Capital Complex Springfield, IL

[drw52jc]

Great Shot of the Capitol Complex in Springfield, IL. I wasn't able to get as close as I wanted to because of the rules, but the sun was positioned perfectly.

 

[Mr. Salty]

What are the rules? Here in Iowa we can buzz the building all we want.

I did a little editing of your photo in Lightroom. See what you think.

 

[drw52jc]

I wish we could do that. Springfield has a city ordinance with drones and governmental entities. Also, there is a hospital about a mile down the road and it has a heliport which further restricts our ability to get nice shots.

 

[Mr. Salty]

A friend of mine lives in Springfield. I know the city passed a law prohibiting flights over city-owned property and power company infrastructure, but I don't think there's anything about the Capitol building (which is state property). You might go into the Capitol and ask the security guard. That's what I did here and was told they have drones flying around the building quite often and there's no problem with it.

 

[drw52jc]

A friend of mine lives in Springfield. I know the city passed a law prohibiting flights over city-owned property and power company infrastructure, but I don't think there's anything about the Capitol building (which is state property). You might go into the Capitol and ask the security guard. That's what I did here and was told they have drones flying around the building quite often and there's no problem with it.

Thanks for the heads up cause I may have been told incorrectly. It depends upon where you take off as well. I was downtown a few secs ago and it only let me reach 98ft. I left that spot and went a half mile away and was able to get Some great shots a few minutes ago but it wasn't as close as I wanted because my signal became weak. Still a blast tho.

 

[drw52jc]

What are the rules? Here in Iowa we can buzz the building all we want.

I did a little editing of your photo in Lightroom. See what you think.

Pretty cool! Since then I have purchased some polar pro filters, amazing! I took some new ones today of the same shot and it looks great.

 

[The Original 'Crash']

I'm Mr. Salty's friend in Spfld. Both St. John's Hospital and Memorial Medical Center have left-hand traffic patterns (that's typical for almost all airports.) Given the configuration of the respective campuses, approach and egress to the helipad is most often from the northeast and northwest (away from downtown.)

Both helipads are controlled locally from the ATC tower at Capitol Airport. You should be able to call the ATC and ask if there is any expected traffic to or from the hospitals by calling the following number, referenced from the below links:
WX ASOS at SPI (2.2 nm NW): PHONE 217-535-1444

Detailed heliport info can be accessed for St. John's with this link:
AirNav: 97IS - St Johns Hospital Heliport

Memorial's is detailed on this link:
AirNav: 54LL - Memorial Medical Center - Springfield Heliport

I drive quite often on the north side of the city at night and I notice that medivac traffic seems to gain significant altitude before overflying the center of town. You should be fine so long as you stick to generally accepted altitude rules.