My wife and I inadvertently cantered our horses directly below a low flying drone yesterday (Camber Sands , late afternoon on Sunday 11/10/15)

Probably got some great footage but at the time I didn’t get a chance to find the operator*.

Anyone got any recommendations for the sort of forums I should infiltrate to try and find the owner? It looked like a fairly professional bit of kit so hopefully the owner has a bit of an online presence!

*Didn’t get a chance as in 1) fairly relieved that both horses ignored the noisy whining kit five meters above them whilst crashing through a pool of water, 2) that my wife didn’t want to stop for another mile and you try stopping a horse that is trying to race its friend, takes about 250 metres and it’ll have a huge tantrum when it does slow down!

Illegal to fly a drone within 50m of a person so i imagine the operator might not want to be found 🙂

I’ll ask around, I live local to Camber and kitesurf there a lot, I know a few guys who do drone filming down there

Have to be very careful with where they fly them as there’s a military base down the beach that don’t take too kindly to unidentified drones

Always worth searching on YouTube for “drone” and your area.

I found the footage from one I saw whilst snowboarding doing exactly that.

To be fair, we probably cantered straight towards the thing so the 50m clearance was probably compromised by us 🙂

Done the Youtube thing, only four pages for ‘drone’ uploaded in the past week, nothing for Camber Sands but it was only 24hrs ago so might appear in time.

Thanks Hayes, my wife was on a white and brown horse and I was on a chestnut (ginger) horse 🙂 A bit east of the car park near the sea defences work.

You might also want to try “quadcopter” or “phantom” in place of “drone”.

(as some of them get quite narked at the term “drone”)

Flew one (a borrowed phantom 2 vision plus) for the first time yesterday. It was such a laugh. It could be quite addictive and if I had the spare cash I’d definitely think about buying one. The 50 metres from people, vehicles, buildings or structures rule could be seriously restrictive to being creative. I presume that’s people who have not given you permission to film them. I also presume people/ vehicles turning up out of the blue like in Spooky’s case is also no excuse.

It’s regardless of permission unless you have a specific caa licence I believe.

The 50 metres from people, vehicles, buildings or structures suit could be seriously restrictive to being creative.

I would imagine flying within 50m may be considered too dangerous in some circles.

It’s regardless of permission unless you have a specific caa licence I believe.

Sounds right to me. Personal view but they have the potential to be a complete menace and a great tool for thieving scum bags.

It’s regardless of permission unless you have a specific caa licence I believe.

I can see how this might be the case. It also says not within 30m from anyone but the ‘pilot’ and anyone instructing the pilot at take off and landing so putting your ‘actor’ in there too looks to be against to rules in their most literal interpretation. 50m from anyone being filmed basically renders it useless for filming anyone who wants to be filmed – all the classic shots of following a rider down a set of jumps or hovering over a river as kayakers swoop close underneath would be impossible if you stayed within the law. From my brief play with it one of the big uses for an amateur film maker would be relatively close up replacing a camera on a dolly.

They really are so easy to fly smoothly, I was surprised how intuitive it was to do some pretty complex manoeuvres.

a great tool for thieving scum bags.

As are hammers.

I suppose that clever one that you chuck in the air and then follows (or leads) the rider (aka operator) down the trail gets around the 50m issue as its only close to the pilot 🙂

I would imagine flying within 50m may be considered too dangerous in some circles.

Clockwise or Anti-Clockwise?

it’s regardless of permission unless you have a specific caa licence I believe.

Actually I’ve just re-read.

Paragraphs (2)(d) and (3) do not apply to the person in charge of the small unmanned surveillance aircraft or a person under the control of the person in charge of the aircraft.

I read that as if the person you are filming is being directed by you (“ride down that hill”) the 50m rule does not apply.

Why has this thread gone on about legalities of drones…did anyone even SEE “cantered our horses” in the OP?!

If the inference is the OP is a Hurray Henry of the first order; from memory the OP does not fit that description- self built van driving, mountain biking normal person. 😉

might not have even been filming. not all “drones” are there breaking laws being nosey and being a menace.
although “looked fairly professional” would suggest that camera might be quite likely.
don’t know any that fly around camber sands.

and the drones are in syria. multirotors are what RC flyers fly.

I hope you took the horse poop home with you 😀

If they fly closer than 50m ,are you allowed to shoot them down?
😈

There’s various bits of ‘drone blocker’ kit available that disrupt signals to/from them.

I suspect they’re as frowned upon as flying a drone over Downing Street, though.

If they fly closer than 50m ,are you allowed to shoot them down?

