legal to fly over residential property. If it's 250 grams or over, then it's illegal to fly that close to people and buildings. Odds are it's going to be a DJI Mini, which are under 250 grams and legal to fly over houses.

You can also check if there's flight restrictions in the area. Unlikely if you're not in the vicinity of an airport, but worth a look. Drone Assist is a free app for this on your phone, I'm sure there must be websites that do the same thing too.

Beyond that you're into grey areas such as how low the drone is flying (is it below roof height and looking into windows?) and frequency (can you argue it's preventing your enjoyment of your property?) come into play. But frankly may not be worth it if for someone messing about with a drone who is likely to get bored of it soon enough.

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Originally Posted by uktotty

Does he have a licence for it? If yes, it's like you complaining about a bloke driving past your window.

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Originally Posted by adrianw

Provided he isn’t videoing
However it is a condition of the license that he doesn’t cause nuisance to others.

If it were me I’d shoot it down

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Majority of casual drone flyers will be using sub-250gram drones. There is no requirement for a licence, merely an operator ID. Shooting the drone down would be a very silly move in the circumstances, particularly given the entire thing is likely to be on camera.. great way to end up in cuffs. You don't own the airspace and you don't have the authority to shoot down aircraft.

The Plymouth Brethren are usually quite law-abiding IME (we've got several families around us), they seem to be decent folk and I don't think they would knowingly like to upset other people so I'd vote for a door knock/polite request.

Again IME, their children do use computers but the adults not so much, likewise for mobile phones, they don't like tv/radio and meet frequently to pray.

HTH.

R

Got to You Tube and watch folk flying them over police stations. Even there, nowt can be done. Suck it up I’m afraid.

https://media.istockphoto.com/id/173...ctp4Y0LPG2xgI=

I believe he can record images in public places without consent (ie, park or street) however, if he is capturing video whilst you are expecting privacy in private property, then I am sure there are laws against such scenarios.
So whilst the drone may be able to be flown over your property, using the camera while doing so may be another matter.

Tell the police that you were in your bedroom with the curtains open, naked except for a gimp mask and a gladiator’s net - when you spotted the Drone hovering in front of your window.

Better Call Johnny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIXwQVFt8Ho

go round and have a quiet word , if that doesnt work tell the police you have young children in the garden that are being filmed by the drone.

Throw bibles at it.

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Originally Posted by ralphy

The Plymouth Brethren are usually quite law-abiding IME (we've got several families around us), they seem to be decent folk and I don't think they would knowingly like to upset other people so I'd vote for a door knock/polite request.

Again IME, their children do use computers but the adults not so much, likewise for mobile phones, they don't like
tv/radio and meet frequently to pray.

HTH.

R

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Best thing to do is fit a TV to the exterior wall and leave it switched on, the Plymouth Brethren next door to us do not allow TV watching

I’ve had this lot flying over my garden all afternoon, should I complain?

I assume Biden is coming over for dinner

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...f47e4bb6fa.jpg

What you might want to watch is djaudits on you tube.
He does it to make the point about flying "His" particular weight of drone where he does.
The assumption by the people is you cant fly that over my building.But there are only certain places a drone cannot fly,watch it he tells them all this.They call the Police,they arrive.......they leave.
Nothing anyone can do.He remains within the law.He is basically just saying to people who come out asking what he is doing when its lawful to film in public,if someone doesnt want to be filmed,then dont approach the camera,if they do approach a camera create your own privacy,as he does with a mask.

You have to watch it to get what he is upto.
Oh and he makes money from it too.

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Originally Posted by P9CLY

What you might want to watch is djaudits on you tube.
He does it to make the point about flying "His" particular weight of drone where he does.
The assumption by the people is you cant fly that over my building.But there are only certain places a drone cannot fly,watch it he tells them all this.They call the Police,they arrive.......they leave.
Nothing anyone can do.He remains within the law.He is basically just saying to people who come out asking what he is doing when its lawful to film in public,if someone doesnt want to be filmed,then dont approach the camera,if they do approach a camera create your own privacy,as he does with a mask.

You have to watch it to get what he is upto.
Oh and he makes money from it too.

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https://www.airspacedeveloper.co.uk/...Aviation%20Act.

https://dronesurveyservices.com/my-n...r%20structures.

Go around and have a polite word. I’m sure it’s new toy and they haven’t really thought about their neighbours concerns.

I do some drone photography for estate agents and have had the odd neighbour asking what I’m up to. One guy came out of his home and been told by police burglars had been using drones to survey properties and see what cars were around (this guy had some nice cars).


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Originally Posted by adrianw

https://www.airspacedeveloper.co.uk/...Aviation%20Act.

https://dronesurveyservices.com/my-n...r%20structures.

