Legal to Fly in SE London?

[PilotDan]

Hi All,

I've recently purchased a Phantom drone and I'd like to check as to whether I'm ok to fly this in two specific areas in london.

1\ Norwood Park, SE27
Norwood Park (London) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2\ Crystal Palace Park
Crystal Palace Park - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Coordinates 51°25′13″N 0°04′14″W

For example, I'd intend to fly the drone up to a maximum altitude of 120m and a maximum distance of around 50M from myself (still practicing!)

This is for recreational purposes rather than commercial.

I checked on the notaminfo website and it looks clear (West Norwood Park and Crystal Palace Partk)

Anything else I need to check/ be aware of ? The drone indicates a class D airspace - but I dont think this is correct - how do I confirm this though? Would it be shown in the highlighted areas on the notaminfo website?

Many Thanks,

D

 

[SimonH78]

As long as you are using these distances your ok, don't fly over/near people or buildings and mind the trees you'll be fine and you just doing this as a hobbyist - Technically you'd need permission to take off or land from the land owners but as its a public park you could hand launch/catch if you wanted ?! - If your using the latest FW you'd get a warning on the drone but you can just cancel these and proceed. It would restrict your max height if you were within the red zones.

 

[PilotDan]

Thanks for the reply Simon. Occasionally the drone flashes up that I'm in a class D zone. Am I interpreting the information on the notaminfo website correctly and that I'm not ? is notaminfo an authorative source ?

On a slightly different note, it's pretty nerve wracking flying this up to 120m although the views are spectacular! How often do these drones fail and fall from the sky? how reliable do people find the fail safes eg the return to home on loss of signal etc ?

Thanks in advance

 

[4wd]

Sooner or later they will all suffer some kind of failure unless you buy a newer model and put the ageing one away.
Quite rare for total failure in flight but it only needs one motor or prop to give out and it will come down.
The failsafe RTH is pretty good but you should be checking that the latest home point is being set before you take off.
You should test this at reasonably short range - a common mistake is mild panic, press RTH and think it didn't work so press again - which cancels it.
Note very close to home it will just descend where it is.

 

[PilotDan]

Thanks 4wd.

Am I interpreting the notaminfo site correctly ? Ie I'm not in a class D area? Is this site an authorative source ?

Cheers

 

[MPPilot]

Thanks 4wd.

Am I interpreting the notaminfo site correctly ? Ie I'm not in a class D area? Is this site an authorative source ?

Cheers

Check out this item: http://www.cityviewed.co.uk/images/uploads/directory/fsuip/UK_Airspace_1.pdf From what I can tell as long as you are not within the CTR and you stay below max altitude you should be alright. It might be prudent to contact the local ATC and discuss your flight locations and verify that you are safe to fly.

 

[PilotDan]

Brill thanks I'll have a read.

How do I actually double check if it's class d though ?

 

[Alec200]

I've been under the impression that, generally, a UAV equipped with a camera cannot be flown in a park as they fall within the scope of what the CAA term a congested area

I never fly in parks for this reason.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[PilotDan]

that's interesting - seems to be lots of conflicting views on this from a quick search on the forum. So where in the UK could I legally fly ? Any specific recommendations for good locations ? Lake District ?