Dealing with Distractions - 002
We were asked to do a photo job of the downtown of a major city. The photo would ultimately be turned into an artistic rendering to be put on t-shirts, mugs, calendars and the like. You might be asking who uses a physical calendar, and I would agree but guess there is a market somewhere.
The challenge going into the mission was picking a spot that would conceal us from too many onlookers and safe with respect to not flying over people. A vacant dirt parking lot seemed to foot the bill. Based on our hunch we decided to preflight the drone at the office then when onsite simply take the drone out for ops checks and initialization to get us up and running more efficiently. This was a good call because the more time we were onsite the more attention we were getting. When this happens, more people get interested in what is going on and want to stop by, watch and ask questions. As more people gather there is automatically more risk, from distraction and having safety fly back to the Landing Zone (LZ).
After being there for ten minutes or so a lady came out from her home located across the street and said, “Are you taking pictures of my house?” Since I wasn’t flying, my response, as friendly and non-threatening as possible was, “No ma’am, we aren’t interested in your home, just getting a photo of the downtown skyline.” I suppose this worked, although you never know if this is followed by a call to law enforcement, alas she hung out on her front porch watching the drone do it’s thing. Loud verbal inquiries usually begets more onlookers which began to happen, fortunately my Pilot Manipulating the Controls (PMC), or flying the drone, was returning back for a landing.
One of the more aggressive occurrences happened while preparing to shoot the exterior of a major network studio,” when a security guard hurriedly approached saying it was illegal for us to take photos of the exterior of the building and to leave immediately. Fortunately, the fellow with me had been prior media and knew his stuff with respect to legally shooting pictures. He quickly and concisely said he previously worked as a journalist and that the law was that we could legally take photos from the street side of the building as we were on public property (don’t mistake this for legal advice). The security officer stood back on his heels with this remark, realizing that my partner knew what he was talking about and “clarified” that the company would prefer we not take pictures of the building. We were able to get the shots we needed and the security guard returned to the building, no harm done. Although it was more blunt conversation we still handled the situation with calm confidence.
Distractions can be a serious safety issue and seem to come with the territory with respect to drones. Designating a non-flying person before the flight to answer questions and deal with issues to not disturb the pilot is easy to do. If your crew is spread out over the area and someone comes up to the pilot while flying, be polite and offer (if safe) to answer all questions after focusing on the flight. Finish with “thank you” out of courtesy. Putting your best face forward isn’t only good for specific situations but good for the drone industry. Having said that, realize there are times when you don’t have the luxury to deal with people this way, like in a task saturated state. Please take a minute to share a story about dealing with distractions.
TC Freeman is the Chief Instructor for the RemotePilotAssociation.com (RPA) and has a passion for helping recreational and commercial drone pilots learn to fly and earn FAA commercial Remote drone Pilot certification through live, hybrid or self-study courses.
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#drone, #dronephotography, #dji
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