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Flying during lockdown

you are not allowed to go somewhere in your car to fly,how do i know,i contacted my local police, and asked if i could go up to some common land,5 miles from my home by car to fly my drones as my daily exercise, i explained that there is no area near my home to walk to to fly and i told them i would be well away from other people,they politely told me that it did not fall into the reasons they had been given to enforce,so they would be obliged to issue me me with a fine for none compliance so no flying for me at the moment
Bummer!
 
tell me about it you cant even go out for a drive about any more ,the problem is you don't know where they are until they stop you, and its part of the emergency plans that were rushed through parliament and are now enforscable in law
 
you are not allowed to go somewhere in your car to fly,how do i know,i contacted my local police, and asked if i could go up to some common land,5 miles from my home by car to fly my drones as my daily exercise, i explained that there is no area near my home to walk to to fly and i told them i would be well away from other people,they politely told me that it did not fall into the reasons they had been given to enforce,so they would be obliged to issue me me with a fine for none compliance so no flying for me at the moment
I do not need a car I just open my back door.:)
 
you are not allowed to go somewhere in your car to fly,how do i know,i contacted my local police, and asked if i could go up to some common land,5 miles from my home by car to fly my drones as my daily exercise, i explained that there is no area near my home to walk to to fly and i told them i would be well away from other people,they politely told me that it did not fall into the reasons they had been given to enforce,so they would be obliged to issue me me with a fine for none compliance so no flying for me at the moment
Like i said, no recreational activity except from walking, jogging or bicycling
. Iet's be patient
 
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Can you shop... like groceries?
you can shop unless you have symptoms of the virus, someone my age should not go out, and if i have no relatives to shop for me i can contact the local counsel offices to have deliveries i cant even go to the chemist for my meds i have to get someone to bring them to me we have to stay 6 ft apart when we are out and getting out for exercise means a walk or cycle around where you live, and of course you can travel by car to go to work ,if you are home because the place you work is closed then the same rules apply to you
 
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The logic behind "not every recreational activity being permitted..." appears to revolve around the premise that if you go somewhere or do something that MAY require other people being put at risk, if you were to end up in a situation of needing to be rescued and/or require access to stretched and precious health resources, then you should not undertake that activity in that situation.

On the face of it, this directive seems over-bearing and unnecessary - but as a health worker myself, who is taking the first "relaxing" break away from daily frontline support that has recently too often started at 7:30am and not finished before 10:00pm, think about what you are wanting to do.
I for one would dearly love to take my "birds" somewhere and just relax for a short time, doing something "I enjoy" and doesn't involve the need to think about other people's problems.

However, I suggest none of us should be presuming such a scenario "won't happen to me". Very, very few people generally set out to have an accident. In most instances, the unforeseen accident takes less than 5 seconds to occur. The fact that you're flying a UAV, skiing, surfing or boogie boarding is completely irrelevant after that. Your first responders then have an obligation to try and rescue you - before that task becomes one of recovering your lifeless, cold body.

In my country, USAR/SAR and to some extent HEMS involve a large proportion of volunteers. So, I urge anyone thinking that taking your UAV somewhere for a bit of understandable "self-isolated" recreation is not selfish. Think about how many people might need to be involved to effect a rescue, and the fact the rescuers cannot maintain social distancing during the rescue operation. That could become a COVID-19 risk for you, but it also adds risk (unnecessarily) to a very wide group of people directly involved in the rescue mission. When/if you end up in hospital, that then takes up a very large amount of health resources (unnecessarily), medical and nursing professionals, maybe theatre time - and worst of all, if surgery is required, will then take away a ventilator and ICU personnel during part of your recovery. Such resources will then not be available for someone infected with COVID-19, and whose life is going to absolutely be dependent on that ventilator and the ICU health professionals that go with it .

That someone might not be you, but it could be a parent, grandparent or a significant other.

