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A bit confused

Grahamerob

Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2018
Messages
7
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Age
49
Location
Wallsend, UK
This rule is a bit confusing and don't want my new MP to fall foul with it. Outside my house if a field and if i took of from it i would be more than 50m away from anybody's property and if i reached an altitude of say 60m i would be within the 50m rule of not flying near any property, can i then fly over the top of the housing estate I live on at this altitude or is a housing estate classed as a built up area?.
A mate of mine who flys a phantom says it's legal but I'm unsure.
Btw I live in the UKScreenshot_20180801-112704_Chrome.jpeg
 
Personally I would say "built up area" refers to a location such as town/city centre where there could be a lot of people out in the open, tall buildings etc. So I would say you are OK to overfly houses if you are above 50m. I base this opinion on the image of the house above and the description of "properties". I am in a similar situation to you with a field behind my house, I take off from my back garden but straightaway go out over the field - this does not quite meet the 50m rule for my neighbours but as long as you are not hanging around looking in their windows I don't think it is likely to be a problem.

I think the main concern is what would happen if your drone fell out of the sky - in a "built up area" there is a higher chance of hitting a person or causing some other sort of incident.

There is no question of legal/illegal since these are currently only guidelines, though that may change in the future.
 
No, that's not correct, the new UK law only states max height of 120m/400ft and keeping 1km from airports. The above stated guidelines remain just guidelines for now.
 
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So at what point does a group of houses (how many) become a built up area. As I'm an hgv driver I am under the impression that any road with a 20mph speed limit is in a built up area.
 
I would suggest going up to your max allowed height before flying over the neighborhood to make it less noticeable. Regardless of what the rules say, people tend to get upset when a drone fly's over their property.
 
So at what point does a group of houses (how many) become a built up area. As I'm an hgv driver I am under the impression that any road with a 20mph speed limit is in a built up area.

Well as a professional driver you should know that the law, via the Highway Code, defines a built-up area as anywhere with street lighting and/or a marked 30mph speed limit (or less), because of course street lights are sufficient on their own to define a 30mph limit without any signage required. Anyone who has done a speed awareness course knows that.... *embarrassing*
 
Yeah. I think the short answer is nobody knows.

As these are guidelines and not laws, they are really just saying: use your common sense to minimise the risk of privacy invasion and of someone being hit by a crashing drone.
 
Well as a professional driver you should know that the law, via the Highway Code, defines a built-up area as anywhere with street lighting and/or a marked 30mph speed limit (or less), because of course street lights are sufficient on their own to define a 30mph limit without any signage required. Anyone who has done a speed awareness course knows that.... *embarrassing*

Don't be an a**
 
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