Originally Posted by
aymodeler
Arguments about safety will get us nowhere because there are too many documented cases where people have done something they shouldn't have and there is almost no way to track them down (unless they were stupid enough to post it to YouTube under their own account ... and there have been plenty of people stupid enough to do that too!).
You mean like the guy that flew a quad up to Seattle's Space Needle observation deck(500ft up), circled it twice while recording everyone there and then flew down the street to a local apartment building and then recorded what could be seen through windows with open drapes? Or maybe the person that flew another quad into Seattle's "Big Wheel" after which it crashed and was picked up by the Seattle Police and never claimed. Total damage was a broken prop, a quick fix that would have made it good to go. In both cases, the following legal issues were raised:
- flying in close proximity to FAA approved and documented helipads, some at medical and trauma centers
- flying over people
- recording people without consent and privacy violations
Even in the case of the one where the police ended up with the quad, a popular model sold at Best Buy, they couldn't do anything as Best Buy didn't record the serial number or who bought it. Had it been a requirement to record that information, the person could have been tracked down, cited and maybe got their very expensive quad back