The philly drone life interview. 

Philly drone life channel: bit.ly/42UWOLl

It's sad to see just how fast the community threw him under the bus and turned a blind eye, when this could be the most pivotal case to set a precedent on our rights as hobbyists and amateur filmmakers. Mad props to Botgrinder for actually taking the time.

There are two sides to every story and this story needs to be heard...EVERYWHERE! Fantastic interview both of you.

It's amazing seeing Bot so straight/sober and grown up. Doing real journo shit. I hear he put Vice outta business. 🙂

This poor dude. That sucks to be singled out like this. Thank you for putting his story out there!!

Man this feels like a huge massive civil penalty to peaceful civil disobedience. The anger Phillydronelife is feeling is the injustice.

FPV is Therapy

First, congrats on 24 years brother. That’s an accomplishment to hold your head high on everyday of the week. Secondly, fuck the FAA with a cactus sideways.

Nice chat. I love PDL. Big props on 24yrs. I hit 5yrs clean a couple weeks ago and flying is my antidrug. Thank you Bot for doing this talk.

I think the biggest takeaway for me was Mikey saying that he did not think he was setting a good example for kids, but parents should be with kids when they are flying drones anyway. If setting a bad example is a crime, how can any prank video, Jackass, street racing, etc content not be held to that same scrutiny. Excellent job @botgrinder on the interview and stay strong mikey. #FreePhillyDroneLife

Damn this is the opposite of what some well known FPV influencers are even saying. This needs to be heard by everyone in FPV. Good job Bot, investigating/journalism suits you.

I've been following Mickey for years now. I was with him after he had his surgery. I enjoyed participating in his weight loss livestreams. I've even donated to him and my name is on his door as a result. I believe Mickey has endured a lot in life and can make it through this too. He's good people. Stay up Mickey. ✌️ Nothing but love from my end. If the FAA has the authority to impose these fines, they have the authority to dismiss them. There has to be a better way forward than this. Mickey don't deserve this.

Great interview Bot. I like calm and rational Mikey and would probably watch more of his videos if he stopped screaming.

Bot, great content! I saw you really struggle to not to lead the guest to an answer but could tell you were dying to give your input. Whether he's guilty or not, he deserves to have a platform to tell his side and you had the balls to do that. You did a great job giving him a voice.

Hey Bot, you're gonna get a lot of shit because you gave him your platform. But you're a f-ing HERO for doing so. Don't forget that bro

Man this breaks my heart. Thanks for doing this. It seemed like the community was moving on and taking a just don’t be like Mikey attitude when we should all look at the exaggerated charges and excessive fines as a warning

Awesome interview! Congrats on the 24 years Phillydronelife! I'm at 10 years myself and the drones made the last 5 so much easier, the challenges, the community. I hope this all gets resolved and fast brother..

This is some real drone journalism. Thank you for Bot for giving him the time to tell his story.

You're getting better and better, video after video, keep up, this is going to be my favorite drone channel in general. A hug from Italy.

I hope this can change the tone of the conversation, and maybe right some of the misinformation out there. I know for a fact I had some stuff wrong about this! nice work homie 🙌

@2:28 My ears are burning. When I say that Mikey "ignored" the letters from the FAA, what i mean is that he continued to do the thing that the FAA was telling him they didn't want him to do. If the FAA calls and you answer the call, and they say, "don't fly at night / around trains / BVLOS / ete," then you keep doing that thing -- you're ignoring what they told you. Mikey is saying, "I answered every letter. I answered every call." And people are accusing me of being unfair because I said he "ignored them". I can look at his Videos page and see a BVLOS flight over moving cars and people from as recently as 1 month ago. That is what I mean when I say he ignored them. LET ME BE VERY CLEAR that I am not defending the FAA and I do not support or agree with the regulations as they stand and I believe the fines are completely insane and undeserved. The reason I talk about Mikey ignoring the FAA is that I want people to understand how they can avoid putting themselves in the same shitty situation that Mikey has put himself into. I want them to understand that, if they are the 1 in a million that the FAA decides to mess with, they can crush you if they decide to, and there is no shame in playing the game and not giving them an excuse to ruin your life. I am concerned that people will hear about a $182k fine and think that's for one infraction, and they will be terrified to fly at all, and I want them to understand this is not the norm. Unfortunately, we are all flying with a man-eating tiger in the room (the FAA). And we would all rather the tiger not be in the room. But in the mean time, we need to understand what kind of things make the tiger decide to eat us. And Mikey has been poking the tiger repeatedly for five years, even after people (including me) told him, dude, you're going to get eaten. So if I sound like I don't have much sympathy, that's why. The dude absolutely deserves better. But fuck, he worked hard to put himself in this situation.

