2026-02 · NASA ASRS report 2329675
Part 107 UAS pilot reported being approached by an individual post-flight who insisted the pilot flew in an unsafe manner.
Following a regularly scheduled construction progress flight; an individual approached me while packing up my supplies. For context; I was operating in Class E surface airspace with an active Certificate of Authorization (COA) for the flight area and active communication with ATC for the facility. I was also executing this flight above moving vehicles and people through the use of a class 2 compliant ballistic parachute. My flight location was 2 NM from the departure end of the runway. The individual without introduction or qualification proceeded to aggressively question my authority to operate the UAS in controlled airspace and my qualifications as a pilot. He then proceeded to tell me that he was reporting me to the FAA for what he believed was flight BVLOS. The individual stated that since he saw me in my car while the drone was airborne; I absolutely could not have been maintaining VLOS. The individual in question had parked approximately 100ft behind my vehicle and had been observing me for approximately 20 minutes. He had no context for my area of operation during this time. Based on where I had setup my equipment in the middle of the site off of the main road; this individual had also intentionally searched the site for my location to observe me after seeing the drone in flight. During this period; the drone was flight in front of my vehicle in view of my windshield. I had intentionally placed my vehicle with direct line of sight to the departure end of the runway to observe traffic in the pattern and departing towards my area of operation. I was using ADSB in functionality to add an additional layer of safety to my visual scans; and the screen was much easier to see in a shaded vehicle interior vs standing outside in the full sun. The individual stated he was a surveyor who also flew at this location and my behavior was going to kill someone flying an airplane and cause problems for all part 107 pilots. After trying to break off communication with the individual; he continued to follow me while I packed up my equipment and stated I was causing great danger to manned pilots and that he had pictures of aircraft flying over the site while I was flying my UAS. Throughout the entire mission; sufficient vertical and horizontal separation was maintained at all times through visual contact and ADSB. There were no instances of either separation becoming a hazard to aircraft. Traffic remaining in the pattern was right pattern for Runway XX and posed no threat to manned or UAS operations. The occasional traffic departing over my area of operation was always greater than 500' above my UAS altitude and sufficiently horizontally separated (1000' or greater). I declined to mention at the time that I am commercial airplane pilot with frequent operations out of this airport. I am highly sensitive to the dangers of manned aviation; and I have an above standard understanding of manned aircraft operation in comparison to the typical part 107 holder. I then broke off communication with this individual again and left the area.I am not sure what I can do with my experience other than share it here. I hope it provides context for harassment that Part 107 operators can face being on the ground and visible to other people.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.