Fly, by all means. But, do it over your backyard or driveway. Get innovative. Please just don't go somewhere on a whim; without giving very careful consideration to all the "what if" scenarios that could flow from that choice!

Happy and safe flying ;) ? Thumbswayup
 
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The logic behind "not every recreational activity being permitted..." appears to revolve around the premise that if you go somewhere or do something that MAY require other people being put at risk, if you were to end up in a situation of needing to be rescued and/or require access to stretched and precious health resources, then you should not undertake that activity in that situation.

On the face of it, this directive seems over-bearing and unnecessary - but as a health worker myself, who is taking the first "relaxing" break away from daily frontline support that has recently too often started at 7:30am and not finished before 10:00pm, think about what you are wanting to do.
I for one would dearly love to take my "birds" somewhere and just relax for a short time, doing something "I enjoy" and doesn't involve the need to think about other people's problems.

However, I suggest none of us should be presuming such a scenario "won't happen to me". Very, very few people generally set out to have an accident. In most instances, the unforeseen accident takes less than 5 seconds to occur. The fact that you're flying a UAV, skiing, surfing or boogie boarding is completely irrelevant after that. Your first responders then have an obligation to try and rescue you - before that task becomes one of recovering your lifeless, cold body.

In my country, USAR/SAR and to some extent HEMS involve a large proportion of volunteers. So, I urge anyone thinking that taking your UAV somewhere for a bit of understandable "self-isolated" recreation is not selfish. Think about how many people might need to be involved to effect a rescue, and the fact the rescuers cannot maintain social distancing during the rescue operation. That could become a COVID-19 risk for you, but it also adds risk (unnecessarily) to a very wide group of people directly involved in the rescue mission. When/if you end up in hospital, that then takes up a very large amount of health resources (unnecessarily), medical and nursing professionals, maybe theatre time - and worst of all, if surgery is required, will then take away a ventilator and ICU personnel during part of your recovery. Such resources will then not be available for someone infected with COVID-19, and whose life is going to absolutely be dependent on that ventilator and the ICU health professionals that go with it .

That someone might not be you, but it could be a parent, grandparent or a significant other.

Fly, by all means. But, do it over your backyard or driveway. Get innovative. Please just don't go somewhere on a whim; without giving very careful consideration to all the "what if" scenarios that could flow from that choice!

Happy and safe flying ;) ? Thumbswayup
i know what you are saying and agree with the reasons for the lockdown,it still doesnt make it any easier to do, but if it prevents others from dying then it will be worth it ,its really hard when being able to move freely around has been the norm
 
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you are not allowed to go somewhere in your car to fly,how do i know,i contacted my local police,

As highlighted on the news yesterday, the police dont actually know the law here. They've been making it up as they go along and got caught out when someone got a direct reply from the cabinet office stating the opposite of the police.


The amount of overreach they've used in this in such a short space of time is scary - it proves they really need checks and balances because left to their own devices they rapidly evolve into a restrictive, arbitrary, petty service.

Google the Derbyshire police drone unit twitter feed as one good example, spend all day doing no useful police work but flying a drone over the empty peak district and the few people they found were all miles from anyone else, obeying all the rules and still got put onto a public shaming video uploaded to twitter. Its quite chilling that these people were obeying all the rules and laws and yet the police thought the best use of resources wasn't stopping groups of kids in parks and bridges or catching up on the alleged huge backlog of work they have, it was the easy targets of law abiding people.

Another force now has an online portal for reporting your neighbours for breaking rules.

Ultimately its FAR safer from a infection risk to drive a few miles to the middle of nowhere than it is to walk from your house where there'll be a lot more people all doing the same.