The message here is. Stop putting shat on RU-vid. Or any other social self snitching mechanism out there.

Thank you very much Botgrinder! it blew my mind how many stream clips and videos i saw of content creators i thought i trusted throw him under the bus or just outright put out misinformation on his situation. Your video and his situation is so very important for everyone that is in this hobby and people not paying attention to this is a big problem. I hope your video gets into the head of some of these big FPV community guys, we need everyone on the same boat fighting for Mike and people in situations like Mike's. Much love Bot!

Amazing! And long overdue!! Thanks to both of you guys for the open and candid discussion.

really great to see this interview. horrible that it's happening. FAA can't find missing aircrafts, doesn't know anything about UAV's and enables flight attendants to "police" customers on plains. But they have time to find drone pilots who've NEVER had a accident involving a civilian or property.. Only to sue good people out of existence.

I’ve always loved Mikey and always will! They’re definitely trying to make an example out of him which is so fucked, it’s total abuse of power.

huh - bot gone from being the alt wild card lovable goof - to a solid representative for the community and helping others... now do a juicy flick ❤‍🔥

Excellent content, Bot. Best of luck Mikey.

Very well done Bot! I loved this interview and hope that it helps Mikey in his horrible situation.

Great interview man and thanks for sharing

Such a valuable person to our community ❤️. Keeping it real . Love your work really . Genius . Your doing so much for us all . Thanks man❤

thx for this, bot. hope this is helpful for Mikey and the hobby. FPV is therapy for many, myself included.

powerful work mad respect Mikey 🫂❤️💪🏽

You are the dopest homie out there! Always do the right thing Bot! I’m proud of you and how you are approaching this. You’re a good man.

Great video Bot! Glad to see we finally get his side of it all. This needs to be seen and heard all around. This hobby is my passion and is helping me through a hard time.

Botgrinder investigative journalism

We should crowd fund a lawyer for this guy or something.

