Hi all,

I have a quick question regarding the limitations and rules regarding flying a drone <250grams over empty football stadiums.

I usually speak to the corresponding football club and gain their permission to do this, but more often than not, I am declined permission to fly my drone over the empty stadium.

My question is, as long as I am not operating within an FRZ, not overflying crowds and I am operating a drone less than 250g in weight, do I even need permission to do this?

I have my A2COFC and liability insurance.

I am hoping to fly over quite a few stadiums but I just want to be crystal clear on the rules.

Thank you,
Marcus

As long as you take off from public land or with land owner permission and you maintain vlos then you are quite legal as long as crowds are not involved.    If you go to YouTube and lookup DJI Audits channel,   he does a daily video where he will fly over various places and he's always told he cant do it,  then the police arrive and they say its fine.    So expect to be confronted at some point.  Maybe have the rules on a leaflet ready to hand out.

DAFlys Posted at 3-31 04:09
As long as you take off from public land or with land owner permission and you maintain vlos then you are quite legal as long as crowds are not involved.    If you go to YouTube and lookup DJI Audits channel,   he does a daily video where he will fly over various places and he's always told he cant do it,  then the police arrive and they say its fine.    So expect to be confronted at some point.  Maybe have the rules on a leaflet ready to hand out.

Thank you very much for that. That’s really helpful.

It’s funny how a lot of people seem to have the misconception that they own the airspace above.

fans4aeab826 Posted at 3-31 04:12
Thank you very much for that. That’s really helpful.

It’s funny how a lot of people seem to have the misconception that they own the airspace above.

Yes.  There's a member on here that wanted to fly over Stonehenge in the UK,   the site has a strict no drone policy,  so he wrote to the CAA and asked the question like my reply to you and the CAA actually came back in writing saying your quite entitled to do that.

DAFlys Posted at 3-31 04:15
Yes.  There's a member on here that wanted to fly over Stonehenge in the UK,   the site has a strict no drone policy,  so he wrote to the CAA and asked the question like my reply to you and the CAA actually came back in writing saying your quite entitled to do that.

That’s really cool.

It’s a shame there’s such a stigma with drones really.

The only question is, do these limitations and regulations change any of it is a commercial use of a drone? Operating within the open category, I presume the same still applies?

fans4aeab826 Posted at 3-31 04:22
That’s really cool.

It’s a shame there’s such a stigma with drones really.

The only change in the <250g category is that you "should" have insurance.    The DJI Audits channel is monetised and he does have insurance.  But it's amazing how many people want to take the details of it before he flys.