Help Identifying a Drone - Drone Database?

I recently had a drone perform some rather inappropriate behaviors over my house (hovering 50 ft over the back yard) and it looks like he was doing it to other houses also (suburban neighborhood).  I eventually got out a pellet gun to scare it away, which it either did not notice or did not care.  I eventually put full pump in it and aimed to hit.  I am pretty certain I did hit it in the body, but it stayed up.  If it shows up again, I will aim for the props.

I wanted to see if I could figure out what model it is.  It was gray, had 4 props, with the supports high on the body, and a very square body, with no obvious camera hanging down (maybe internal?).  I should have pulled out my camera, but I was too busy shooting.

BTW, in CA, it is illegal to fly over a residence at lower then 350 ft.  Not sure how legal it is to shoot at it with a pellet gun, but I don't give an F at this point.

This is a close approximation of color and style, but the body should be more square, the props higher, and maybe a less obvious camera.  It definitely looked like more a commercial style drone.

Any good databases of current drones available.  Does the design sound familiar to anyone?

Not that familiar but there are tons of Chinese companies that pump out a zillion low-end models, and most of them tend to look like knockoffs of the higher-end models from DJI. This will be harder than identifying a car that was driving around.

I assume there was no tail number on it?

I'd check local rules before shooting it down. I'm my area for example it is illegal to discharge any projectile inside city limits. Arrows, BBs, slingshots, all of it. Not to say you're in the wrong, but I can easily see someone trying to charge you with damages and stack on whatever else they can get away with for shooting down their voyeurdrone. 

Oh! Build a net launcher and catch it. Document your build. For science. 

Just a thought because it's happened to me, but could it have been a realtor taking photos of adjacent property? Any neighbors putting their house on the market?

Just because it's flying over you doesn't mean the camera is pointed at you. They were over my yard to get a side angle on their house.

That said, it's still illegal and next time use a water hose.

IT's unfortunate that municipalities frown on discharging fire arms in residential areas.  A 20 gauge shot gun with skeet load would be a great deterrent.

Joking aside.  If drone delivery actually becomes a thing for Amazon etc. I can see a massive uptick in civil disobedience and criminal damage to property, as I sure as hell don't want those annoying effing things buzzing up and down my street.  This from someone who grew up flying model airplanes and things.  Take your buzzy electric drones to the park or somewhere.  I'm not talking the small light 'toy's' that people fly around, but if it's big enough to carry a worthwhile payload for Amazon, then even electric, it's not going to be quiet.

I think I've read here that the FAA frowns upon firing on any kind of flying machine. 
 

Do you have a fishing pole and some lead weights?

In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :

Heavy test line. Love it. 

Net gun!

Be carefull, could be the assessors office.

They need the additional revenu due to the last couple years, and with the way home prices have gone up I am sure they are drooling.  

If this was some sort of official drone, they had NO concept of what the laws are.

Hovering 50 ft over someones back yard, while they are in it, is clearly not appropriate (even if it was legal).  There was a neighbor driving around looking for its source also.

I was thinking of some sort of ensnarement device also.  Not sure that one is coming back though, there should be a nice dent on the side of it.  In future, if necessary, I will make sure to snipe it from where I can't be seen.

As implied.  Do licensed drones require tail numbers?  I probably could have captured that if it had one.  Of course, like planes, they normally in as small of print as possible...

Get your own and dogfight. Wouldn't be too hard to tether a few weighted ropes beneath to ensnare a prop.

aircooled said:

If this was some sort of official drone, they had NO concept of what the laws are.

Hovering 50 ft over someones back yard, while they are in it, is clearly not appropriate (even if it was legal).  There was a neighbor driving around looking for its source also.

I was thinking of some sort of ensnarement device also.  Not sure that one is coming back though, there should be a nice dent on the side of it.  In future, if necessary, I will make sure to snipe it from where I can't be seen.

As implied.  Do licensed drones require tail numbers?  I probably could have captured that if it had one.  Of course, like planes, they normally in as small of print as possible...

While legally required to be marked on any drone being flown under part 107 and *any* drone over .55lbs... I doubt most people mark them (or register them) for that matter. But, legally speaking....yes, it's required. 

https://faadronezone.faa.gov/

Appleseed said:

Get your own and dogfight. Wouldn't be too hard to tether a few weighted ropes beneath to ensnare a prop.

