R2OC Drone Footage - Above the Field Action

[neshera]

Hi, I'm the non-professional/hobbyist who flew the Phantom 2 Vision and posted the three videos on YouTube.

A few thoughts/responses:
1) The first priority, overriding all else, was safety.
2) The second priority was not to interfere in any way with match play.
3) The third priority was to recognize that the appearance of a "drone" at a FRC event was only intended to be a novelty/additional bit of fun, and that the competition was the key, and the UAS just a peripheral thought.

Early on, the decision was made to try to have a UAS at the event. I worked for a few weeks with the Audio/Visual people, but due to an unforeseen limitation of their system (only one good composite port available, and no HDMI input available) we could not hook up a live video feed to the main screens, just to one screen in a corner.

I was able to walk through the venue a few days before the event and scope things out, and in addition I was able to see the floor plan layout down to each individual table/pit, and mentally map out what I wanted to do.

Rule # 1: No flying over the audience. EVER.
Rule # 2: Got OK from as many volunteers/field crew as I could corral to fly over the scorers table. (It was kind of hot at the venue, so a few of them asked me to fly over them to get the breeze )
Rule # 3: No flying over the field during match play; OK to fly in between matches, only if drive teams were not on the field (e.g. immediately at the end of a match, before the green lights go on and the gates open)
Rule # 4: Organizing committee members and any volunteer I could talk to were told to bring any complaints/concerns to me, and I would stop flying immediately if there was a real problem (see below)

One person expressed a generalized concern about having UAS's flying in the building, specifically about the large dodecacopter from Mad Labs. Once he found out Mad Labs qualifications, he was OK.

In order to avoid an even longer post, I'll stop for the moment and post some more thoughts in a bit.