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I live near Leeds Bradford airport with aircraft of all types over flying "My" airspace,some of the passengers onboard could be taking photos or video of my property!.
Might have to call the airport and have them route around my property.
I wonder if they will do something if I complain.....probably just laugh.

Edit...might have to call NASA too about the iss if it extends into space too.

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Originally Posted by ralphy

The Plymouth Brethren are usually quite law-abiding IME (we've got several families around us), they seem to be decent folk and I don't think they would knowingly like to upset other people so I'd vote for a door knock/polite request.

Again IME, their children do use computers but the adults not so much, likewise for mobile phones, they don't like tv/radio and meet frequently to pray.

HTH.

R

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As it happens I took the dog out earlier and the guy was on his driveway taking some stuff out of his car.
We had a chat about it and came to a mutually acceptable agreement.
He doesn’t fly his drone over my property, and doesn’t point the camera at my property when he flies it.
Suits me.

Good result. People are OK, generally.

Nice to see a reasonable result.


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Originally Posted by oldoakknives

As it happens I took the dog out earlier and the guy was on his driveway taking some stuff out of his car.
We had a chat about it and came to a mutually acceptable agreement.
He doesn’t fly his drone over my property, and doesn’t point the camera at my property when he flies it.
Suits me.

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Result - many things like this can be resolved satisfactorily via a friendly word

Dear Deirdre,

Am I right to be worried and concerned that this thread has reached a satisfactory conclusion without any mention of letter boxes?

I had a similar issue last summer. Turns out it was just one of the young lads up the road. I also know someone who lives on a farm and he had noticed a drone above his house a few times. A week later his barn was broken into and some motorbikes stolen!


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I almost went to work for a Brethren company (flooring), they use a lot of tech, computers, Instagram, LinkedIn etc, seemed like really nice people and I got on really well with the owner, I spoke to some of their non-Brethren employees and they all said good things. They also have a few Brethren companies big in flooring in the UK, they seem a very business focused religion with strong networks to other Brethren lead companies, given work to each other and keeping the money moving.

Glad you got the drone issue sorted, my main concern would be people scoping out things to steal! but as its your neighbour I don't think that is an issue.

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Originally Posted by oldoakknives

As it happens I took the dog out earlier and the guy was on his driveway taking some stuff out of his car.
We had a chat about it and came to a mutually acceptable agreement.
He doesn’t fly his drone over my property, and doesn’t point the camera at my property when he flies it.
Suits me.

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How would you know he isn't pointing his camera at your property?

I find the whole drones and camera thing a bit creepy. They should be banned anywhere near residential areas.

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Originally Posted by Onelasttime

How would you know he isn't pointing his camera at your property?

I find the whole drones and camera thing a bit creepy. They should be banned anywhere near residential areas.

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I said I didn't want it within 25 yards of my property and didn't want it pointing in the direction of my property. To which he agreed.

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Originally Posted by NikGixer750

I almost went to work for a Brethren company (flooring), they use a lot of tech, computers, Instagram, LinkedIn etc, seemed like really nice people and I got on really well with the owner, I spoke to some of their non-Brethren employees and they all said good things. They also have a few Brethren companies big in flooring in the UK, they seem a very business focused religion with strong networks to other Brethren lead companies, given work to each other and keeping the money moving.

Glad you got the drone issue sorted, my main concern would be people scoping out things to steal! but as its your neighbour I don't think that is an issue.

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There are a quite a few in our village and they generally keep themselves to themselves and seem like nice people. It was purely a privacy and disturbance issue for me. If I'm sitting in my garden, or in the swim spa, I don't want someone watching me and the constant buzzing noise of a drone.
He said he wouldn't want a drone flying over his garden either, or his driveway when they have people turning up for their meetings at the weekends. So we came to an amicable agreement.

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Originally Posted by oldoakknives

As it happens I took the dog out earlier and the guy was on his driveway taking some stuff out of his car.
We had a chat about it and came to a mutually acceptable agreement.
He doesn’t fly his drone over my property, and doesn’t point the camera at my property when he flies it.
Suits me.

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:thumbsup:

R

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Originally Posted by NikGixer750

I almost went to work for a Brethren company (flooring), they use a lot of tech, computers, Instagram, LinkedIn etc, seemed like really nice people and I got on really well with the owner, I spoke to some of their non-Brethren employees and they all said good things. They also have a few Brethren companies big in flooring in the UK, they seem a very business focused religion with strong networks to other Brethren lead companies, given work to each other and keeping the money moving.

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Our village has a fair number of Jehovah's Witnesses living in it and when we bought our property from someone who turned out to be a JW it was initially assumed (by the non-JW's) that we were too. Then we started looking for tradesmen and were recommended some that turned out to be JW's... however all the work we had done was up to a very good standard and reasonably- priced too.
I think that the religious commonality ensured good workmanship as they wouldn't like to be complained about, resulting in them all knowing about it - they all talk to each other and the bad news would soon be out!

