Camera copters...

[EverCurious]

Okay so apparently someone got one of these camera copter toys up on hillside (ritzy neighborhood in Anchorage.) The folks up there say this thing is flying low and hovering near their house windows; they're worried it is casing the houses to see who's home - we are having a rise in property crime this year, though its mostly a spike in auto theft. Now, if that is indeed what this person is doing they are clearly new to Anchorage; none of the wives up there have to work lol I personally suspect its just a neighbor, or their kids, playing with a new toy - taking pictures of the Anchorage Bowl and the mountain range and such.

In any event, there has been a bunch of local discussion about if one can legally shoot down said copter if it's near house windows - invasion of privacy and all. The local copter community seems to be near universal agreement that /if/ someone is flying below 200 feet near private homes [without permission] then home owners /should/ shoot it down because they figure the pilot is up to no good (same as the residents on Hillside.)

However, it was mentioned in the course of debate that a) anything above your shingles is considered federal air space and thus its not trespassing and b) that the FAA had filed these things under the same category of airplanes; so basically the argument is that if one shoots down the copter, in the eyes of the law, it's the same as shooting down an airplane. (Which also apparently means Fed, not Anchorage, jurisdiction - aka "Alaska Common Sense" rulings are out the window.)

Does anyone know if either of these are true, I can't seem to find anything solid on the laws for some reason (its mostly social media BS)

I thought I had read about a guy who shot one down cause it was spying on his daughter and the court ruled it was fine (don't remember what state), there was mention of a copter being shot down somewhere else legally as well (SF maybe? I don't remember and I can't find the post.)

 

[DarkFury]

The one the man shot down was lower then his fence was tall. It was IN his yard.

The FAA does in fact say its illegal and a federal crime.

Shotguns do not have ballistics so MAYBE it committed suicide huh? If you have someone next door that rats on people? Don't shoot. If all is good in the hood? Take it down.

 

[Auld Phart]

Considered getting one, but flight time on what I want to pay sucks.

 

[EverCurious]

Well this one was allegedly looking in 2nd story windows, but the photos that were captured show it above the tree line.

You might have completely lost me with that last sentence... There are no "hoods" in Alaska, much less on Hillside (these are million+ dollar homes in very low crime, highly desirable area - views of the city on one side, unfettered mountains on one corner, and an ocean view on the other, huge houses and lot sizes, privacy, nice neighbors, yet still easy access to the city for shopping.) Anyway, up here we don't call them "rats" we call them caring neighbors and good citizens... We're in an entirely different place than the lower 48, crime is not "accepted" up here and our tolerance for it is fairly low, in fact you'd be frowned upon if you "looked the other way" on most issues. I think the only ones that get kind of blown off are muni laws designed for the metro area; like leash laws and discharging fireams "in city limits" because we're not urban, in fact we are actually /still/ classified as "rural" and have a had a hell of a time getting FedEx and UPS to stop charging our businesses "rural fees. Still most of that's a throw back to before we got annexed.

/rant on See back in the day Anchorage gobbled up every small town within 60 miles so they could meet some Fed numbers game quota, we went along with it because it was best for the state, but we've regretted it deeply - our property is worth far more because of the high paid military peeps we attract, which means we pay around twice as much property tax as Anchorage, but /THEY/ get to vote on us getting new schools and shit now. We suffered for 30 years needing a second HS for our kids, /I/ recall having to run back and forth between the school proper and three separate portable buildings for my classes back in the late 80s/early 90s and that was when the population out here was like 20k, now it's around 40k (though we just got the second HS two years ago and it came with another elementary school too - all thanks to the school super who happened to lived out here so he knew our plight, he started fighting hard from the inside for us, without him Anchorage asshat's would still be fucking us out of our property taxes. They won't even give us a proper fire department, ours is 98% volunteer, they gave us one truck to cover our entire 40k population! We set up a fund raiser and bought a second one, had a custom city emblem put on it too ~thumbs nose at Anchorage~ Uhm it's kind of a chessmatch... like a few years back we lured all the police to come live out here then the police started pushing for us to get better coverage, lured two private air ports out here so we now have a basis for better road maintenance, stuff like that. /end rant

I must be getting tired, I start rambling around bedtime heh

 

[dannyboys]

Okay so apparently someone got one of these camera copter toys up on hillside (ritzy neighborhood in Anchorage.) The folks up there say this thing is flying low and hovering near their house windows; they're worried it is casing the houses to see who's home - we are having a rise in property crime this year, though its mostly a spike in auto theft. Now, if that is indeed what this person is doing they are clearly new to Anchorage; none of the wives up there have to work lol I personally suspect its just a neighbor, or their kids, playing with a new toy - taking pictures of the Anchorage Bowl and the mountain range and such.

In any event, there has been a bunch of local discussion about if one can legally shoot down said copter if it's near house windows - invasion of privacy and all. The local copter community seems to be near universal agreement that /if/ someone is flying below 200 feet near private homes [without permission] then home owners /should/ shoot it down because they figure the pilot is up to no good (same as the residents on Hillside.)

However, it was mentioned in the course of debate that a) anything above your shingles is considered federal air space and thus its not trespassing and b) that the FAA had filed these things under the same category of airplanes; so basically the argument is that if one shoots down the copter, in the eyes of the law, it's the same as shooting down an airplane. (Which also apparently means Fed, not Anchorage, jurisdiction - aka "Alaska Common Sense" rulings are out the window.)

Does anyone know if either of these are true, I can't seem to find anything solid on the laws for some reason (its mostly social media BS)

I thought I had read about a guy who shot one down cause it was spying on his daughter and the court ruled it was fine (don't remember what state), there was mention of a copter being shot down somewhere else legally as well (SF maybe? I don't remember and I can't find the post.)

A couple of years ago a neighbor bought one of these copters when they first came on the market so he could take it in the bush and locate elk. Highly illegal now but the law hadn't gone through making it illegal then.
He was fucking around with it in his backyard. He flew it over his neighbor's yard. His neighbor shot it out of the air using a full-choke 12 gauge magnum from twenty feet out.
I see no difference if someone is taking photos/vids of my property using a copter or doing the same using the same technology sitting in a vehicle outside my home.

 

[EverCurious]

I'm honestly not sure where I fall on the matter, I mean for me a copter camera would be awesome to get shots of the inlet (sunset) and mountains (sunrise) because even on my top roof I can't quite get over the trees in our yard. But at the same time, I understand not being too keen on folks trying to see in windows and stuff. Like, uhm, we don't have curtains on our house lol, we have trees that block everyone from seeing in, but a copter camera could maybe slide into the back yard if they fly it right - I'd be a bit upset if some copter cam was checking out my master suite while I took a shower or something so I can see the invasion of privacy issue as well...

Idk, but I'd sure like to know the actual laws on it cause I /was/ thinking of getting one for pictures and stuff, but I don't want to spend $4 just to have JP Cars shoot it down (they like to have crazy parties and skeet shoot off the back porch heh)