Location:

  

Sweden, and more specific :

  

• Tiveden
• Laxå
• Mariestad
• Billingsfors
• Bengtsfors
• Håverud
• Dals Långed
• Mellerud
• Ed
• Brålanda
  

Time :
In the summer holiday of 2018 I made many flights in Sweden, all of them were non commercial.

DJI Drone :

I flew with the Mavic Pro Fly more combo.

Application Process :
No application needed with a Mavic Pro (or other drone < 7 kg) unless you want to fly in controlled airspace.
In that case you will need to get in contact with the controller of the airspace where you want to fly.

  

Preparation :
The legal aspects:

• Tag your drone with your full name and phone number.
• Make sure you have a general liability insurance that covers damage caused by a drone is advised.
• Make sure your drone is maintained by DJI’s requirements
• Don’t fly over area’s like prisons, power plants, military area’s, nature reserves
• Check if the location you want to fly has restrictions
• Here you can find information about NFZ etc.:
  https://daim.lfv.se/echarts/dronechart/
  And here you can find information about nature reserves (where you can’t fly either)
  http://skyddadnatur.naturvardsverket.se/
• If you fly in the dark, it must have lights indicating its position and direction
• You must know how to fly a drone and make sure there is only one person responsible for the flight (that is the one who controls it)
• If you want to fly autonomous, there must be a way to take over control and end that automated flight.
• Keep at least 1km distance from a heliport.
• Keep at least 5km distance from airports (otherwise you will need to check for the local regulations for that place)
• You should only use allowed radio transmitters (but DJI’s are allowed to my best knowledge)
  

Additional information can be found here :
https://www.transportstyrelsen.se/sv/luftfart/Luftfartyg-och-luftvardighet/dronare/regler-for-dronare

  

Some practical aspects:  

• I have the Fly More Combo and typically use all 3 batteries on a day of flying. Since I like to travel light, that is usually all I take with me (plus some ND filters).
• Make sure you have enough SD capacity available, since you will shoot a lot of footage in this beautiful country!
  

Customs :
There are no special requirements for getting a drone to Sweden.

Be aware of (before every flight):
The legal aspects:

  

• Prepare your drone before to make sure it functions correctly
• Check for special (temporary) conditions for the place you want to fly
• Fly within line of sight
• Don’t disturb rescue operations
• Max height of 120m
• Keep a safe distance from people, animals and possessions
• Make sure you can monitor the surrounding airspace to spot other aviation.
  

Some practical aspects:

  

• I use a weather forecast app called SMHI Väder to check for the weather before every flight.
• There used to be a law in Sweden (until the beginning of  2018) that was forbidding you to fly a drone with a camera.
• That law got a lot of attention in the media when it was introduced, but not when it was made ineffective.
• So you might encounter people that still believe you can’t fly with a camera drone. Be prepared to answer questions about that and possibly have some documentation with you.
• You might also encounter people that don’t like a drone flying over their property. (that is not typical for Sweden of course), so pay respect to land owners and make sure you are visible for anybody who might have questions.
  

Publishing footage :

  

A special rule for Sweden is about spreading (publishing) your work in ANY way.
You will need to get a permit for that for EVERY picture / video you want to publish. (there are exceptions, but they advised to stay on the safe side and apply for all footage, since it won't slow down the process if you add some extra footage)

This can be done via the Lantmäteriet site https://www.lantmateriet.se/sv/Om-Lantmateriet/Rattsinformation/spridningstillstand/

The process is quite fast as you can combine a lot of images in one application.

The people are very helpful if you have any questions about how you should apply.

Some of the content I shot :

It was hard to select ‘the best’ footage, so this is just a small collection.

Video :

  

  

  

  
  

Photo :

  

Of course, I also shot a lot of stills and had to make a small selection fort his post:

Mellerud :

Tiveden:

Mellerud:

Dals Långed

Ed:

Bengtsfors:

Billingsfors:

Billingsfors:

Billingsfors:

Tiveden:

  

360 :

  

One of the most interesting ways to share footage (if you ask me) is via a sphere.

  

I made a lot of them (many still have to be processed), but here are a couple:

  LINK TO 360 (1)
  
  LINK TO 360 (2)
  
  LINK TO 360 (3)
  

And an interesting by-product is a so called ‘little planet’ that can give very surprising results

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about flying your drone in Sweden

I can say very incredible! Nice done, thanks for sharing the great works.

DJI Panda Posted at 3-29 02:12
I can say very incredible! Nice done, thanks for sharing the great works.

Thanks a lot Panda.
Hope many will follow, since this aspect of flying a drone deserves more attention!

Very nice! Great entry, nicely done

Montfrooij Posted at 3-29 02:25
Thanks a lot Panda.
Hope many will follow, since this aspect of flying a drone deserves more attention!

It's very useful and helps a lot!

maddox Posted at 3-29 03:56
Very nice! Great entry, nicely done

Thanks Maddox!

DJI Panda Posted at 3-29 04:08
It's very useful and helps a lot!