You'll notice he doesn't say what the first letter, FAA notification, was about. The next 3 letters, no mention of the violations themselves. Was it overflight of people? Airspace violation? Infrastructure overflight? Sus #1 He first says, "I educated the FAA" (using hand finger quotes) but then 2 minutes later says, "I don't know the regulations kept changing." So on one hand, I know the regulations and then I don't know them they keep changing. Sus #2 "We don't mean air traffic control" when we say "F the FAA." The problem with this is the two are the same. Air space management rules, which drones must comply with, are what the air traffic control uses to manage airspace. Imagine helicopters for life-saving cruising at 30k feet, or a Boeing 757 coming in at 400' AGL. Crazy, right? Exactly. Because international air flights are kept high, and drone flights kept at < 400' AGL. You can't have one without the other. Sus #3 OK, so comparing fines. You cite someone who 100% attempted to follow the rules, submitted all the paperwork, but got a date wrong? Ok, that's the same as someone who posts videos completely ignoring the rules, which he then @11:40 he says "are completely bogus." Sus #4. Yes the FAA is going to slam the person who is ignoring the rules, which they then say "are bogus" and @12:35 says "risks are so low." Negative, you're flying in class B airspace. Class B airspace, "surrounds the busiest airports from the surface to 10,000 feet MSL." Class B must, "have at least 5 million passengers annually, and at least 300,000 flights (of which at least 240,000 must be commercial flights)." So when you see Mr Drone Life lose command and control of his Air2S for 2-3 minutes on a recent video, there's at least 3-4 flights in his area with a few hundred passengers. He can't yield right of way. This is akin to me walking out on the 5 freeway in Los Angeles, pitching a chair in the #3 lane and saying, "I'm low risk. I'm not hurting anyone. F the CHP and CalTrans". Now imagine you're the hundreds of motorists cruising at 65MPH, and here's this 2 MPH yahoo walking with his lawn chair. That's the Boeing 757 coming in and seeing a Air2S right in his glide path. Yeah, only the pedestrian is likely to take a hit, but maybe when the semi with a trailer swerves to miss, and hits a bus the equation shifts dramatically. Maybe it doesn't. The point is: it's foreseeable, it's avoidable, and responsible adults need to act like adults, responsibly. 500 feet is the defined minimum you are expected to stay away from a building. So if it's a 200' tall building, you can fly up to 500' short of it, go up to 600' (400' + 200' of building) and then back down (again, more than 500 feet away.). The logic being, manned aircraft is doing the same thing, if a helicopter is flying with a patient destined for a hospital, they will yield 500' or more, so they'd be up at 700' AGL or higher, and hence you at 600' have about 100 feet. Now, there's a secondary rule of 200' of separation and so you'd have to decide: A) Do I fail right of way to aircraft? or B) Fail right of way to the building? I have zero precedent knowledge, but I'm thinking B would have you in much better situation with FAA, as you're yielding to a manned aircraft which is a threat to your flight and theirs. The building is a lesser threat to life, when safety rules are breached. There's no "Giants amongst giants," but there is this one: Where at 1,160' AGL he loses comms ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0uVXWofEZjU.htmlfeature=shared&t=341 So for people who don't know RTH, if you're below the altitude set, it goes UP to your set AGL for RTH. If you're ABOVE the RTH, it sustains its current altitude. So in this section, he is flying at 1,140' AGL with a drone guiding itself. Let that sink in... He's at 1,140 feet, just over a mile away (5, 342' to be exact) with a drone guiding itself. It's flying for a solid mile at 1,140 feet. In Class B airspace. This is why at 8:50 he says, "The airspace is affecting my RTH." Now granted, I don't think he is truthful about when he says he hits RTH, because the drone appears to be turning, descending at rates very unlikely to be FC directed (by RTH). You'll notice he also blurs the landing at 14'. It's ironic you leave up the cruising at 1k' AGL, but blur the 20-50' AGL landing. Sus #4 So, the whole reason you have to stay "list of sight" is so you have situational awareness. If you fly "down an alley," and you can "lose sight if you drift either way," (as Philly Life states), then the question is: How do you possibly have situational awareness of another flight you may, or may not, have to yield? Sus #5. (Answer: You do not. You know you don't, for the very reason you cite needing a light). Just an FYI, the FAA does have legal power of subpoena. So by saying, "I edited the video," you're opening yourself to a warrant for search and seizure of all your computer equipment. And here's the additional hook, if you try to hide it, obscure, destroy, now the DoJ can charge you with interference. Under 18 U.S.C. Section 1519, federal obstruction of justice charges if someone alters or destroys a document, or any other “tangible object,” with the intent of influencing or obstructing a federal investigation. The FAA is performing a Federal Investigation. I would still be Philly Life's friend. I would just tell him, just as I would tell my friend who wants to set up a lawn chair on the 405 on a Los Angeles interstate, "Stop! You need to stop doing this. You need to stop defending this behavior." @botgrinder you go to a cemetery to fly, as you state, "to avoid aggravating people." This guys flights are the antithesis of that approach. Potential to fly to the moon is not relevant, but flying at 1,100' AGL in class B is relevant and an ACTUAL danger. Setting your lawn chair up on the 405 to draw paintings, may be "your artful expression," but it's still a bad idea, dangerous, and just stop. So why the huge penalty? I just listened to him for 30+ minutes and don't hear, "Yes I shouldn't have flown one, some, or many of the flights cited." I still see videos such as Air 2S distance test only a few weeks old, 4 years after getting very clear letters that you need to reconsider how you fly. That's why. Your videos display what clearly are airspace violations. Just stop. And just like when you tell the cop who pulled you over for a DUI, "F you," you're going to predictably have a very painful governmental correction, which may include the Department of Corrections. And yes, just as the DUI driver needs a lawyer who knows DUI, getting a real estate or family law lawyer isn't a great idea. You need a lawyer who is also a pilot, and has experience with the FAA.

