for any other ‘drone amateur’ around - there is no excuse on ‘i didn’t understand the law’…they make it very clear in English also Flying drones in Switzerland and EU regulations: What applies from 2023. and particularly for my friends in Zug… Forest Law: Stricter rules for bikers and drone pilots - Zug4You @dotdavid you were really lucky!
Three tips for drone owners which could help if you lose your drone.
- Print a sticker for your drone with your contact details and perhaps even offer a reward for the return of your property.
- Save a clearly labelled txt file in the root directory of your drone with similar information.
- Consider taking out DJI Care which includes amongst other things a replacement for flyaways and loss.
I’d happily break apart and throw in the trash any drone I find in nature, and if it offered 500 CHF reward.
Nah, break it apart and post it back…then they have to recycle it.
Which is completely mindless since it just creates more electronic waste. Why not donate it to a charity shop or offer to return it with a stern warning and demand that a ‘finders fee’ be paid to the Red Cross?
Tempting, but I would enjoy smashing it into pieces too much. Bossybaby had already figured out the recycling bit, so your solution is futile.
So in your opinion recycling a smashed drone is equivalent to the energy and resources required to create its replacement?
I hate to burst your bubble but a lot of mixed-material recycled stuff quietly ends up in landfill, either here or in the 3rd world, making much of it “feel-good” busywork for the middle classes.
A better strategy if you really care about the environment is to reduce consumption, which in this case involves not buying a new drone because some self-righteous bloke decides to stamp on your old one.
Look, I just hate drones and I wish a pox upon the houses of the people who fly them. Maybe with the exception of Ukrainian soldiers.
Well hasn’t this become a nice conversation.
I am all for drones being flown responsibly, and it’s obvious that people like me don’t do the correct due diligence sometimes - I take full responsibility for my mistake here. But we should all be able to learn from our mistakes. We can agree to disagree, but I don’t get the hate for a basically harmless hobby. It has unlocked the dream of flight for hundreds of people at a cheaper price point than ever before in history. Why would you want to destroy that? Seems to be quite a miserable outlook on life to me.
The dream of flight?
Only because you cannot afford a proper plane it doesn’t mean you have the right to noise-pollute and annoy me on a hike in the mountains.
A nice weather hiker? Drones can’t fly with a little bit of wind. Rain scares away people flying drones. Easy, 300+ days/year without drones
You must be one of these “turn the other cheek” people.
Haha yeah I agree the sound of drones is annoying and wind and rain soon puts a stop to them. And yes they’re not like flying a plane or a helicopter (though both are noisier). But honestly, being able to see the world from a different perspective is an amazing thing.
I think drone operators should have consideration for those around them and maybe not fly if people are enjoying the tranquility. But equally if someone is flying a drone I’m going to wonder what cool thing they’ve seen or are doing rather than wanting to smash up their equipment.
There was a post here (or at EF) of a guy who had lost his drone on a via ferrata. Presumably flying this piece of crap over the heads of climbers who could not escape and had to endure this intrusion into their privacy while navigating a challenging climb. Only because this fucker wanted to “see [and film] cool things”.
Mate, there are constant stories of hikers trampling farmers fields in the UK, or going hiking improperly equipped, getting into trouble and risking the lives of mountain rescuers. Yet I don’t think hiking should be banned. There are idiots in every hobby.
Mate, this is Switzerland. Trampling through a corn field is not hiking.
Well ok if you want to focus on the particular agricultural use of the land then that’s fine. Corn fields, managed forests, pastureland with livestock, glaciers, fields of wildflowers - you get some inconsiderate hikers in all environments. But that wasn’t my point and I think you understand that. I can see we are not going to agree on this.
Whenever you fly a camera drone around people who you haven’t asked whether they are OK with it, you are intruding. Your whataboutery about people trampling a field has nothing to do with it.
If there wasn’t anyone around that waterfall at the time you crashed your toy, I am cool with it and applaud your “dream of flight”.
I wouldn’t call pointing out that there are idiots in all hobby groups “whataboutary”, and I think you’re being a bit dismissive of what people get out of drone flying with your “dream of flight” mockery. But we’re agreed they shouldn’t be flown around people. As a new technology sometimes social norms take time to become established. I think we should all be a bit more considerate of others.
There is no law against non commercial filming of people in public spaces, if there was everyone with a smartphone would be breaking the law. Its a matter of consideration, and most camera drone operators are more interested in filming vistas as opposed to buzzing hikers.
My DJI Neo is virtually silent at 30 meters altitude, which is the minimum I tend to fly at to avoid annoying people.