I sure hope so!

the place is incredibly beautiful and gives many hinspirations for making videos and photographs ...

the way you did this work ... makes it amazing

thanks for sharing
definitely useful ...
in Europe there is still a lot of regulatory diversity
waiting for easa
www.airbutterflydrone.com

AirButterflyDrone Posted at 3-29 06:25
the place is incredibly beautiful and gives many hinspirations for making videos and photographs ...

the way you did this work ... makes it amazing

Thanks a lot
I can only recommend you to visit Sweden some day!

Well done. Wonderful info, images and videos.

Nice work!

Charissa Posted at 3-29 10:28
Well done. Wonderful info, images and videos.

Thanks Charissa!

mpetr1960 Posted at 3-29 10:58
Nice work!

Thanks a lot!

Great information. Beautiful captures. Thanks for sharing.  

Montfrooij Posted at 3-29 04:10
Thanks Maddox!

You're welcome!

Awesome work and good is the little world shots ? Definitely something to use in the future. Thanks for sharing your work.

Nice work! Congrats!

Hi. Great videos and shots. Very useful info as well. I live in Germany and I am new to drones. Got the bug! Hopefully someone else has posted such an in depth experience/description of flying drones in Germany. Unfortunately my German linguistic and reading skills like my drone skills are somewhat basic. If I ask my German partner one my time for translation I fear it will be the end of my Drone flying days and me to boot!

Very informative! Thank you for sharing this piece of information about drone rules in Sweden and some great photos and videos as well!

Great information, nicely done

These are simply stunning. Superb photography. Did you have a favourite location in Sweden to film?

Great post, and beautiful images! One thing I would add is the GDPR perspective on publishing photos/videos. That means you have to be very careful about publishing photos/videos that in any form can be tracable to a human. Examples: Faces (obviously), car registration plates etc. While Lantmäteriet check photos/videos, they do not take in account GDPR rules. Their interest lies in checking if you fly over sensitive areas.

Hartyaj Posted at 3-30 02:20
Awesome work and good is the little world shots ? Definitely something to use in the future. Thanks for sharing your work.

Many thanks!

ChrisJG Posted at 3-30 23:47
These are simply stunning. Superb photography. Did you have a favourite location in Sweden to film?

Thanks a lot.
Not one particular location, but I really loved the area around Billingsfors a lot!

Rob W Posted at 3-31 01:59
Great post, and beautiful images! One thing I would add is the GDPR perspective on publishing photos/videos. That means you have to be very careful about publishing photos/videos that in any form can be tracable to a human. Examples: Faces (obviously), car registration plates etc. While Lantmäteriet check photos/videos, they do not take in account GDPR rules. Their interest lies in checking if you fly over sensitive areas.

Thanks a lot Rob!
I did not find anything about that.
Do you have some link to information about it?

Montfrooij Posted at 3-31 22:12
Thanks a lot Rob!
I did not find anything about that.
Do you have some link to information about it?

Here are some tips for drone pilots regarding the privacy laws:
http://dronerules.eu/en/recreati ... pr-for-drone-pilots

In Sweden we have a fairly new law also regarding camera surveillance that came in effect after GDPR in order to conform to GDPR. For private persons, and private companies in general - it is most often not necessary to apply for a special permit for flying with your drone. But! You have fo follow the GDPR, and GDPR is quite tough as you can see in the link above. You have to inform people if they get on cam, have consent, they should be able to contact you at a later date if they don't want to appear on photos/film etc.

Here is the full GDPR text:
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal- ... =CELEX%3A32016R0679

Rob W Posted at 4-1 03:43
Here are some tips for drone pilots regarding the privacy laws:
http://dronerules.eu/en/recreational/news/8-data-protection-principles-under-the-gdpr-for-drone-pilots

Thank for the links.
The whole GDPR can have a lot of implications for us. Not only for drone operators of course.
I hope common sense will still get a long way still, but we will have to wait and see what way it will go.

Very well done, thanks for sharing!

ParideM Posted at 4-1 06:16
Very well done, thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the comment!

Well compiled info and great videos and pics. Well done mate.

Avea PRO Posted at 4-1 21:27
Well compiled info and great videos and pics. Well done mate.

Thanks a lot!
Hope others will benefit from it

Great. Superb. Speechless.

Dronie2 Posted at 4-2 05:24
Great. Superb. Speechless.

Thanks, so am I

RotorLogic Posted at 4-3 15:47
Thank you for sharing this, wow great work, very inspiring footage and stills

Thanks a lot!

That's the most beautiful thing i've ever seen, it makes me wanna buy a drone so badly for my trips

Great Job!  https://dronesconcepcion.pro/

shivaa Posted at 4-6 01:05
That's the most beautiful thing i've ever seen, it makes me wanna buy a drone so badly for my trips

Thanks a lot!
It sure is a great way to capture the world!

Cartes84 Posted at 4-6 16:36
Great Job!  https://dronesconcepcion.pro/

Thanks a lot!

Thanks for kinda information and videos...

Lora Flipo Posted at 4-9 08:01
Thanks for kinda information and videos...

Thanks a lot for the kind words!