A New Westminster man enjoys soaring through the skies – without ever leaving the ground.
After more than a decade flying radio-controlled model aircraft, Brett Mineer purchased his first drone about a year ago.
“I was also always into photography,” he said. “With these small unmanned aerial vehicles coming onto the market, it was a neat way for me to combine the two hobbies.”
While Mineer has flown his drone at a school field in New Westminster, he said it’s not really an ideal – or completely legal – place to fly because of the presence of the helipad at Royal Columbian Hospital.
“Here’s the thing: Often the most interesting places to photograph are the ones where you are not going to be allowed to fly. It’s difficult,” he said. “The federal government is actually responsible for the regulation of small, unmanned aerial vehicles, including so-called drones. Some of the rules they actually have set up mean that flying in New West isn’t really ideal.”
Mayor Jonathan Cote recently received an email from a resident asking New Westminster to consider banning the personal use of drones or instituting stringent restrictions.
“I recognize that when drones are used with care, they can be a terrific tool and provide a level of entertainment,” wrote the resident. “However, I feel far more strongly that our personal privacy, safety and security are very much at stake with this also exceptionally intrusive device.”
Quayside resident Paul Thompson also had a close encounter with a drone last summer, when one was meandering above the Fraser River and the boardwalk before coming close to his balcony and darting away when it had been spotted. While he sees the value in drones as a means of taking videos of the river or finding people who are lost, he’s also concerned about privacy.
Cote said some cities have looked into developing policies, as use of drones has become more widespread. Council referred the issue to staff.
Mineer, however, said residents have little to fear from drones as most aren’t equipped with cameras with zoom lenses.
“A lot of the concerns about, say, spying are really overstated and paranoid. The systems that are out there just don’t have that ability,” he said. “What I would say about privacy concerns is while there is a lot of anxiety out there about being spied on by consumer drones, it’s not an actual problem that actually exists.”
A former reporter, Mineer keeps up-to-date on the latest news about drones and radio-controlled model aircraft. He’s unaware of a single prosecution in Canada for someone using a drone for voyeurism purposes.
“They just don’t work for that purpose,” he said. “People would hear them. They use extremely wide-angle lenses because even with the stabilization systems for the cameras, when you add a zoom lens the shot gets shaky and unusable.”
Mineer said there’s only a few models on the market that are able to zoom in on an object, but those tend to be two-person setups for commercial filmmaking applications – and they cost thousands of dollars.
“In general, I think people tend to overestimate how interesting their lives are,” he said. “I have been in places where I have been accused of spying. I was flying out in the middle of nowhere in Delta and this guy, you can actually see it on my video, this guy comes flying up the road from who knows where and says I was flying over his house, which is not true. I have a GPS map that shows it. I think with a lot of people, there is a lot of apprehension out there about these things. A lot of times, if people see it, they think they are being spied on; the reality is somebody quite simply is probably up there getting some landscape shots.”
Mineer has used his drone to capture some cool images of ferries sailing into Sechelt, getting shots he never would have been able to get with a regular camera.
“Beaches are cool, obviously not around New West. I have been tempted to fly by the Pattullo Bridge to get aerial shots, but that area, just by eyeballing it I can tell it’s going to be full of interference. I don’t really want to chance losing my copter there,” he said. “Flying up river beds, around mountainous areas, I find that cinematically you capture some of the most interesting video that way.”
While everyday folk use the images from their drones for videos and photographs, Mineer said others use them commercially for a variety of purposes, including car ads, promotional videos for golf courses or resorts or real estate listings.
“It’s great fun,” he said of devices that can be purchased off-the-shelf or built from scratch. “Young kids are getting into it. We actually encourage that type of thing at our flying club with the radio-controlled planes, and drones are sort of like another evolution of the hobby. It encourages young people to get interested in careers in engineering, tech, aviation and that type of thing. Science is there. You learn a lot doing it. If you are nerd-minded like myself, it’s great. It occupies the brain.”
Mineer has no issues with cities posting signage about the use of drones in places like parks but feels municipalities are wasting their time banning drones because they’re regulated by the federal government. He noted the federal government has been looking at regulations implemented south of the border.
“You can’t be everywhere at once, and more and more people are taking it up,” he said. “It’s a genie that nobody can put back in the bottle.”
New rules introduced
Transport Canada has just introduced some new rules to protect Canadians from “reckless” drone use.
According to the federal government, the number of incidents involving recreation drones has more than tripled since 2014. New rules, announced March 16, take effect immediately for the operation of model aircraft and recreational drones of more than 250 grams and up to 35 kilograms.
* Operators must mark their drone with their contact information.
* The drones may not fly higher than 90 metres, at night, or within 75 metres of buildings, vehicles or people.
* The drones can’t be flying within nine kilometres of the centre of any airport, heliport, aerodrome or water aerodrome where aircraft take off or land.
* Any recreational operator who fails to comply with the new flying restrictions and conditions could be subject to fines of up to $3,000.
* People are asked to call 911 or the local law enforcement agency immediately if they witness illegal drone use.
