36-year-old man from Barcelona REPORTED for flying a drone through the Catalan capital

[EricJT]

Well, he did breach the rules. A fine of €220 would be ok. But €220k!

I bet it got his attention.

 

[BigAl07]

"A neighbor got fined $250K for flying a drone from his balcony in Barcelona, Spain"

It seems like there should be some mechanism for editing misleading thread titles like this to avoid misleading users who are searching or browsing the index in the future.

Of course but we TRY and let the OP fix it once the "error" is called to attention. In this case, I went ahead and edited it for clarity.

New thread title:

36-year-old man from Barcelona REPORTED for flying a drone through the Catalan capital​

 

[Yaros]

I never understood why in Spain it is not allowed to fly above cities. And even worse, why do they put DJI Aeroscopes everywhere? I would understand if they put in places like airports, but cities, really? Also, why are the CTRs around airports so freakin' large? 12 km radius, oh that's extremely big CTR!

I'm saying this because I was in Kyiv, Ukraine the past month and I really liked the drone laws there, I didn't need to register my drone, and I flew there in some central parts of Kyiv, of course following the rules. which weren't restrictive at all. I liked the experience, and I even saw other drone pilots flying in the same places as me.

Here in Spain, it is almost impossible to get good shots without breaking some of the laws. This is what keeps Spanish people from buying drones because it is way too restrictive, even more than the EASA official rules.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Is there much point to this thread continuing?
If the rules somewhere else are more to your liking why not move there?
My saying that is about as relevant as you saying the rules elsewhere differ from those in Spain.

 

[Skwirl]

There may not be as many lawyers in the Ukraine.
If you do move, you may need to learn Russian though.

 

[Yaros]

Is there much point to this thread continuing?
If the rules somewhere else are more to your liking why not move there?
My saying that is about as relevant as you saying the rules elsewhere differ from those in Spain.

There is no point to move to another country just to fly the drone with different rules...

There may not be as many lawyers in the Ukraine.
If you do move, you may need to learn Russian though.

I was born in Ukraine, I know Ukrainian and Russian

Yea, but it's still kind of annoying for me that Spain is so restrictive when it comes to drones, what can I do? Basically nothing...

 

[zocalo]

I never understood why in Spain it is not allowed to fly above cities.

It's not just Spain, lots of countries have this restriction in place for urban areas. e.g., in the UK with drones over 250g you need to be a minimum of 150m from any residential, commercial, or industrial areas (e.g. pretty much most urban areas apart from larger parks) unless you have the necessary paperwork in place. That said, it often is possible to legally fly there, but you'll need to do a lot of paperwork to get the approvals, and because of that it's generally only an option for well established pros with a proven track record.

As for why this would be the case, if you genuinely don't know the reason for this then I'd like to politely suggest that you need to put your drone away and have a good long think about the relative potentials of harm for urban vs. rural environments if anything goes seriously wrong during a flight.

 

[Yaros]

As for why this would be the case, if you genuinely don't know the reason for this then I'd like to politely suggest that you need to put your drone away and have a good long think about the relative potentials of harm for urban vs. rural environments if anything goes seriously wrong during a flight.

I do know the reason, but I still think it shouldn't be a restriction, because if something actually goes wrong then it's my responsibility, not theirs anyway. So why do they need to prevent me from flying if I'm confident in my drone? That's right, they shouldn't.

in the UK with drones over 250g you need to be a minimum of 150m from any residential, commercial, or industrial areas

Okay, but what should I film then? If I can't fly near residential areas where do I fly, in the forest? Oops, nope, it is a natural reserved area, can't fly there too! Parks? Nope, can't fly over people... so on and so on...
Then it's pretty much impossible for me to fly legally, and I'm not even living in a city, just a small residential area.

This also defeats the reason to have a portable drone such as a Mavic if you can't fly it anywhere anyway...
Therefore I fly my Mavic wherever I want where there are no geo-zones. I wouldn't fly close to an airport, but I would fly over some houses or hotels because EASA sets the laws in the EU, and EASA says that you can fly over residential areas, AESA, sorry, you can't change that...

 

[Deleted member 103366]

because if something actually goes wrong then it's my responsibility, not theirs anyway

so, if something goes wrong, your crashing drone injures someone or causes a car driver to reflexively swerve and crash, maybe killing some one. What then, what good will it "being your responsibility" be?
Such rules at least attempt to protect other people.

 

[Yaros]

so, if something goes wrong, your crashing drone injures someone or causes a car driver to reflexively swerve and crash, maybe killing some one. What then, what good will it "being your responsibility" be?
Such rules at least attempt to protect other people.

I am aware there are people that fly drones irresponsibly and cause such accidents to happen, however, I try to fly responsibly. I don't want to continue this discussion, it will lead to nothing anyway...

 

[Deleted member 103366]

it will lead to nothing anyway...

Agreed

 

[zocalo]

I am aware there are people that fly drones irresponsibly and cause such accidents to happen, however, I try to fly responsibly. I don't want to continue this discussion, it will lead to nothing anyway...

