Howdy,

Was out flying earlier and this woman comes up to me and says "do you know your breaking the law ? its illegal to fly drones in London".
She said this while standing next to this sign.

Anyone else had any issues ?





Also, been out flying all weekend, chasing deer again.

I don't know about regulations in London, but many people are just clueless to the regulations and think everything is illegal. I had some lady freak out on me telling me what I was doing was illegal as I was filming my dogs playing and was only about 30 feet up, and this was 2 years ago before FAA implemented any regulations. I would print out information from the FAA or whatever regulatory board for your area says and keep it with you in case you need to explain how the law really works. Then just tell them politely to stop harassing you or you'll call the cops

Very nice video, love the deer shots.

But you have clearly moved more than 250 feet from that sign and you're closer than 50m to the runners and other people. So you've breached the bylaws banning drones in most London parks and broken the law (Air Navigation Order 2016) by flying close to people and vehicles.

Your first video also shows you flying directly over people below 50m.

Nothing serious, but I wouldn't want to take on the Met Police, they'll have your drone off you if they catch you in the act, confiscated for evidence and to prevent further crimes being committed.
But for shots like that, I'd probably have taken the risk as well

Matt-and-Riley Posted at 2016-12-11 23:27
Very nice video, love the deer shots.

But you have clearly moved more than 250 feet from that sign and you're closer than 50m to the runners and other people. So you've breached the bylaws banning drones in most London parks and broken the law (Air Navigation Order 2016) by flying close to people and vehicles.

Ah.

In my defence, with joggers I was walking with the mavic, I wasnt standing at the sign. I like to park in the carpark north of the flying field, take off and walk with it down to the sign and sometime walk with it flying back to the car park, but keeping it pretty close.

When I was at the flying field for the first time (last week) there where a couple of guys flying planes and they said that the area was within the roads to the north and east, and the tree lines to the west and south is fine as the sign is slightly out of date.

Also, this is not a rant or having a go at anyone, I like speaking to people that know the rules and just want as much info as possible, any info is appretiated and thankyou.

The lady came up to me when I was flying to the rules, I was at the sign and flying in the field but, I thought that because I was in the flying field the rules would be more in favour of the people flying and not the people walking through, am I correct ????

When I was there on sunday morning at 730 there were just a few cyclists and joggers going about, in the afternoon when the lady came over there where more people so I stuck to the field.

Cheers and thanks again for any info.

CASA (Cilvil Aviation Safety Australia) regulates UAV rules in Australia ... and have some very simple and clear rules for recreational flying and sub 2Kg commercial flights (the Mavic quialifies of course ).

Although I have not yet experienced, I anticipate that before long I will get some clueless bozo coming up and telling me I am breaking the law.  I keep a few CASA leaflets in my kit  which spell out the law to them very clearly.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) also has some simple UAV rules - https://www.caa.co.uk/Consumers/ ... ones/Flying-drones/ and a Dronecode brochure (and DroneAsist App).

Presumably you have already read this though...

I don't think your defence would hold up. It doesn't matter how close you are to the drone, if it's in the air and flying then the 50m rules apply, no exceptions without special permission from the CAA.

Not sure about the boundaries of the flying field, the poolice would probably go by what the sign says rather than what some guy says. It says on the sign 250 feet circle. But it is well used and known about so the police are probably a bit easier on people in the field, especially if it's not busy.

If you are flying in the field as per the faded rules on that sign, and someone comes within 50m of your drone you've broken the law. They are not to blame, you must give way to people and vehicles in all cases. You can not tell them not to be there, you can not enforce a cordon, if they enter your space you should land or fly away from them.

This is from the Richmond Park web site
not to drop article or animals from aircraft, to be seen at all times and flown safely, remain below 400 ft and stay at least 50m from people, vehicles and structures.

I don't think you did anything dangerous, reckless or negligent (which are the serious rules). A nice police officer would ask you to go back to the field or stay away from people. A nasty one would take your Mavic.

Maybe worth emailing Richmond Park people and ask for clarification about the field and 250 feet.


ps.. This is just my inerpretation of the rules, I'm not an expert or lawyer, and I generally think personal responsibility is better than blindly following rules just because they are rules

I have found that if there is a problem with someone. Just fly remotely. They wont know where you are or who is flying it. This is the reason I got the Mavic. I was tired of lugging my Inspire everywhere I went causing a huge footprint and getting way too much attention. With the Mavic, I could launch covertly and no one would even know I was flying it until I landed and the shot was already taken.

I have learned in my experience, anywhere a drone would be great to use, it wont be allowed unless you have specific permission, which you wont get. Too many people are afraid of them.

