Some of you saw my post last week about the hoops I jumped through to get some shots in San Francisco.  It was a pain, but I did everything perfectly legal.  http://forum.dji.com/thread-44361-1-1.html

So this week I am in New York and decided to do the same thing.  NYC is the nation's busiest airspace and it is filled with restricted areas and low flying helicopters.  There are also plenty of idiot drone operators around including a guy who recently crashed into the Empire State building.  There are a couple of places you can fly if you are willing to do the work.  One place is by Battery Park which is located in financial district near the World Trade Center and Wall St.  https://www.google.com/maps/dir/40.7029595,-74.0194516/Statue+of+Liberty+From+Battery+Park+City,+Battery+Park+Underpass,+New+York,+NY+10004,+United+States/@40.7024656,-74.0293811,14z/data=!4m8!4m7!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c25a128d64db9b:0xacfba1747b40b4d4!2m2!1d-74.01743!2d40.7032225

Battery Park has a state park with a National Park.  You can't fly from the National Park, so you have to be sure to be in the state park where there are currently no restrictions.

The real issue are the heliports.  From the location I was there were 11 airports and heliports I had to contact.  Helicopter traffic is heavy and they fly at 100-200'.  The experience in New York was definitely more professional than with San Francisco.  In San Francisco, absolutely no one knew what to do with me.  In New York, every person I talked to had an intelligent conversation and several of the heliports talked about their traffic and plans.  One heliport said they didn't care and didn't take my information but they were a bit further away.  All in all I came away feeling like they were supportive and useful.  I am not sure how much they relayed to the pilots though because I had several helicopters fly right in the middle of the small flight box I had described.  No matter:  I was hyper-vigilant and made sure to move to location that I thought was away from them and then remained stationless.

The result?  Some terrific shots.  I'll certainly go back to New York and find some other places to shoot.  It is possible to be legal if you are willing to put in a little work.

Very nice.

hummingbird.uav Posted at 2016-3-13 10:16
Very nice.

Thanks. Several of them turned out pretty nice I think.  

Nice shot. I really enjoy the evening / night shots of cities.

Sensational shot. Good to hear they were accomodating, but then again, they had better be, becuase drones are not going away and will be used more and more in the future.

Thank you for sharing your experience, that's a great shot as well.