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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Drone constantly flying over back gardens

100 replies

MikeRafone · 08/09/2023 10:41

I thought privacy in your own back garden was a given - ok a few windows from neighbours

But we have a drone that keeps flying over our gardens in the town where I live every Friday.

Im not keen on this and wonder what they are looking for?

OP posts:
GasPanic · 08/09/2023 10:50

Quick web search suggests it is not legal to interfere with these things.

The only thing I would suggest is talking to your local councillor and talking about your concerns re privacy.

I don't know about the legality of filming people in their gardens via drone, I suspect it is illegal. Maybe if you talk to the local councillor perhaps they can arrange for the local police to visit the drone owner and remind them of this, which may help stop it. I suspect that if you go to the police directly you would be unlikely to get much action.

2jacqi · 08/09/2023 11:02

you need to start watching where it is going when it stops. Obviously a neighbour has bought one. I have one but I take mine into the countryside. maybe try hitting it with a stone . certainly tell the police, not that they will do anything

Oto · 08/09/2023 11:15

I would film it and keep a log on the dates and times I see it. I'd also put a post on my local FB group about it to see if anyone else knows anything or if they have also clocked it.

MNetcurtains · 08/09/2023 11:16

Anybody you know have an air rifle? I'd be taking that down!

refreshingseahorse · 08/09/2023 11:19

How high is it? Near enough for a targeted hosepipe squirt?

KrisAkabusi · 08/09/2023 11:20

MNetcurtains · 08/09/2023 11:16

Anybody you know have an air rifle? I'd be taking that down!

That would be adding criminal damage and a firearms charge to her problems! Don't do that!

MonumentalLentil · 08/09/2023 11:47

Unless it is a company with a licence, it is illegal to fly drones in built up areas.

I usually post on the local FB group that it is a safeguarding issue and illegal and it stops.

Stripeypyjamas · 08/09/2023 11:48

This has been on our local residents Facebook page a lot. Apparently legal if it's below a certain size. The main suggestion was to blast it with a hose pipe.

MNetcurtains · 08/09/2023 11:50

KrisAkabusi · 08/09/2023 11:20

That would be adding criminal damage and a firearms charge to her problems! Don't do that!

Show quote history

Fair enough, accidentally hit with the jet wash then.

Original poster
MikeRafone · 09/09/2023 12:04

Thank you for your replies. I have been staying inside when the drone is flying over. I've rung the police who said with knowing who is operating the drone there is little they can do. I find it unnerving someone elsewhere watching and looking up and down. I know there are cameras everywhere watching whilst we areaway from our homes, but home is where to my mind should be private and that includes my garden, which is not overlooked apart from one landing window of a neighbour

OP posts:
GasPanic · 09/09/2023 12:14

You should be able to find out where it comes from. In general the flight times are not that long - maybe 20 mins ? And the owners do not really want to lose sight of them as if they do they might not be able to recover them.

Try and track the directions you see it flying in. If you see it a lot their should be a pattern. Maybe watch it from an upstairs window. It may well be just a teenager who isn't really considering how intrusive it might be.

Original poster
MikeRafone · 09/09/2023 13:01

Maybe watch it from an upstairs window.

I have a curtain of shrubs and tress, as this gives me privacy, so even from upstairs I can only see the houses opposite - well their roof. The drone comes from that direction and then goes out of sight.

My neighbour is unhappy about the drone and has tried to find out where it is coming from, he knows far more people than I do in the area.

OP posts:
Menopants · 09/09/2023 13:03

Catapault

WandaWonder · 09/09/2023 13:04

Is there any tall trees that need watering with a hose that goes a long way?

LakieLady · 09/09/2023 13:20

I didn't know that @MonumentalLentil .

This thread is very timely. Yesterday, I was driving along the High Street and there was someone flying a drone approx 15-20 feet above the road. When I stopped a traffic lights, I watched it and it was flying slowly past the first floor windows of the houses and flats above shops. It looked for all the world like it was trying to film inside the buildings, although it was very sunny so I can't imagine it would have been able to film much.

At first, I thought it might be being used to survey the outside of a pub, but then it went along a row a houses at first floor height, and hovered a good while outside some of the first floor windows (houses open straight on to the pavement, so it wasn't over front gardens.

I would hate to see a drone flying close to my front windows, and I wondered what the law on this was.

notimagain · 09/09/2023 13:28

There's lots of advice in the Civil Aviation Authority codes about where it's OK and not OK to fly drones, but there aren't many actual legal restrictions (in the UK) on anything weighing less than 250 grams (which applies to most of the hobby stuff)..

About the only clear cut "no" is flying in the protected zone around airports/airfields.....

Another link with links here:

https://register-drones.caa.co.uk/drone-code/where-you-can-fly#:~:text=Most%20airports%2C%20airfields%20and%20spaceports,at%20or%20near%20the%20site.

Original poster
MikeRafone · 09/09/2023 13:47

but there aren't many actual legal restrictions (in the UK) on anything weighing less than 250 grams (which applies to most of the hobby stuff)..

ok, thanks for this - it doesn't look very big so doubt its over 250grams. Guess our neighbourhood will just have to put up with this drone flying up and back constantly over peoples gardens, whether they are looking in the back windows I don't know

OP posts:
Doone21 · 09/09/2023 15:31

Air rifles are not firearms but if she can't locate the owner who the hell is going to prosecute for criminal damage? And she's got mitigating circumstances.

Doone21 · 09/09/2023 15:32

Sorry if you're a bloke, just spotted your username

Vegemiteandhoneyontoast · 09/09/2023 15:49

We had a drone going over the gardens by us a few years ago. It turned out to be a group who were learning how to operate them, who gathered in a nearby car park. After I flicked the Vs at them a few times, they stopped flying over.

Daisymay2 · 09/09/2023 15:53

One of the adjacent villages has had a spate of breakins in garages and sheds associated with drones flying over back gardens. Police are very interested in trying to track who is flying them and asking for 999 calls when they are stopped.

longtompot · 09/09/2023 16:02

Our neighbour mentioned we had one that's been flying over our gardens which I hadn't seen, but today and a few days ago I heard one but can't see it. I hate having them fly over our gardens as it feel such an invasion of privacy, especially with this weather as people will be sunbathing, and there is nothing we can do about it.

topnoddy · 09/09/2023 16:05

Well they never found who was flying that one around Gatwick airport did they !

Is there anyway of blocking the signal that controls them I wonder

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