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Commercial River Traffic

marshel

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Age
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Location
Nashville, TN
I was at a COE campground this week just below a dam and lock where it forms a narrow lake, there is some commercial barge traffic. I happened to be flying my Mavic Mini over the water right before sundown when one of the barges was passing through. Did keep it up and got some good footage of it approaching, but didn't want to cause any issues so did a RTH before it got close to the air space I was in. My question is, does anyone know of the protocols involving commerical boating traffic? A fly over at a decent altitude would have been really cool, but didn't want to violate any regs or laws.
 
If you think you might not like the answer..don't ask the question..Kidding.. I think the reg's pretty well cover that situation. If you can't fly over cars it makes sense that you can't fly over boats. ..of course if the drone dis-connects and you happen to later get control.. ;)
Barges are a great subject and I'm sure you can safely get terrific drone footage legally.
 
if it was an Army Corps of Engineers lock and dam, it is off limits, as is most (if not all) federal property.
 
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if it was an Army Corps of Engineers lock and ****, it is off limits, as is most (if not all) federal property.
Is that not 400’ from the lock and dam ?
edit. That was revised.
The Corps of Engineers' and TVA's policies governing drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles prohibits public operation of drones over developed public lands, including recreational areas such as campgrounds facilities and structures, and critical infrastructure such as locks, dams, power plants and switch yards.Nov 6, 2018
 
Sounds right. Once I discovered in my research that I couldn’t fly over a lock and dam, i quit reading.
Relooked and that was revised. Though I fly lots on the waterway
here and never had any issues. Been doing it since I started flying.
They have never said nothing to me and know I do it ,I might better
call their main office here.
 
Might be worth a call to the lock and dam directly. Looks like they each have their own phone number.

QUOTE="dirkclod, post: 1086840, member: 5"]
Relooked and that was revised. Though I fly lots on the waterway
here and never had any issues. Been doing it since I started flying.
They have never said nothing to me and know I do it ,I might better
call their main office here.
[/QUOTE
 
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Thanks for the updates, I was about 3/4 of a mile downstream from the dam/lock, kittyhawk was showing no restrictions, dji fly app gave no warnings and there was nothing in the campground rules about drone usage; now I know.
 
Might be worth a call to the lock and dam directly. Looks like they each have their own phone number.

QUOTE="dirkclod, post: 1086840, member: 5"]
Relooked and that was revised. Though I fly lots on the waterway
here and never had any issues. Been doing it since I started flying.
They have never said nothing to me and know I do it ,I might better
call their main office here.
[/QUOTE
I fly from my truck in front of the lock house. I know the lock masters here. Might be why I have no issues. The COE owns thousands of acres just here in my county and is set asset as a hunting WMA.
They turned it over to the MSWF&P to over see all of it. Being COE
Rangers are not sworn they call if they see something on the water
and the game wardens take care of it as well as the WMA.
i retired around 6 years ago as a Master Sergeant Game Warden.
25 years here so maybe that helps too ya think.?
I flew a couple of batterys right before dark . That parking deck is
where I park when on the west bank which I use for sunups.
Boat ramp on other side of pool for sunsets. Flew across for one
shot of the storm coming.
399EE263-CF11-4C57-9DA0-8CC931BCACC4.jpeg
View attachment 615A429C34763E3F536DA7BD34E1484E.jpeg
Edit, Pano wouldn’t load click on it.
 
93C15568-EB43-4CE8-8F99-EC0774854C4C.jpeg337637FC-0434-472C-932C-4E3F4940DD56.jpeg93C15568-EB43-4CE8-8F99-EC0774854C4C.jpeg
I fly from my truck in front of the lock house. I know the lock masters here. Might be why I have no issues. The COE owns thousands of acres just here in my county and is set asset as a hunting WMA.
They turned it over to the MSWF&P to over see all of it. Being COE
Rangers are not sworn they call if they see something on the water
and the game wardens take care of it as well as the WMA.
i retired around 6 years ago as a Master Sergeant Game Warden.
25 years here so maybe that helps too ya think.?
I flew a couple of batterys right before dark . That parking deck is
where I park when on the west bank which I use for sunups.
Boat ramp on other side of pool for sunsets. Flew across for one
shot of the storm coming.
View attachment 111477
View attachment 111479
Edit, Pano wouldn’t load click on it.

I gotta go meet me some lockmasters!

The rain band is cool AF in your image.

Towboats are great subjects.

337637FC-0434-472C-932C-4E3F4940DD56.jpeg
 
I gotta go meet me some lockmasters!

The rain band is cool AF in your image.

Towboats are great subjects.
I got hundreds of pictures stored on external hard drives from 6 years
i have swore I would take the time to really learn to edit but with what time I have I rather fly and just dump my sd in a file and save.
Now if I had just named the files right ?
one day.?
Being I have already took this of topic in spring of 19 after the floods
they had to shut the locks down for the sand buildup and dredge .
this is working its way to the lock gates.
Dredging In Aberdeen 4-27-19
Now let me say this. Where and how I fly might be bad illegal now.
There really is only 2 of us that really fly anywhere like this.
The few that get them here won’t fly over water, they spend all their
time getting em out of trees ?
Definitely read the signs if around any locks and camp grounds,
Use common sense especially around any campgrounds.
Other than the main laws from the FAA they change so much I don’t keep up with the little stuff. We are a small town and if there are some
they ether don’t know of em or care. Other locations might be another
situation .Know before you go.
I might be setting a bad example with this but not going to lie about it.
I will get out of this with a funny clip of some snowbirds waiting to lock through. Sometimes you might see more than you meant to ?
 
[/QUOTE]1
…Definitely read the signs if around any locks and camp grounds,
Use common sense especially around any campgrounds.
Other than the main laws from the FAA they change so much I don’t keep up with the little stuff. We are a small town and if there are some
they ether don’t know of em or care. Other locations might be another
situation .Know before you go.
I might be setting a bad example with this but not going to lie about it.
I will get out of this with a funny clip of some snowbirds waiting to lock through. Sometimes you might see more than you meant to ?

[/QUOTE]


further off topic : Keeping track of mass images is crazy difficult, particularly cause, like many, I take 20 images to get one good one. Best I can do is review the images quickly and mark the good ones with a green tag green on my Mac.

One last towboat

 
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