If someone shot down a couple of grands worth of drone I’d follow them till they committed a driving offence and then destroy their car. Seems fair?

Hypothetically-speaking*, would an interceptor-drone with a EMP-canon be legal?

*I appreciate that a useable anti-drone EMP weapon would probably require so much power that the drone required to lift and manoeuvre it in contested airspace would be too big for Maplins to stock.

Why does a ginger horse like to be called ‘chestnut’?

GrahamS – Member

If they fly closer than 50m ,are you allowed to shoot them down?

If someone shot down a couple of grands worth of drone I’d follow them till they committed a driving offence and then destroy their car. Seems fair?

Um…….they have a gun. Seems stupid.

For those of you who are interested in getting into this as a hobby, (more stringent rules apply to professional work) the CAA website has all the information you need on safe flying. This is a good introductory page.

Why has this thread gone on about legalities of drones…did anyone even SEE “cantered our horses” in the OP?!

It’s called the art of conversation. As it’s a forum not a formal meeting it’s ok to discuss things.

I got buzzed by a biplane at the weekend – treetop height so probably closer than 50 metres. He gave us a cheery wave.

My Mum was strafed by a Messerschmidt during the war.

He was flying lower than 50m.

She hasn’t mentioned him waving.

My Great Great Uncle Hanz flew Messerschimdts during the war, he buzzed a woman at 50′ and waved. He doesn’t think she seen him waving.

My Great Great Uncle Hanz flew Messerschimdts during the war, he buzzed a woman at 50′ and waved. He doesn’t think she seen him waving.

I wasn’t my mum, the bloke definitely fired. They were swimming in the river near to Shoreham Airport ‘cos the beaches were all mined.

She had to hide in a ditch with my Grandma and Uncle.

“Weren’t you afraid?”

“Oh no, Grandma wouldn’t have let us be frightened.”

Different times.

My Grandma stuck two fingers up at Jerry during the war, didn’t seem to make much difference.

As for Drones (for thats the impressively descriptive noise they make) We had one buzz us (and many more people) on the beach at Hill Head on Sunday until I told the “pilot” to go fly it somewhere else other than the beach and bird sanctuary. The “pilot” seemed to take offence at my polite request until I asked to see his CAA license.

There is a steep learning curve for this ATM, the more we hear about them on the News the more the message gets out.

I hope you took the horse poop home with you

I assume he shovelled it into a bin bag then hung it from a tree. Why would you treat it different to dog poop?

there’s not a steep learning curve.
there have been RC model aircraft for decades, complete with clubs, and a national organisation that has had involvment in drawing up CAA rules/regulation and law.
there might be a steep learning curve for mere punters that have heard the word “drone” on the news that have sussed that you can now buy cool toys with cameras that are easyish to fly without lots of practice flying conventional controls.

as for blockers.
the cheapest toys are bluetooth, so you have to be within a few metres to block them (and would be pointless cos they’re indestructable)
the cheap slightly bigger toys are all open wifi (easy to pwn, as is well wifi as a whole really, if you know how).
the ‘proper’ ones are all spread spectrum cdma (or somethig like that). your choice of breaking the law and blatting out a huge wodge of 2.4GHz and taking out the entire bluetooth, wifi and ISM band locally, or find at least 255 other mates all with similar ‘drones’ or RC vehicles, and try to totally DDoS the vicinity. (I have seen 100+ fly all within the same field, simultaneously, all attempting to attack a target)

there might be a steep learning curve for mere punters that have heard the word “drone” on the news that have sussed that you can now buy cool toys with cameras that are easyish to fly without lots of practice flying conventional controls.

Thing is there has been a significant step change in their application from the traditional RC aircraft to the camera mounted quads of today. The old RC craft were all about the joy/skill of flying it and doing it in clubs of other slightly nerdy flyers in the middle of nowhere all made total sense. I suppose the drone/quad equivalent are these fpv racer things.

The problem is the new quads attract and entirely different type of person doing if for entirely different reasons. It’s for the photographer branching out into film or the action sport gopro user looking for the ultimate viewing angle. The desire to fly around stuff and people is there where it wasn’t before. I’d say it’s not so much a lack of understanding of the rules but a desire to break them that is the problem. And not for malicious, potentially criminal or deliberately intrusive reasons – that’s a separate problem again.

The CAA regs do seem a little bit heavy handed when applied to the “toy” quadcopters.

I understand the need for safety, but realistically how much damage is something like this little £18 Cheerson CX-10C going to do?

how much damage is something like this little £18 Cheerson going to do?

😀 I let my 5 year old fly my toy quad which is a bit bigger than that.

I do vary the location though, to throw off the CAA agents monitoring us.