Great job Bot in bringing the awareness on this.

This was a really good interview Bot!

Full transparency, I wasnt a fan of Botgrinder at first but over the last year or so it seems like he's the only real person in the community with this kind of following. It's so important to me to know I'm following a person not a persona and this video solidified him as one of my favorites. This very well could have put a target on his back as well but it was more important to him to give this guy an outlet to staye what is going on from his side and i personally had no idea. I'd only seen the posts and articles that he talks about in the video. I've gained an insane amount of respect for Bot in the last few months. I even bought another woop. Keep up the excellent content.

Haters become stalkers become Feds...

great interview. thank you!

The interview was fantastic; it was enlightening to hear his perspective on the matter.

Thank you Bot for doing this!!!

Thank you so much for doing this with Michael...giving him more of a voice. The interview is awesome.

Very interesting and informative video. Great job Botgrinder. The fine is crazy. He needs a lawyer. Excellent that he has a paper trail. Good luck Mikey. 🤓

Shocking stuff, poor mikey. Great, you got this out there. The drone community needs to take this seriously, which could happen to any of us .new sub ❤

Great interview!!!!

Awesome job Botgrinder.

Right on Bot, Philly Drone Life just got a new sub; Mike, sir keep flying please, I know it's therapy for me! I wish we as a community would come to your aid & take on the over reach!

Holy Shit! Great interview! Opened my eyes (again) Bot!

Mikey is a good fucking dude. Plain and simple. These fines are trash.

We're with you mike! Keep fighting the good fight guys ❤️💪

Fantastic content Bot! Hold ya head Mikey.

32:08 he’s grateful for you being there for him Bot. Great job man!

Always great to hear both sides...100% agree that they are trying to make an example of him...Great interview

Thank you Philly and Bot for doing this interview. It shed a lot of light on the story. While I may not agree with all of your flights and safety, I completely understand. I have had to jump through a lot of hoops for the FAA for construction drone mapping. I had to get my part 107 in 2016 as well as ADSB transponders and receivers to monitor incoming air traffic, commercial aircraft insurance, and tail numbers back in 2018 for my M600. Only then to still get turned down for waivers the commercial projects after spending tens of thousands of dollars and complying with every request they made. Eventually we gave up an abandoned the business over their lies and bullshit. Fight them! Start yourself a gofundme or something so we can spread this outside of the FPV community!!!

