Awesome shots, TJ. Very beautiful work. The Devil's Advocate in me has to ask...
Jamal,
Good questions. As with anything, safety is entirely dependent on the person using the tool. Most people drive cars safely, but quite a few don't. Most full-scale airplane pilots fly safely, but a few don't, and sometimes things outside of human control happen that create unusual danger, such as violent weather, or malfunctioning gear. Good pilots avoid flying in inclement weather, and do flight checks to test gear before flying. Same rule applies for good RC pilots.
I've been flying for over a decade, so with my skillset and experience I'm comfortable flying in these locations. But some amateur fresh out of the hobby shop with a multi-rotor and no idea what he's doing could pose a slight danger to anybody or anything he flies around. When I say "slight", I mean that a multirotor won't kill anybody, heck, the motors aren't even strong enough to cut someone. The worst that could happen is a small bruise or bump. Regardless, hopefully people are smart enough to know what their skillset enables them to do and operate their gear safely.
That being said, even if a guy with a small multirotor were to bump into a rock formation at Fantasy Canyon, it wouldn't hurt the formation in the least. It's not THAT delicate. When I said that the formations were delicate, I meant that if people and children decided to climb all over them, some formations could be damaged. A few years back the most famous formation in Fantasy Canyon was destroyed by vandals. I've heard a few people insinuate that it was done by a famous photographer who wanted his most valuable photograph to be immortalized and irreproducable, but most think it was just careless kids throwing rocks or climbing on the formations.
Let me put it this way, I wouldn't encourage friends to have a keg party there, nor would I encourage scout masters to take troops there.
I've been filming wildlife quite a bit this year, and am surprised how calm most animals are around small multirotors. They're not big enough to pose a threat, so most animals will trot at about whatever speed you're flying, which for multirotors isn't very fast, and when you move away, they stop and go back to grazing. If you stop and hold still, most animals will actually approach the multirotor to get a better look because they're curious. But some idiot could go out and chase a starving animal in the core of winter until it exhausts itself, and that would be, in my opinion, criminal activity. The RC flying wouldn't be the criminal part, you could do the same thing on foot or with an ATV or motorcycle or snowmobile or full-scale aircraft. Therefore laws banning anybody from exhausting fragile animals would be logical, but not banning an entire sector like RC out of fear one idiot may do it. If that logic were followed then all vehicles known to man would have to be banned, as would horseback riding and the man himself. As a rule, if I want to film wildlife, I give myself a short window to get a shot, usually 30-60 seconds, and then move away (as demonstrated in the horse shot), so as not to overly fret the animals.
Regulations regarding RC aircraft are currently in flux, the FAA is working with the AMA (Academy of Model Aeronautics) to come up with a new rule set for this type of activity. The problem is that the FAA, which announced it would be producing a rule set back in 2007, has done literally nothing in the past six years, and has just postponed their rule making again for another year. In the mean time the aerial photography & film market has absolutely exploded, with some vendors selling units by the tens of thousands every month. The FAA has put itself in a position where any rules it make may be irrelevant - hundreds of thousands of pilots flying model aircraft with cameras aren't gonna just shelf or throw away their gear. The FAA has no way to police the activity, and few Americans will respect their authority, especially since they never go through the formal legal process of making laws (i.e. legislative proposal, debate, and bill signing). Since 99% of people operating multirotors rarely fly higher than a few hundred feet, and air traffic rarely travels under 1000 feet (unless landing or taking off from an airport), most people see it as a non-issue. There are already laws against flying RC gear near airports. But the FAA claims that any air more than an inch off the ground is theirs to control, and they see it as a threat and want to regulate it. For all their passion on the subject, you'd think they'd have an actual rule out by now, they've had six years to do it. When they finally make a proposal later this year, there'll be more pilots flying RC aircraft than there are flying full scale aircraft, and they'll have a lot more opposition than they would have six years ago.
In the mean time, states and local districts are taking matters into their own hands by drafting local legislation and the majority of states have or are in the process of legislating the activity. Utah has yet to regulate it, but it will eventually if the FAA fails to do so. Some states have passed laws, primarily based on privacy concerns and not safety. The senator for Oregon for instance introduced laws banning it because he "didn't want somebody spying in his bedroom window". To which I say, "stop messing around with your maid or neighbors wife and it won't be an issue!"
There are other laws enacted by other government organizations that prohibit ANY aircraft, whether full-scale or model aircraft, from flying in their jurisdiction - among them are many National Parks such as Grand Canyon, Arches and Zions Park. If you get caught flying any sort of aircraft in those areas without a permit, the fines are steep... several thousand dollars. For that reason, I like to seek out interesting locations on BLM land, where there are fewer people and the areas are designated for recreational activities. Fortunately, Utah has an abundance of incredible landscapes outside of National Parks that would take a lifetime to explore. When I say "would", I mean "will".
TJ
