As a professional pilot since 30 years and former RC hobby pilot, as a youth, I am surprised about part of the nonsense posted here....
For example: "
Somebody could clearly see the drone in a distance of 2 miles." I assume NM.
Congratulations to your good vision.
I fly a big bird for a major carrier and I fly a DJI drone since one year. I even take it with me on some trips where I can fly it by local law. By law, you got to have in my country insurance for RC aircrafts. ( 60-70 US$/year). I think a good idea. But I think the idea of the insurance was mostly for the risk of damage on the ground.
The drone I am flying is very advanced and very stable in flight. You let the controls go and it stands still. Most of the time people use drones, they are hovering and then move to another position slowly. They are slow moving because video is better if you are not flying with max speed ( ca. 40mph ).
The drone has a distance and height information transmitted all the time to your control device. If you are flying higher then 150m (450ft) you got a problem to see your drone. Flying out of clear sight is unlawful in every country I had been flying. The maximum distance I had been flying in a height of 55m was 300m and this was definitely too far, only with my heading information transmitted as well, I could fly back. The drone was to small and was way smaller then the size of a needlepin. ( I tested this only for you !
)
To me the drone is no thread other then a kite, if it is flown within eyesight. If you are flying outside of eyesight you are risking loosing it.
It might be a thread to helicopters flying low. My hometown is next to a clinic with two helicopter stationed there. Yes they are flying often below the minimum required above cities, but if they would fly over cities in the allowed altitude there shouldn´t be a problem.
Talking about real drones ( military style ) I definitely think we should imply more regulations here. These drones scare me more then the little toys you can buy.
Something that scares me too, is the weatherballons that I had already two near miss with in cruise flight. The just pass by in an altitude where you do not expect anything.
Last but not least, I would forbid bird flying in an altitude of 7500feet, this is dangerous.
Had a birdstrike that damaged the front of my wing. Rubberboot was O.K., but behind the boot, the material was crumbled in the size of a football.
If drones stay away from airports, which most better drones have in their software implemented ( nofly zones and altitude restrictions in the vicinity )
I think this is fine to fly.
As a helicopter pilot I would try to avoid altitudes below 150m when cruising, but I think safe pilots prefer higher altitudes anyway.
Otherwise, ban kite flying as well and get everything out of the sky except us.
By the way, the most sold drone, a DJI Vision drone has a weight of less then 1200 gramms and a size of 35cm with props installed and 24cm without. And the body of the drone is even smaller.
Something I also want to explain here, you usually got a wide angle mini camera on the drones. With a wide-angle camera, everything appears further away and you got to stay closer to the object if you are making a video or picture. If you go to an altitude of 75meter you already got a very, very wide view. More then you probably want.
Come with me and I show you how great this hobby is.