Love from Kush. thanks for doing this bro

Stay strong bro

Hey Mikey, you don't need to remember all those rule violations. What about the hundreds if not thousands of violations within the past year? Do you remember me posting on your page last year? I told you the FAA hasn't forgotten about (just covid) and you would be hearing from the FAA the first quarter of 2024? I must have the power to see the future. LOL I have some more news for you. The Eastern District of PA also has all the violations you've done SINCE you were first fined, do you really think they are going just to ignore those? No sir. That will all be added, or more like held over your head to get you to take the harsh plea deal you are about to get. If you don't.... hundreds of new charges will be added. I assume your free lawyer has explained all that. I hope he/she also explained how you will be arrested if you post another reckless flight video breaking all the rules. Pro Tip: Having a couple people (spotters) in a car facing away from where you are flying does not satisfy See and Avoid. You keep posting - We'll add them on! Now for you Doug. Do you think we aren't aware of your illegal flights posted to social media? BVLOS flights of a 80gr drone is still a direct FAA rule violation. Hmm, I wonder if we are just adding them up until we decide we would like your FPV park property? Maybe we'll turn that into a little gettaway for all us FAA brass? Mikey is only the beginning. Like @xjet has been screaming at all of you.... WE ARE WATCHING. WE ARE WAITING. WE WILL TAKE ACTION! But we are the US Govt. we move slower than sh!t. "Botgrinder" is like #17 on our list. I think that puts you around Dec. 2024. It will be the same DA handling Mike's case. Think I'm kidding? Ask Mikey! I really did warn him like 8 months ago this was coming 1Q 2024. I wonder how far down our list we need to go before you folks start following the rules? All those 80gr whoops are seriously dangerous. You could break a painted fingernail Doug! Flying a huge 5" monster quad over dead people beyond visual line of sight? That's a good 40 years in prison just for that. You could have ran into ghosts man, WTF is wrong with you? Yep, we here at the FAA are super cool. #FREESTU

If the FAA really ends up fining this guy, I hope they get face a huge repurcussion from the FPV community who can stop ignoring every single rule they make. If they want to be ridicilous, then FPV pilots should make life difficult for them by showing them the middle finger.

Excellent job Bot. Really appreciate you taking the time to do this. Hang in there PhillyDroneLife ❤

This is a very important case for all pilots and future pilots as well.. its so shitty that other people in the fpv community were quick to just say, "he must deserve it somehow" and huge shout outs for sitting down to talk with PhillyDroneLife. Keep fighting the good fight G. The community stands with you... Or else we all have to fly in fear. 💯

Bot always spittin truth. Glad at least one FPV dude on YT has the balls to stand up for what's right, not just self-serve. Keep it going brother! Good luck, Mikey.

Congrats on the 24 years Philly!!!

I knew I loved Botgrinder for some reason, you’ve got a big heart Bot you’re real and these things set you apart. It does seem like someone’s who’s trolling Mikey probably started this whole thing. I know I need to apologize to Mikey by just resubscribing back to his channel. It’s sad to see this happening to someone from our community and we should try to do something to help alleviate this situation. We need to get back to keeping it real and support each other.

Thank you Bot for that! That was great. I hope someone can help him...

This whole thing isn't about taking punitive action to discourage rule breaking, this is about putting someone into financial ruin to make an example. Hang in there brother, hopefully you can find some legal representation.

Breaking the law and not making sense of the law go hand in hand, if we let ppl get out of jail with just "I don't agree" or "That makes no sense" or "Why did you make that law" or "Fuck you"or "That billionaire does this too" or "They are only going after me" or "I'm standing up" or all these other excuses things would be worse off.

Massive props to you both for this discussion. Flying is so cathartic, nobody is being hurt here... FAA is nuts.

Solid interview man... The formal sit down format suits your channel strangely well... Regardless of how big a thorn in the govs ass someone is, tax payers are never on board with regulatory bodies using fear as the methodology for implementing policy...

Great to hear the other side, but it doesn't look good with 126 infractions over a couple of years and multiple education sessions

In the street racing/car hobby, disclaimers are like "This footage was recorded in Mexico" 😂😂

As someone who watches and follows pretty much all the big names in this space, I do feel those who have commented on his situation without getting the straight facts first done so just for content. Bot I'll be honest I watch your content the most as it's the most entertaining and enjoyable of them all. Well done for doing this 👍🏻 f those guys and those other ones who right the rules f those guys slightly more.

First they came for PHILLY DRONE LIFE... FTFAA! fly or die

Thanks for doing this interview man, routing for him throughout this. If we only went off of what we heard from the news or on Reddit, you'd think this dude was a hardened criminal, rather than just a South Philly goofball who the FAA is trying to make an example out of.

great interview and a good insight into the whole case. Will be interesting how this pans out. Perhaps a good lawyer will get this instantly dismissed?