Im a total newbie to drone flying, and I hope my comments are relevant to this thread rather than a new one but here goes.....

Im in the UK, and so CAA and dronecode rules apply.  Once thing I find totally difficult to grasp is there seems to be so many rules of where you can, and cannot fly, yet...... all the CAA and dronecode seems to essentially say is:

Fly responsibly, stay 50m away from people and property, don't fly over crowds and built up place... etc....


Is there anywhere people could point me to that gives more information (beyond the DJI no fly zone maps and the droneassist app which I have looked at in detail)

As I say, im a newbie to it all, but want to fly safely and responsibly and abide by the rules, so please don't reply with pointless comments

gibbd Posted at 2016-12-12 14:36
Im a total newbie to drone flying, and I hope my comments are relevant to this thread rather than a new one but here goes.....

Im in the UK, and so CAA and dronecode rules apply.  Once thing I find totally difficult to grasp is there seems to be so many rules of where you can, and cannot fly, yet...... all the CAA and dronecode seems to essentially say is:

Best thing to do is check your council's policy on RC flying. Some councils in Britain have already imposed outright bans on any flying on public (council) ground.

I flew for 3 seconds and this lady ran out of her condo yelling "You can't be droning around here! I was undressing!!" I knew then and there that she was undressing. So I said "Great! GET OUT OF HERE." No body wants to be filming your Michelin (the tire company character) body. Thats when I crashed my Phantom 3 Professional.

Incredible Aeri Posted at 2016-12-12 08:53
I have found that if there is a problem with someone. Just fly remotely. They wont know where you are or who is flying it. This is the reason I got the Mavic. I was tired of lugging my Inspire everywhere I went causing a huge footprint and getting way too much attention. With the Mavic, I could launch covertly and no one would even know I was flying it until I landed and the shot was already taken.

I have learned in my experience, anywhere a drone would be great to use, it wont be allowed unless you have specific permission, which you wont get. Too many people are afraid of them.

This, I learned after an unpleasant incident I encountered. Its a good one!!

Matt-and-Riley Posted at 2016-12-12 11:13
I don't think your defence would hold up. It doesn't matter how close you are to the drone, if it's in the air and flying then the 50m rules apply, no exceptions without special permission from the CAA.

Not sure about the boundaries of the flying field, the poolice would probably go by what the sign says rather than what some guy says. It says on the sign 250 feet circle. But it is well used and known about so the police are probably a bit easier on people in the field, especially if it's not busy.

Im a bit disheartened by this, I thought that that the park with its model aircraft area would be the place to go but like you said, the rules are 50m away from everybody and everything and if I have to or am supposed to stay within the radius of the sign then its quite a small bubble to stay inside.

But then the difficult and awkward side of my mind is saying if the rules in the park are the same as the rules across portions of London, why not fly over London.
Take off from the roof of my building and fly remotely but I know that`ll get me in the s**t.

Im not going to email Richmond park because the very next weekend when I go to the park the sign will have been taken away, problem solved, no model aircrafts allowed.
In fact its probably safer to not use the park, if I am stretching the rules and people complain they could close the field and I`d hate to spoil it for everyone.

I have read the drone code and every other document I can find on the subject.

This article is quite misserable.
http://www.richmond.gov.uk/new_powers_to_protect_our_parks

I might stick my head into the police station and get it from the horses mouth so to speak, I just hope they dont give me the easiest answer for themselves and tell me they are not allowed anywhere.

The pic below shows the park, the red circle is the posted space to stay in, and the blue square is where I was flying.

Thinking about it, you could even just set waypoints and let it fly off on its own, plot a 20 min flight path and wait for it to come back.

Nice video, looks like a peaceful place.

Cheers Ken

Im wrong again, I thought a congested area was a gathering of 1000 people or more but its actually.
"The Air Navigation Order defines a congested area as being 'any area of a city, town or settlement which is substantially used for residential, industrial, commercial or recreational purposes'."

So thats all of London out, unless I fly up the Thames ?

That map is quite funny, tiny little bubble in the middle. I guess when that sign was put up people would be flying rc planes, and all they were interested in was mastering controlled and level flight, and those things were dangerous to be around. Technology has moved on so much now and is much safer.

I'm trying to post more but I have bad words in my fill ??????
FFS - 15 minutes writing a really well thought out discussion and it won't let me post it, and now it's all lost

There's lots of good reading to be had about oppressive laws resulting in more people ignoring them. If the speed limit on motorways was dropped to 20mph everyone would break the law. It's got be a balance for all, not just demonising certain groups because of their choice of hobby.  I dislike runners, they churn up the 'green stuff on the ground', muddy trails all over the place, get in the way and their lycra clad bodies disturb me, but I wouldn't ban them.