The best part of this is if you got one with a fpv (first person view) camera you could do it without you being in view of the opponent drone. So although they might know where it got knocked down they wouldn't know by who. Of course you then have to go get your drone at least so you'd walk into view of the camera to do so... hm. Heavy mumu and a ski mask and hat and sunglasses?

A homebrew racing/long range quad would fit that description.  They tend to just have a smaller squarish block body that houses the batteries, short to medium arms out to the props, and only have an FPV camera, not anything high-resolution or with a gimbal.

Dark gray bodies on larger camera drones were Yuneec Typhoons.  That might fit your description on the props being "high mounted."

Professional UAS (drone) pilot here  

I can't identify the aircraft from your description because there are approximately 4,716 drones that look like the popular DJI Mavic.

It is not illegal to fly over residential property, this includes private property. CA can say what they want, but airspace is FEDERAL jurisdiction and it is against federal law for any state or local municipality to make a law that userps federal law. Federal airspace starts at the top of the grass. Many cities and towns have fought this and lost every time. 
it is also HIGHLY illegal to do anything to take a drone down by any means. It is the same thing as taking down a 747, legally. The FAA will come after you. 
I've been in many jobs that had me surveilling a properly. If done right it's easy to go undetected. Kind of a fun game to me. 
 

So, what do you do it this happens again?  
Legally: call the cops. Even if he's not breaking a law, the local cops asking questions will scare him away if he's just an idiot doing idiot things. 
Illegally: water hose. But he's gotta be very low for this to work. 
Some info that may or may not prove helpful if you call the cops, because cops never know these laws
If he is doing the flight for compensation of ANY sort, he MUST have the FAA Part 107 certificate. If he doesn't have one, the FAA can fine him. A lot. Like 5-figures!  By law he has to have that part 107 certificate on him and present it to law enforcement when asked, but not to a civilian. 
His drone has to be in his visual line of sight at all times, and if he's using FPV goggles, he has to have a visual observer. 

 

DrBoost said:

It is not illegal to fly over residential property, this includes private property.
 

But it is illegal to fly outside of the operator or spotter's visual line of sight, and if it's 50' off the ground and the person whose property it is over can't see the operator then they are not in line of sight. So, illegal.

In reply to DrBoost :

That's some cool info.  Can you share any fun stories about surveilling?

Shotgun with plastic shot/pellets = no more drone overhead.

dculberson said:

DrBoost said:

It is not illegal to fly over residential property, this includes private property.
 

But it is illegal to fly outside of the operator or spotter's visual line of sight, and if it's 50' off the ground and the person whose property it is over can't see the operator then they are not in line of sight. So, illegal.

50 feet up, the operator can be a few miles away. You'd be surprised. That's one of the issues, people think he's gotta be a block over, but he's 3 and they don't look that far. 

dculberson said:

DrBoost said:

It is not illegal to fly over residential property, this includes private property.
 

But it is illegal to fly outside of the operator or spotter's visual line of sight, and if it's 50' off the ground and the person whose property it is over can't see the operator then they are not in line of sight. So, illegal.

50'?

Most people's houses are about 50' long. Do you have trouble seeing the other end of your house?

Woody (Forum Supportum) said:

I think I've read here that the FAA frowns upon firing on any kind of flying machine.

They do, and as with anything FAA, my understanding is that it's both an unpleasant and expensive frown.

As a new drone pilot of one month, even I know that's not appropriate.

Looks a lot like my DJI Fly 2 Mini.

The end of the trailer on the right is exactly 50' away. 
 

The Verizon store is about 300'. I can read the street numbers over the door (and I have E36 M3ty eyesight)

The hotel behind Verizon is about 1000'. 
 

The tree line behind?   About 2000. 
 

50' is nothing. 

I'm sure my house is different from yours, but I am almost completely surrounded by trees that are over 50' tall. A drone 50' over the ground in my yard would be invisible to most people outside my yard.

In reply to SV reX :

It's nothing in a parking lot. A parking lot/strip mall is not a residential neighborhood with hills, valleys, houses, trees in the way. 

I don't care either way, nobody is dumb enough to fly drones over peoples houses where I live, because they know they'll never get them back.