Last night the government changed the advice to "stay local if possible" but the above incidents were before then.
So don't assume the police (i) know the rules or (ii) will act in good faith. They've been shown to be incapable of it (and that should be remembered when this is all over).
 
i know what you are saying and agree with the reasons for the lockdown,it still doesnt make it any easier to do, but if it prevents others from dying then it will be worth it ,its really hard when being able to move freely around has been the norm

Unfortunately it wont because (i) the UK borders remain fully open with no restrictions, testing, quarantine or follow ups on arrivals even from places like NYC, other US cities, Iran and so on meaning there are fresh cases imported daily and (ii) the WHO official police of "testing..testing....testing" which helped Korea, Singapore and now Germany to get ahead of this is not being implemented and the government refuses to do so.

What that basically means is (i) lockdown will go on for likely months and (ii when its lifted, cases will spike and you'll need more lockdowns.
 
Well it is not against the law to drive and the police cannot stop you for just driving that would require marshal law however this is a very serious problem we are involved in right now so the best practice is not only stay away from people but stay away from things people touch. Going out for a walk or hike in the woods is perfect along with driving out to some desolate scenic spot and doing a drone video. I am going out next time the sun shines and do just that however i do it by motorcycle so I guess that is better?
 
Well it is not against the law to drive and the police cannot stop you for just driving that would require marshal law however this is a very serious problem we are involved in right now so the best practice is not only stay away from people but stay away from things people touch. Going out for a walk or hike in the woods is perfect along with driving out to some desolate scenic spot and doing a drone video. I am going out next time the sun shines and do just that however i do it by motorcycle so I guess that is better?

Actually with the new emergency laws in the uk the police CAN stop you for just driving.
And a hike in the woods unless you live next to it is now illegal.
 
As all flights back to the UK I had booked have been cancelled i am obliged to self isolate in the foothills of the pyrenees in my 16 acre garden. Nobody can truly confirm what i can and cant do, I am 2.5km up a minor cul de sac, so far no sign of a gendarme roadside check.
Reading the "allowed activities" outside form rules I probably can only wander in the garden for an hour a day"!!
Luckily I can launch from a velux window in my attic room so almost unlimited fly time.
 
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I enjoy using my Mavic as a camera on a 400' tripod, and making different types of panoramas of my neighborhood (from directly over my own house). I've taken some at dawn to catch the Veil of Venus. The Mavic has a bunch of different pano modes, and the free microsoft ICE allows you to merge them into different types of projections.
Are you sure? Venus is a "sunset object" not a dawn object.
 
My take on this, FWIW. (I'm in the UK)
You could technically fly from your garden (assuming you have one) but you still need to be mindful of the drone code. Again, technically, if everyone is indoors you would not be flying over pedestrians or a congested area (if the definition of congested is full of pedestrians/vehicles). Roads are quite empty, so flyable over with care.
BUT, assuming you live in a moderate house in a moderate urban or suburban area, you would be flying withing 150m of properties, which is not allowed even if you were to fly directly up you can only go 120m high.
Under these cricumstances would it be safe to fly? The probability of you hitting a person or car is small. Property not so much. Could you persuade a judge that you flew with safety in mind and you did a full risk assesment before you took off?

If, as someone else mentioned, you were using the drone to give supplies to self isolating people then I suppose potentially the law would turn a blind eye, assuming you are flying safely and with minimal risk to people and property and don't kill or maim anyone. However you could be liable for damages.

The decision to fly or not is yours. What is above is only my opinion and has no legal basis. I'm not a solicitor/lawyer, the judge who could be sitting your case or a policeman.
 
Being alone and flying is totally permissible.
Nope. A journey in a car to fly your drone is not essential. On bicycle could be considered exercise. Walking could also be considered exercise. But it would be hard to justify stopping and flying your drone in public areas as essential, alone or not. #StayAtHome #StayHomeSaveLives
 
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If you are alone you cannot infect or be infected by people directly. I go for a walk in the woods and fly. I see no one. Quarantine means isolation from others. I think this qualifies.
 
I am lucky..live in the middle of nowhere with large garden and fields all around. Still flying - learning and practicing new modes.
 
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