Air 2 Cadgwith Cove, Cornwall

Jeremy Clark · Oct 16, 2020

And the 4th clip from a busy few days. The picturesque "chocolate box" village of Cadgwith Cove in Cornwall

Hooper · Nov 12, 2020

Hi Jezbot. How do you ensure where you are flying is unrestricted. The national Trust are blatantly abusing the specifics of the CAA regs and as they own most of the Cornish coastline and have banned filming of it that leaves very little wiggle room. Unless you are not a hobby pilot. Just curious as I found your posts through Google.

StephanieRicherPhoto · Nov 12, 2020

That’s some darn pretty footage!

passedpawn · Nov 12, 2020

Cool locale. Nicely composed. Thanks for that.

Jeremy Clark · Nov 13, 2020

Hooper said:
Hi Jezbot. How do you ensure where you are flying is unrestricted. The national Trust are blatantly abusing the specifics of the CAA regs and as they own most of the Cornish coastline and have banned filming of it that leaves very little wiggle room. Unless you are not a hobby pilot. Just curious as I found your posts through Google.

I use Drone Assist to check actual restrictions. With regard to Nat Trust, as I understand it from other sites, they don’t own the air above so as long as you don’t take off or land from their land and follow the drone code, you should be ok. Plus if there are local employees, I’ll ask their permission....some are fine. To be honest, as a relative new flyer, I’ve only recently started using Drone Assist as I realised I’d made a mistake flying at Cadgwith

Hooper · Nov 13, 2020

Jezbot said:
I use Drone Assist to check actual restrictions. With regard to Nat Trust, as I understand it from other sites, they don’t own the air above so as long as you don’t take off or land from their land and follow the drone code, you should be ok. Plus if there are local employees, I’ll ask their permission....some are fine. To be honest, as a relative new flyer, I’ve only recently started using Drone Assist as I realised I’d made a mistake flying at Cadgwith

I'll have a look at drone assist thanks. I've got several others but another one can't hurt.

With regard to the National Trust. They have a set of ancient bylaws. One of which was and I say was, worded such that (paraphrasing) no one shall take photographs on national trust land for commercial reasons. This dates back to forelock tugging and happened when enterprising individuals would pitch up with a bellows camera and offer to take a photo of you in front of the big house. It fell under their "no hawking" policy. Since then photography has exploded and as such many people took to taking photos of holiday destinations and land marks and later sold them. Bot ammature and professional photographers alike. In step the NT and threaten people to remove all and any content pertaining to land they own.

The law states that you may take photos from any public place (footpaths) etc, and do what you want with them. And so the confusion began. The latest was an exchange between the National Trust and a known photographer who received communication stating that they will permit photographs, taken from a public place, to be sold but only in an editorial capacity. This isn't the law as I understand it but it is the NT. The phrase used was that they couldn't allow their brand to be hurt. National is clearly not meant in the conventional sense then.

Regarding drones as far as I am aware obeying the drone code is the only requirement for hobby flyers with regard to height and congestion restrictions. But using the same reworded law and bending the CAA drone code statements they have determined that NT is a no fly zone. Hence this quote from their website.

Drone flying by our members or by the general public

We do not grant permission for private flying for the following reasons;-
CAA regulations state that drones should not be flown above or near to people. As our properties often have staff living or working on site, visitors present or have open access, unauthorised drone flying is both illegal and potentially puts people at risk.
Few non-commercial users have the correct training or permission from the Civil Aviation Authority to operate drones.
If a drone causes damage or harm, pilots generally do not have the correct insurances, or level of insurances, to adequately compensate those affected.
Some sites may have wildlife or agricultural animals, or animals which are sensitive to disturbance, such as birds and deer herds, which could be alarmed or stressed by the presence of drones, especially at breeding times.
Many drones have cameras attached and these could infringe data protection laws (filming people without permission) and potentially could contravene National Trust rules on commercial photography and filming.
The presence of drones can impinge on the quiet enjoyment of our sites by other visitors and therefore potentially presents a public nuisance risk.

Source: Flying drones at our places

That isn't how I interpret the drone code and further more the NT wording refers to properties but implies buildings. However when challenged in the context of landscape photography those contacted interpret any property meaning coastline or countryside owned by them.

Maybe direct contact to clarify the situation is required. Because the law is the law regarding photography and that states that you can photograph anyone or anything from a public place in the UK.