Ren57
Well-Known Member
Great picture! The National Trust are renowned for being absolute [Language Removed by Moderator] with regards to drones. If you ask for permission to fly from National Trust land, you will get a big fat two fingers (one finger in the USA) as your reply! However, they don't own the airspace, so if you could take off from a location nearby not owned by the National Trust, there's not a lot they could do to stop you. The security guards that turned up and gave you a hard time, have no powers to move you on. They could ask you to land your drone if you had taken off from NT owned land but there's not much more they could've done except ask you to leave the location but you don't have to leave if you don't want to. They are not the police or any kind of law enforcement, they are just security guards. They have no more legal powers to arrest you than any other member of the public, they just wear a uniform. The uniform may intimidate some people or make some people think that they have more legal powers than they actually have.Maybe I should have known better, but I was an Aussie traveling in Britain with my trusty M2P and wanted to get a shot of Stonehenge. I went out the preceding day to check it out and there were thousands of people everywhere. I wanted an early morning shot with long shadows so returned the next morning to the place I'd identified as a good launching spot, with a good view of any people or other problems.
I went at 5.30am and there was no-one around and no-one near the Henge so I launched the Mavic and did some shots. Now at no time did I fly over the stones, nor did I fly anywhere near people (there was no-one there except a couple of security guards). The weather was overcast so I had to forget about long shadows but about 10 minutes into the flight a car pulled up with a security guard inside. I made no attempt to hide what I was doing and he got out of his car and told me in no uncertain terms to get the drone away from over the stones.
I politely pointed out that at no time was I ever over, or near the stones and that I didn't fly over people. I also pointed out there were no signs prohibiting flights. He took exception to this and said the site was National Trust run and flying over National Trust land is illegal. At this point he threatened to arrest me. I hit the return to home button setting things in motion and apologised for my transgression. He waited until the Mavic returned then told me to leave the area immediately. I did as he said but I don't believe he had the authority to move me from a public road, especially as there were at least a dozen camper vans parked in the lane nearby. Anyway I did manage to get a few shots...
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