Drone insurance

Caged said:
You've got a flying bicycle controlled by radio? Sweet
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No I’ve got a pretty hefty hunk of metal that is in much closer proximity to pedestrians and traveling at a far faster speed.

In fairness the drone has better safety than I do on my bike as if I screw up it hovers in place. On the bike I go smashing into a little child crossing the road if I make a mistake.
 
pioneer2000 said:
No I’ve got a pretty hefty hunk of metal that is in much closer proximity to pedestrians and traveling at a far faster speed.

In fairness the drone has better safety than I do on my bike as if I screw up it hovers in place. On the bike I go smashing into a little child crossing the road if I make a mistake.
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So drones just hang there when something goes wrong? News to me after 5 years of ragging them all over the place and more often than not stacking it :p

And yes, if I had my way adult cyclists would need insurance to use public highways
 
Caged said:
You aren't in a position to guarantee that you won't have a technical issue that causes your drone to fly into a person or their property and cause damage. It's irresponsible to not have public liability insurance.
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Ahahahahahahahahhhahahahaa
 
d_brennen said:
So drones just hang there when something goes wrong? News to me after 5 years of ragging them all over the place and more often than not stacking it :p

And yes, if I had my way adult cyclists would need insurance to use public highways
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Oh I see, so it's probably a racer or el cheapo £30-60 one?

A mavic or DJI series will generally sit there and hover, yes. Naturally it is electronic so historically some have failed and 'fallen out of the sky' at 0.5mph
 
If it's a new dji you can take out a care refresh plan direct with the company which covers accidental damage (with a relatively nominal replacement cost) but not total loss or third party risks.
 
Electronic with precision mechanical parts moving at high speed.
I've never heard of such things going wrong, without warning, ever... *looks at hard drives*

I don't know about you but I'm more worried about the mechanical parts in something than the electronics, and you should look at worst case scenario which would be a 800g (or thereabouts) lump falling from potentially several hundred feet in an uncontrolled manner, and unless they're fitted with automatically deploying parachutes that's likely to be a lot faster than 0.5mph...
 
Can I get catapult insurance :D:p.

Back on topic. As 99% of land is not public open space, you should request permission for access to it and overflight over it, from the landowners IMO.

What happens when a farmer believes it is worrying his livestock, do the same rules as for dogs apply?
 
Delvis said:
Oh I see, so it's probably a racer or el cheapo £30-60 one?

A mavic or DJI series will generally sit there and hover, yes. Naturally it is electronic so historically some have failed and 'fallen out of the sky' at 0.5mph
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Yes racers and acro tri, quad, and hexacopters.

DJI drones can and have started doing their own thing and there is often little the "pilot" can do about it. My point is you can't say "if anything goes wrong it'll just hover" because that's not always true and a dangerous attitude to have tbh.

 
d_brennen said:
Yes racers and acro tri, quad, and hexacopters.

DJI drones can and have started doing their own thing and there is often little the "pilot" can do about it. My point is you can't say "if anything goes wrong it'll just hover" because that's not always true and a dangerous attitude to have tbh.
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There will be a horror story for anything.

Tbh, the mavics etc shouldn't be able to be purchased without specific insurance, or if you are caught using one without then you get the book thrown at you, much like a car.

Racers etc are a different thing all together, and generally are only in control of the pilot and don't have GPS etc (as you know) so quite frankly if you're flying that close to people to cause an accident you a are a bafoon (not you in case you was wondering :p)
 
nkata said:
Can I get catapult insurance :D:p.

Back on topic. As 99% of land is not public open space, you should request permission for access to it and overflight over it, from the landowners IMO.

What happens when a farmer believes it is worrying his livestock, do the same rules as for dogs apply?
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Do these rules apply to all other flying objects in your view?

Might make flying away on your hols interesting!

Of course there should be legal and ethical limits to flying drones (or anything else)

Particularly considering drones are used far closer to the land than most other flying man made objects
 
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nkata said:
Back on topic. As 99% of land is not public open space, you should request permission for access to it and overflight over it, from the landowners IMO.

What happens when a farmer believes it is worrying his livestock, do the same rules as for dogs apply?
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not sure I agree with this. we get regular low flying private light aircraft, military aircraft and even helicopters that are not flying low, all of which are considerably larger and make noise many many times greater than any drone. These will not have permission from land owners.

If you are wanting to take off and land in someone elses land then yes you should get permission. And obviously the normal distance from people, animals, vehicles and buildings apply, but otherwise you shouldn't be expected to get permission.
 
Vonhelmet said:
According to a lot of people, yes :p

I have insurance for when I’m cycling, both for my protection and the protection of others if I do a stupid.
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I saw a cyclist done do a stupid this morning. Straight in to the back of a van at a red light. Really can't work out how he managed it! Wasn't wet, main roads were gritted and clear. Fwump.
 
I certainly look into getting 3rd party insurance on the off chance of a fly away I had a naza v2 do it luckily it went down away from anyone

Flyaway can happen at anytime without warning and could send the drone miles until it either runs out of juice or hits something

3rd party insurance is about 30 quid a year or something like that
 
Caged said:
You aren't in a position to guarantee that you won't have a technical issue that causes your drone to fly into a person or their property and cause damage. It's irresponsible to not have public liability insurance.
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Presumably you also back insurance for bicycles and well everyone walking, running or doing anything outside their home. Tripping and falling onto someone could seriously injure someone as well, yet who here has personal personal liability insurance for this eventuality?

Getting public liability insurance for a drone is likely to be exceedingly cheap anyway, due to the extremely low risk of actually needing to pay out, a lot less than an accidentally damage policy anyway.
 
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