Usually perfect peace, on my balcony, this eve, destroyed by somebody’s drone. Very loud, very close. Just minutes. I’ve never seen or heard one before, and it sounded exactly like a swarm of hornets, very angry and coming straight for my cat, asleep nearby. Very scared, not knowing if hornets are ever aggressive, I got things to throw, gravel, rocks, sticks etc…the loud buzz seemed to be within feet of us. But there’s a lot of roses and trees etc all around, so I couldn’t see it clearly, just the disturbance in trees nearby, and the noise. Was ready to buzz everything I had to break up the ‘attack’ when I realized it sounded a bit mechanical. Too even, no change of tone or volume, and guessed. Drone. Later I heard it again, but further away. OK, so can I buzz rocks at it, if they come back? I know in UK you can occupy airspace …over someone’s garden…but not lower than 30 metres I think. I think I need something more efficient. An air gun, or…what kills drones effectively?
A shotgun should do nicely, or a rook rifle if it is still possible to get one.
Or one of those heavy-duty catapults.
Haha!!! Vero!! You always cheer me up! The joy !! Of blowing it away!!
I think you have to have a gun license? With a reason? Like wild boar on the rockery?
I do have the tuskers sometimes. The river is dry, so they can go where they like, now.
Maybe for self defense, they’d let me keep shotgun or rifle. Have you got one? I think a catapult takes too much time. Like archery.
Perhaps now they’ve taken all the photos they need, of my house and garden, they will go away and never come back…
Perhaps a few “banger” fireworks might give the impression that you are shooting at it.
I would think the person flying the drone won’t be far away as ranges are not huge for a cheap drone.
I know in the UK it’s illegal to shoot one down, the actor David Jason was moaning about one following him in his garden and he was tempted to go and get his rifle and shoot it, the interviewer pointed out it was illegal to do that.
Doesn’t seem right they can invade your privacy and you can’t fight back
There are rules in place. You can complain to the Gendarmes…
Thank you for your comments and suggestions!
What a monstrous toy !!! Who cares about disturbance, human or wildlife?!!
Must be ready for the next one, at least get some fun out of it as a target…The noise so close was quite terrifying. I sent an email to the gendarmerie, they usually read and reply. If I had read the govt. info before, I would have phoned, maybe the enthusiastic droner could have been arrested.
Completely destroys the countryside peace, with the shocking noise. They were operating it from a nearby river bridge, I saw it later, about as big as a laptop PC. …flying around the bridge and up and down the river.
The noise continued for about an hour, but further away.
I know nothing at all…I suppose drones of that kind are for photography. Perhaps it was the Google Mappy people., I wrote quite recently to ask for my house to be restored to their google maps. Check to see if yours has been obliterated! They had put it in, as a misshapen blob, without any connecting road, quite wrong, as there’s a pretty good track to my gate…the bangers could be a nice idea. I’m not good at hitting targets.
If ever legal…and popular…time for me to leave Planet Earth. Intolerable. I remember when Transistor Radios became wildly fashionable!! No one had invented headphones, then.
Marching around thumping OFF buttons on radios, was one of the few joys of life at that time. All workmen came with rights to make hideous noises while they plumbed or fixed wiring, etc.
Definitely will, next Time !!
Buzzzzz . … I had the same problem so took out all my old tennis balls and started to try and knock it out of the sky. Great fun watching it dodge them and the dog loved the game of fetch. Sadly the drone has never attempted another spy mission !!
The SF Bot is telling me, you are new here, Simon, and "Let’s welcome (gender-free)… ‘them’ !..(it doesn’t recognize him/her names!) So! “Hooray!Welcome to our community!”
It didn’t occur to me to think of the thing actually dodging missiles! That’s a pig. Spoils everything. HOWEVER… It might be a good idea, inspite of likelihood of sad, no second, show…to Be Prepared anyway… I’d like to be a good public servant, and destroy it, but I think I go for Mat’s explosions, too. A few giant bangers…, Its the drone playmates Id like to impress. If you just knock the thing out of the sky, they might bring back another one, another time, and never know what happened to the first one. Or…maybe it sends photos back to base, all the while…don’t know…
All my neighbours are hunters, so they are all armed. And some urban hipsters found our Hamlet and the forest are a nice spot to practice drone filming and racing, so they exercise their shooting skills everytime a drone is flying too close above their houses.
We have a ground to air defense sovereignity system into our hamlet.
What if the drone is actually being operated by the Gendarmarie or other security forces for quite legitimate purposes?
It might be over your property but covertly ‘watching’ somewhere else with a long range lens.
You shooting the thing down will be regarded as illegal and there will be consequences…
Add to that, a UAV out of control could kill somebody or seriously maim them.
It’s in the same league as directing laser beams at pilots in aircraft.
DON’T DO IT!!
Graham,!..that’s drifting into movie land and harry potter! The cops are (in my experience) unlikely to do anything as iffy with their drones, unless in an emergency situation, which is likely to be so extremely rare, as you describe it. At least,…SO FAR…who knows what no-deal brexit will bring…
??
Maxine! Sounds perfect…Except each time I start thinking about tooling up, myself, with a Kalashnikov, or a rocket launcher, ., …I think of the horrific state of USA, with guns in the hands of crazy/beastly people murdering kids, by accident or design. (Every year, 7,782 children and teens are shot in USA. ).This is quite good hunting territory, and hunters are around .they occasionally hit each other, I feel safer with rocks and fireworks.
Drones don’t have the right to fly over 150m, if over they do enter into the french aerial space and are submitted to air trafic laws.
Drones don’t have the right to fly over urban areas, houses, sensitive places (nuclear plants, military areas, …), stadiums, airports or close to airports, no flying at night, no flying above persons unless you have the autorisation for a special event (Tour de France, sport competition…). Drones don’t have the right to record people without their autorisation. “Droit à l’image” is something serious in France, you cannot take pictures of people without their permission in France.
https://www.studiosport.fr/guides/drones/un-drone-a-t-il-le-droit-de-survoler-ma-maison.html
So if the drone is flying over your house over 150m, it’s okay, Under 150m it’s illegal. And to fly over 150m, the drone pilot needs a special licence.
@Jeannette you need this
but there again - two ‘wrongs’ don’t make a right so shooting the thing down is a big no-no.
Consider this:
My 2 cents worth… probably not even worth that !
So I fly drones, and in an answer, if your a profession drone flyer e.g. you have a license and insurance etc., you would NEVER fly over properties without consent … written consent in France … unless you are at the suitable distance from the property. In addition, you must have consent to film/photograph if the property/person can be recognised from the picture.
Secondly, you would need too ensure your not braking any local restrictions… e.g. many communes have no fly zones unless you have permission from the Marie etc.
Part of these rules are to protect people who are not under your direct control as well as their own privacy. Suppose the drone was out of control or had a malfunction and started to descend, if someone tired to catch it or something, the blades could chop the fingers off !
However, the is no rule about to buying a drone and flying it as ‘you’ deem fit… and that’s the issue.
Are you allowed to shoot/stone down a drone … there seems to be no direct law to say yes/no… that’s one for the lawyers, I just wish that countries made a law to make everyone be qualified and insured !