There are also people that try to fly responsibly, but as things can still go wrong such accidents can also happen to the best pilots. I've had to deconflict a few times now because of helicopter pilots that have decided to avoid a required altitude change and simply not bother climbing to pass over the ridge where I live resulting in them being under 400ft AGL when they pass overhead. Yes, the onus is on me to deconflict regardless, which is fine, but I am now also aware that I need to pay attention to the wind direction as if I get that wrong I might not hear an approaching aircraft until it's almost on top of me, and by then it may be too late, and restrict my flying accordingly.

Sad fact is that in the eyes of those who set the laws it doesn't really matter if you are flying responsibily or not when there's an incident; they're politicians, and when there is a pattern of incidents they have to be seen to be doing something. That's where I disagree with you about this thread (and others like it) being a waste of time; it's not just about flying as responsibly as we can, its about discouraging others from doing the same, and that's where threads like this do serve a purpose.

No matter how responsibly we fly, every time we make excuses for things like this, every time we like a video that was probably shot in contravention of the rules, every time we bend the rules just a little bit to get the shot, we are tacitly condoning the kind of behaviour that increases the chances of incidents, and from those to even more restrictions.
If having these discussions over and over, helps reduce the number of people breaking the rules, even by a little bit, then we reduce the chances of incidents that lead to more restrictions being place on where and how we can fly.

 

[Lastrexking]

That's exactly the problem! Spain is just way too restrictive when it comes to airspace and drones! Just sayin', AESA isn't following EASA rules because AESA modified the C1 category weight limit, which is not allowed by EASA... just plain stupidity on the side of Spain.
When I went to Barcelona I saw some drones there, but I haven't flown there myself.

The laws are there for a reason. They’re the same in the UK’s towns and cities. They’re there to protect people.

 

[JimSteadman]

This thread is a frightening example of the power of the internet to enrage folks who choose to become enraged not over what actually happened, but what might happen IN THE FUTURE to this foolish drone operator. The fine has not yet been set. It may be high, or low. If a permit was required to fly over the city, he needed a permit, but chose not to get one. If the maximum altitude for drones is 400 ft and he flew higher, he chose to exceed the limit. If he was flying BVLOS, he chose to do that. The appropriate choice for folks who think the law is unduly restrictive is to seek to have the law changed, not to violate it and then complain about its enforcement. And the appropriate way to respond to news articles is to READ WHAT THEY SAY, not to fly off the handle about something that is not even reported in them. Had he been abiding by the rules and someone sought to impose a penalty, we would all be rightly upset. But that is not what is reported.

 

[aleph72]

There is no point to move to another country just to fly the drone with different rules...


I was born in Ukraine, I know Ukrainian and Russian

Yea, but it's still kind of annoying for me that Spain is so restrictive when it comes to drones, what can I do? Basically nothing...

You actually can do something: report this to EASA.
I did it a few weeks ago and they thanked me and said they'll start an investigation on Spanish rules.
Maybe if we all report it, they'll seriously do something.

 

[aleph72]

The laws are there for a reason. They’re the same in the UK’s towns and cities. They’re there to protect people.

I agree with you, but it is actually true that Spain is changing some of EASA rules by its own.
EASA allows the flight in urban areas under the open category with drones of C0 and C1 classes, Spain does not. And it seems like this is something they can't arbitrarily change, according to the answer I got from EASA a few weeks ago.

 

[Remy]

Google translate =
The Mossos d'Esquadra have reported a 36-year-old man from Barcelona for flying a drone through the Catalan capital several times without a permit or insurance. With all the information gathered, the State Aviation Safety Agency has been informed, which can impose a penalty on the pilot of up to 220,000 euros.

Officers from the Air Safety Technical Unit and the Drone Unit through the NATO-approved Kuppel system detected that the pilot was initiating drone flights from the balcony of his house, in Plaça Cerdà.

From there it made routes of more than 6 kilometers at an altitude higher than allowed and put other aircraft at risk, mainly helicopters of the emergency service. And the fact is that flying at these distances makes it impossible for the pilot to take measures to avoid a possible collision in highly populated areas.

The Kuppel system has sensors installed at different points that make up a kind of air protection dome, from which these unmanned aerial vehicles can be detected and geolocated.

Replying to @mossos
Flights could pose a risk of collision with other manned aircraft or drone crashes on people in the event of a malfunction. The flight was identified using the Kuppel system


The Mossos remind us that this type of aircraft is not a toy and that it is necessary to have the necessary authorizations to use it. Also, remember what the requirements are and some recommendations for flying drones.

Measurable up to 300 meters… so he flew too low?

 

[cegio]

sensational headline, that amount is simply the maximum applicable to a person who flies recreationally, someone who flies professionally could face penalties of up to €4.5 million. The reality is that all the sanctions that I have seen do not exceed €15,000, and the vast majority are appealed and annulled, the amounts of the sanctions for the use of drones in Spain are nonsense, all for a simple word, just for classifying drones as aircraft.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Measurable up to 300 meters… so he flew too low?

What is measurable up to 300m?

 

[JimSteadman]

"A neighbor got fined $250K for flying a drone from his balcony in Barcelona, Spain"

It seems like there should be some mechanism for editing misleading thread titles like this to avoid misleading users who are searching or browsing the index in the future.

Agreed. The title was inaccurate and 'click bait'. We all clicked on it to see what it was all about. Many never chose to drill down to what was reported.