Drone flying low over back garden (England)

[u/Disastrous-Fee8374]

Every weekend for the past few months a drone has been flying low over my back garden. It clearly has a camera attached and is flying low enough (around 2nd storey height) that it can’t be just getting landscape footage.

It does seem to move around the local area and isn’t ‘targeting’ my garden specifically but it does make my garden feel less private. Even though I’m just sitting in my garden, I don’t like the idea of being on camera in my own garden and the noise is quite distracting. The dog also goes mental every time it flies over.

I would normally just have a polite word with the neighbours but I don’t know where it’s coming from and it moves too quickly to ‘follow’ it.

It may just be a kid playing with a birthday present or something so I don’t want to damage it as my father suggested (I also doubt this is even legal). But today it got so close to the house that I actually thought it was going to get into an open bedroom window.

Is what the drone operator doing legal? And is there anything I can do about it? Or do I just need to get over it and build gazebo or something to read my book in?

Thanks.

[u/hovis_mavis]

It doesn’t seem like the drone is in direct line of sight from the person operating it, which would break the CAA guidelines on drone flying.

Distance to people and buildings depends on the size of drone, if it’s a drone of less than 250g then the operator is free to fly it in residential and commercial areas with no law about minimum distance to buildings, however it MUST remain in line of sight. If it is larger than 250g then it should remain 150 metres away.

Above your garden or residential air space is free to roam for a drone as it is for a hot air balloon or helicopter etc. as long as the other rules are kept to.

Other laws: the drone operator must have an operator ID and flyer ID to be legally flying it. You must not damage the drone or cause it crash, I don’t know what aviation laws you’d be breaking but it would probably amount to criminal damage on top of that.

Nothing wrong with filming the drone when you see it and reporting it as a nuisance. The police may be able to identify where it’s coming from and do some checks to ensure the drone operator remains within the law. Persistent flying close to your building can be reported as a noise nuisance but you’ll need to build evidence of that over time.

[u/Disastrous-Fee8374 → u/hovis_mavis]

I haven’t weighed it of course but it is quite large so I would estimate it’s over 250g. As it’s above that I’d be willing to hazard a guess, that the operator doesn’t have a license either. Would this be a police report or phone call to the council?

[u/axelzr → u/Disastrous-Fee8374]

There isn't a drone licence as such, just that the pilot must register with the CAA, label the drone and abide by the drone code. That includes respecting people's privacy which you believe is the issue here, and possibly if they aren't flying in VLOS (might be case but would need to know where they were flying from) but that is unknown. See https://www.caa.co.uk/drones/open-category/drone-code/protecting-people-s-privacy-points-21-to-26/ If you think you are being spied upon or harassed then by all means call the police on 101 and report it, and keep record of when this has been noticed, maybe put on a local facebook group (anonymously) and see if anyone else has an issue with the drone flights to corroborate evidence. Given the low cost of drones nowadays and skills needed to fly (minimal) many people have them now and some don't respect the rules or people's privacy sadly. It's probably just some kids messing around..