Saturday morning and Maureen and I decided to spend a couple of hours on the beach at St James Tidal pool.
Nice.
No wind, hot day not too crowded.
I (it goes without saying) had a camera with me as well as my drone.
It was low tide and there were lots of children playing in rock pools catching “klippies”, a few adults sitting on rocks watching.
I decided to move a way a bit and launch my drone to do a short movie clip of the activity in the rock pools – there were a couple of kids standing next to me,
who insisted that I share the view on my iPad with them – they were enthralled.
Ok, so ten minutes later, mission accomplished, camera switched off, I turned and headed for home – which is where I was standing.
In the interim a young couple with two children of about 2 and four years old, had plonked themselves right in front of me …
My drone was heading for home it was 20m away when this woman jumped up and rushed at me!
I was told in no uncertain terms, told to get that thing out of her face, she didn’t come to the beach to have her day spoiled by drones flying about. And how does she know I hadn’t taken a photo of her while she was changing on the beach?
I tried to explain that, the camera was off, I was coming to land, she was now standing under my hovering machine.
I was told that she was a lawyer and so was her husband! I think this was meant to fill me with fear and trepidation.
I was told that I was breaking the law!
I was told to get that thing down!
Which I couldn’t do because she was standing in the way.
But hold on a sec, if she was changing on the beach wasn’t that indecent exposure? She’s a lawyer, should know better …
I kept that thought to myself – not that there was much to look at anyway.
She started quoting improvised drone rules and regulations at me,
carried on about being photographed and then, then she clicked my Grumpy Old Man switch! “You should be so lucky!”
I saw this big mouth moving in front of my face with unconnected sounds spewing forth.
Grumpy Old Man alter ego told her quietly to “fuck-off”. He was told to do the same right back.
Then she rushed back to Mr Lawyer and the kids and started shouting at him, the poor sod, “Why must I always be the one taking action? You do nothing!”
In my humble opinion, I don’t think this Mr Lawyer was ever given a chance to stand up for himself let alone, his family!
So he walked up to me – if one could tip-toe in soft beach sand, that’s what he did, and started quoting more fictitious laws (in feet and inches nogal).
But he was a lawyer, so he knew.
I explained the real parameters to him and showed that I was packed up
and within my rights so he turned and tip-toed back to his blanket.
Next I looked up and the two legal beagles were frantically tapping their respective phones. Checking the rules no doubt …
There was a couple sitting nearby and when I had landed and packed away the drone, the man came up to me and thanked me for “making his day”. He said he had been watching her while the drone was returning and she had been preparing for a confrontation in her head and he wanted to see how I would handle it.