TIFU by flying a drone for work without checking flight restrictions.

Context for this story, I make wedding films and I often use a drone to capture certain sequences for my films. Clients love it, the drone is fun to fly, and the clips you can get out of drone footage really adds a nice flair to the films.

I am licensed by the FAA to fly small drones, meaning that as long as I follow all of the rules and regulations for the particular area/airspace I find myself in, I can fly my drone as much as I want for as long as I want.

One important thing to notice is that the FAA can issue temporary flight restrictions for certain areas, meaning ANY drone is completely barred from flying in the area, regardless of the normal airspace classification. This will explain a lot going forward.

I roll up to my set location as I typically do, with plenty of time to spare to set up my camera equipment. I just got my new suit dry cleaned, had a good breakfast, lots of water. I was feeling very confident and ready to shoot a wedding video worthy of Hollywood.

I walked around the property, a gorgeous, newly renovated inn, in a very well known vacation spot. Stones throw from the ocean, the type of neighborhood that makes you wonder “who the hell lives here” every five minutes.

After taking a good look at my location, I decided it was time to fly my drone and grab those aforementioned high quality video clips. The wind was minimal, the sun was out, but not too bright. The perfect setup for a drone flight. I get the drone all ready to go, and float it up into the air. I take it up a few hundred feet to grab a wonderful clip of the ocean, with the beautiful houses in the background, and grab a shot of the property. Satisfied with what I captured after about ten minutes, I brought my drone back down to the ground.

I pack it away in my car and grab my usual camera and continue filming the exterior of the property. As I am doing this, I notice out of the corner of my eye two men in their mid 40s walking towards me. I pay them no mind and keep doing my thing. Eventually instead of passing in front of me to go somewhere in the inn , one of them asks me “hey , were you flying that drone up there?”

People love asking me about the drone wherever I am, so I resoundingly said yeah I got some wonderful shots of the ocean, weathers perfect, and so on and so forth.

The man had a blank expression on his face, turned to the man to his right and they both approached me, reaching into their pockets and revealing two black wallet looking things, and stopped me dead in my tracks.

“Me and my partner here are with the Secret Service, we need to have a word with you please.”

I was completely stunned, it took me a solid five seconds to say anything, I recall just staring at the both of them, completely unyielding in their glares. All I managed to say was “Oh. Wow, uh okay sure”

The badges they presented to me were absolutely the real deal after looking online after this event, and given the context of the situation that I unknowingly interrupted.

They walked me over to a grey Chevy suburban, and essentially begin to ask me a series of questions regarding what I’m doing here. Asked me why I have the drone, what type of drone it is, what’s the name of the couple getting married, who are you working for.

I answered everything to the best of my knowledge, both of these men keeping very calm and reserved the entire time I was being questioned, whereas I was nearly on the verge of a full bore panic attack. Was I about to be detained by the fucking secret service? Why was the secret service even here? Am I gonna have to tell my clients I was detained by the secret service and missed their entire wedding? I was nearly certain I was about to be tossed into the back of that suburban and treated like a domestic terrorist for the foreseeable future. I truly haven’t been so freaked out by anything in such a long time.

After speaking with them for about 4 minutes, which felt like an eternity, they gave me a little bit of information in regards to what they were doing. I could feel their tone shift and I was a little relieved, assuming they could tell I was being truthful.

They proceeded to tell me that where I was located and flying my drone was, no joke, a hundred yards from the compound of a very recent former US president, who happened to be in town alongside some of their family. If I had rotated the drone 180 degrees to the rear, I might have been able to capture a photo of said president if he was outdoors in back of the property.

They asked for my ID, the name of my business, and a phone number, to which I complied as hard as I possibly could have. They sorta exchange glances at one another for a second, and say they don’t plan to do anything other than warn me of the complete no fly zone within ten nautical miles of the area. And impress upon me to, under no circumstances, fly that drone again. I told them there was absolutely zero chance I’d be caught dead flying that drone within a hundred miles of here. They thought that was funny and I managed to get a smile out of the dude who was leading the conversation.

Strangely from that point on they got very candid and asked me more about the wedding, perhaps to see if I was really telling the truth or just out of curiosity. Standard small talk “weddings are too expensive these days” or “I only had like 30 people at my wedding but that was back in 2006”. I almost forgot I was talking to legit federal agents this entire time.

Fortunately they just reiterated the whole “don’t fly the drone again” thing, I assured them once again it wouldn’t happen, and they got in their car and drove away.

The whole interaction maybe took just under 10 minutes, and I took a solid 5 to decompress in my car. I told my client what happened, to which I received a hearty laugh. Apparently the couple was well aware of such things happening, assured me I was not the first and surely won’t be the last, and that based off my experience, those guys were VERY lax with me.

When we traveled from a church to the reception, I did see both of those gentlemen on the grounds outside, and my heart dropped in my chest. I assumed they absolutely could have gone unseen, but might have just been warning me visually to not forget what they said. I didn’t touch the drone for the remainder of the day, but the bride and groom seemed very pleased with the day, my performance, and are looking forward to their wedding film.

TLDR - Might have come close to being nabbed by the Secret Service for unknowingly flying a drone in a former presidents backyard.