R

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Originally Posted by oldoakknives

As it happens I took the dog out earlier and the guy was on his driveway taking some stuff out of his car.
We had a chat about it and came to a mutually acceptable agreement.
He doesn’t fly his drone over my property, and doesn’t point the camera at my property when he flies it.
Suits me.

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That is good. On the off chance that it starts back up again then buy yourself a drone for hovering at their back windows. lol

Sell up and move away.

The Plymouth Brethren are a very odd bunch of people. I would be inclined to have a polite conversation about the drone and ask them at the same time how much money they have made from selling PPE ;-) https://www.openandcandid.com/michel...enham-brethren

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Originally Posted by adrianw

Provided he isn’t videoing
However it is a condition of the license that he doesn’t cause nuisance to others.

If it were me I’d shoot it down

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You'd probably be guilty of firing an airgun out of your property, worse than flying a drone.

It was my first thought though!

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Originally Posted by stooo

Throw bibles at it.

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lol,

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Originally Posted by snowman

You'd probably be guilty of firing an airgun out of your property, worse than flying a drone.

It was my first thought though!

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If he was flying it over your property and you shot straight up, would you?

I often wonder the same thing about cats. They are supposedly "pets" but come into my garden, kill the wildlife and crap on the lawn. A dog might be put down for that or at least their owner would be in trouble. I have pets and they stay on my property or else are out under supervision.

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Originally Posted by Rev-O

I often wonder the same thing about cats. They are supposedly "pets" but come into my garden, kill the wildlife and crap on the lawn. A dog might be put down for that or at least their owner would be in trouble. I have pets and they stay on my property or else are out under supervision.

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That’s cause in Law dogs are treated differently, on the road if you hit a dog you should report it to the police but cats you don’t as they are classed as wild animals. Maliciously Kill a cat though and as it’s property you can be in deep poo.


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Originally Posted by adrianw

If he was flying it over your property and you shot straight up, would you?

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Criminal damage basically if you shoot a drone down, even before any firearms use, if you’re getting frequent overflights by camera drones, report it to the police.

A few years back, I was involved in some trials around ‘drone stopping’ on a firing range up north. They were surprisingly hard to stop, even the jamming techniques just led to out of control drones crash landing somewhere.

If you shoot a drone, and it crashes out of control onto somebody or property, you’d likely be in more trouble than the flyer.

I do get they’re annoying though, I had one buzzing around the back of the house last year, the culprits were a neighbour a few doors away grandkids, a quick word had it stopped.

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Originally Posted by Tooks

Criminal damage basically if you shoot a drone down, even before any firearms use, if you’re getting frequent overflights by camera drones, report it to the police.

A few years back, I was involved in some trials around ‘drone stopping’ on a firing range up north. They were surprisingly hard to stop, even the jamming techniques just led to out of control drones crash landing somewhere.

If you shoot a drone, and it crashes out of control onto somebody or property, you’d likely be in more trouble than the flyer.

I do get they’re annoying though, I had one buzzing around the back of the house last year, the culprits were a neighbour a few doors away grandkids, a quick word had it stopped.

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Watch to the end https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m9zn_Nxg_Tw

The boys and girls in Ukraine use this. I would not be surprised when you can find them for sale somewhere. Or on the SC within a few months.

https://i.insider.com/63ef7ab40270b1...jpeg&auto=webp

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Originally Posted by aa388

That’s cause in Law dogs are treated differently, on the road if you hit a dog you should report it to the police but cats you don’t as they are classed as wild animals. Maliciously Kill a cat though and as it’s property you can be in deep poo.


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Law seems a bit muddled TBH.

There’s no need to report killing a cat on road because it’s wild but on the other hand it is still someone’s deceased property…

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Originally Posted by aa388

That’s cause in Law dogs are treated differently, on the road if you hit a dog you should report it to the police but cats you don’t as they are classed as wild animals. Maliciously Kill a cat though and as it’s property you can be in deep poo.

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Are you saying that maliciously killing a dog would mean you are treated any differently than if it were a cat?

R

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Originally Posted by aa388

That’s cause in Law dogs are treated differently, on the road if you hit a dog you should report it to the police but cats you don’t as they are classed as wild animals. Maliciously Kill a cat though and as it’s property you can be in deep poo.

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And without malice? :-)

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Originally Posted by adrianw

Watch to the end https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m9zn_Nxg_Tw

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TBF, I’ve never known a company promotional video promote failure… ;-)

A DJI Phantom is but one drone design, the ones that the ‘men in long brown coats’ set against all the organisations were from multiple manufacturers and the results were mixed.

But anyway, that’s what the trials of such systems are all about, both drone tech and ‘stop tech’ move on. One of my colleagues is ex-Teladyne, but I’m sure they’re sworn to secrecy. :-D