Part 107 UAS pilot report flying a photo mission when they were distracted by tourists. This caused the UAS pilot to fly higher than authorized and past their LAANC authorized time.

Date: 2024-05 · Aircraft: Small UAS (At or above 0.55 lbs and less than 55 lbs) · Phase: climb

Anomalies: airspace-violation-all-types|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-far|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-published-material-policy|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-unauthorized-flight-operations-uas

Synopsis

Part 107 UAS pilot report flying a photo mission when they were distracted by tourists. This caused the UAS pilot to fly higher than authorized and past their LAANC authorized time.

Narrative

On Day 0 myself; was flying my drone over Beverly Hills; CA for a commercial photo mission. I had authorization to fly at XB:45 pm up to 400 ft. for 1hr as per LAANC ALTXXXXXXXXX authorization and a LAANC Authorization ALTXXXXXXXXY to fly up to 200 ft. starting at XA:13pm for 2hrs.But due to my own negligence I started to climb up to 400 ft. at XA:38pm for 1 minute and then descended back down to 200 ft. and did the same maneuver at XA:38pm for 1 minute. I was distracted by some tourists who asked about my mission and while explaining things to them; pointing out the drone and letting them see my monitor; I didn't pay attention to the fact that my clearance for 400 ft. was only given after XB:45pm and I started climbing above the permitted altitude of 200 ft. for that time frame.I discovered it when I started my dusk shoot at XC:00 pm by recalling my XB:45pm authorization.There was no aircraft traffic in the area and I was mainly flying over buildings; so no real safety concerns arose. I had visual line-of-sight to my drone at all times.What I learned from this situation was that I should not let myself get distracted by curious people when flying a drone.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.