Mikey doesn't deserve this. That's a staggering amount of money

Law and Order with Bot the Grinder.

driving a car in a city in 9999999% more dangerous

Thanks BG, great to see his side of the story on this one finally. The fine is ridiculous. Hopefully he can get through this and get back to enjoying life. He's definitely owed more than a few apologies from the community.

Great informative video cheers guys .. two of the funniest pilots out there in serious mode is super interesting , sorry to hear about your situation . Here in the UK the laws are crazy , my mates and I dare not fly at all at the moment. A real shame as this hobby turned my life around just 10 years ago , chin-up 👍

and then they came for Philly Drone Life and I did nothing, ... then they came for me and I reached out, but now one was left.

Someone help me find a way to label my remote ID to "DEEZNUTS" so I can fly in the airforce air spcae near my house and be a little ballsack all over some ATC monitor.

Regardless of whether you like him or not, this will affect every single one of us flying. It's in our best interest he comes out the victor... This will set a precedent in the courts and scare off future potential pilots. I'm terrified for the future of this hobby.

This is fucking ridiculous 180.000 is insane brother and the drone community should be standing by him for sure other wise they will try and do this to all of us abuse there power.

favourite (fpv) youtuber +++

Wow dude you are really killing it lately with your content. This was a great interview, good job getting his side of the story out there in this way.

A large part of our hobby is the sharing of our flights. It spreads the hobby and without it the hobby dies. Sadly the internet has been infected with a virus of identity attachment which basically means your right to anonymity has been erroded to virtual non existence. This means free speech is now only a right if you are happy with your life being ruined or only saying things that are considered allowed by your country's goverment. We need to have our own decentralised video platform that protects anonymity of creators from political persecution. Philly seems to be getting politically persecuted he could probably seek asylum in some countrys but ultimately his best bet would be to declare bankruptcy after being fined after burying gold ron swanson style.

Thank god the fucking FAA isn’t in Canada. We support you bro❤️

my support from across the pond mikey

Attitude is everything

as much as I love drones I do not agree with the idea of full size drones flying over the streets full of people and fragile property. I had situations where some stupid battery cable decides to die mid flight or some stupid other thing on the drone decides to quit and the drone just goes down like a brick. You never know. I have no problem with micros. Fly them as much as you like. Being a rebel all the time, as cool as it looks like, does no good for anyone in a long term. Just saying.. Either way. The fine is just ridiculous. I think it should be based on this persons' income, not just some random numbers from the law book.

Bro. Thank you so much for everything.. And thank you for talking to me STILL.. HEHEHE. YOUR LIKE BARBRA WALTERS..🧚🧚 LOL. THANK YOU BUD....I WILL ALWAYS CONSIDER YOU MY FRIEND! GREAT JOB DJ..🤙🤙 MIKEY AKA A SISTAS ASS.. LOL

i have always said, the fpv guys are all trying to throw the camera drone guys under the bus with the laws and carve out exceptions, the camera drone guys are throwing the fpv guys under the bus with the laws, and the LOS rc plane and helo guys are trying to throw all quad copter pilots under the bus, instead of all working together because the faa is lumping us all together with their laws, and instead of working together to minimise all the laws, everyone just tries to carve out exceptions for their neiche and its counter productive to the whole thing. and this is a perfect example, the "oh well you shouldnt have X then because then we wouldnt have Y" with singling out things, when in reality all the laws are bs, and if someone causes damage with their toy they should have to pay for the damage just like anything else in life. Im allowed to build an aircraft in my shed and fly it over people, cities and houses without even a pilot licence because its an experimental aircraft. the laws are toatally out of whack and its in a large part because instead of fighting all the laws and trying to bring them all into line with reality everyone just tried to carve out exceptions for themselves

#FTFAA ❤

I stand with Philly . This is bs. It’s definitely time for all members of the community world wide to stand up for our rights to fly . Such a good important video thank you 🤖 for shedding the light on this . I was unaware this was even happening . We need to get this man a lawyer asap

Word! 🤘

I feel so bad about his situation, nice to learn his side of story too.