What a fing mess, I can't use the word G R A S S
Banned words found so far -
G r a s s
P a s s p o r t

WTF

Sorry, I give up, I can't be bothered to type it all in again, so much for freedom of speech. (DJI is chinese, hmmmmm)

I'll leave you with this that kind of sums up what I was trying to say

“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”  ― Martin Luther King Jr.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-12-12 19:38
Nice video, looks like a peaceful place.

Hi Ken, can you PLEASE sort out these absurd word censors. Lost in translation maybe...

Birdog - glad you found the 'Congested area' BS , now renamed to Built Up area in the dronecode - both have very different and multiple meanings in law. It's a conspiracy to confuse everyone so they can make it up as they go.

trance728- Posted at 2016-12-11 21:26
I don't know about regulations in London, but many people are just clueless to the regulations and think everything is illegal. I had some lady freak out on me telling me what I was doing was illegal as I was filming my dogs playing and was only about 30 feet up, and this was 2 years ago before FAA implemented any regulations. I would print out information from the FAA or whatever regulatory board for your area says and keep it with you in case you need to explain how the law really works. Then just tell them politely to stop harassing you or you'll call the cops

Printing out the regs and having them with you is a smack-me-on-the-head, shoulda-thoughta-that idea.

Birdog Posted at 2016-12-12 12:37
Thinking about it, you could even just set waypoints and let it fly off on its own, plot a 20 min flight path and wait for it to come back.

To fly a waypont mission, you need to fly it first and set the waypoints along your desired route.

Birdog Posted at 2016-12-12 12:48
Cheers Ken

Im wrong again, I thought a congested area was a gathering of 1000 people or more but its actually.

I'm sorry, I don't know the laws and rules there.
Stopping by the police station as you suggested may not be a bad idea.

Matt-and-Riley Posted at 2016-12-12 13:44
Birdog - glad you found the 'Congested area' BS , now renamed to Built Up area in the dronecode - both have very different and multiple meanings in law. It's a conspiracy to confuse everyone so they can make it up as they go.

It should be fixed now to write grass and other similar words.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-12-12 21:44
It should be fixed now to write grass and other similar words.

Grass - p a s s p o r t - compass
Almost, but I still can't call you a p-a-s-s-p-o-r-t

Where's Fenton? Jesus Christ

I used to try to reason with people, but anymore if someone gives me any grief, I encourage them to call the police if they think that I am breaking the law.

fans9a1ac4d9 Posted at 2016-12-12 22:03
Where's Fenton? Jesus Christ

And the lady complained at me that I was scaring the deer.

And here is the bad news. According to that sign you can fly an engine powered model aircraft in Richmond park within a 500 foot diameter of the sign, but you can't fly your drone there. That sign looks pretty old, but it clearly states the aircraft has to be line controlled. This was in an era when radio controlled models were few and far between if not non-existent, and were controlled by string lines to operate the elevator to allow the aircraft to climb and descend in a fixed diameter, in this case up to 500 feet. Unless the rules have changed and that sign needs rewriting, you are breaking the rules of the park.

And it just got worse: say you manage to retrograde your Mavic with some innovative engineering and convert it to manual line control, you are limited to lines not exceeding 50 feet, so your flying area is now limited to 100 feet. This will limit your height to 50 feet also if it were to hover overhead. However, you could increase this height to 200feet if you make a further conversion by making your Mavic into a model balloon. But whatever you do, you'll need insurance cover of £100,000.00 and don't fly after 1.00pm. I'm not sure if that time is restricted to week days or just weekends, so it's worth finding out if it's possible to spend more time there enjoying yourself after 1.00pm.

rick39 Posted at 2016-12-13 00:29
And here is the bad news. According to that sign you can fly an engine powered model aircraft in Richmond park within a 500 foot diameter of the sign, but you can't fly your drone there. That sign looks pretty old, but it clearly states the aircraft has to be line controlled. This was in an era when radio controlled models were few and far between if not non-existent, and were controlled by string lines to operate the elevator to allow the aircraft to climb and descend in a fixed diameter, in this case up to 500 feet. Unless the rules have changed and that sign needs rewriting, you are breaking the rules of the park.

Yeah I had this conversation with someone else on this forum, but it was viewed slightly differently.
The sign says no engine power after 1300 on any day (because of the noise from petrol engines), electric motors dont make anywhere near as much noise so are allowed to fly anytime.
I have been there when people were flying planes and there was no string involved, radio controlled and they were flying electric powered planes, it is the sign which is massively out of date.
The concern for me is if the park is asked to update the sign they may just ban some things.
(I have flown wire controlled planes (Dizzy))