Flying during lockdown

Andrex · Apr 10, 2020

dougiefresh27 said:
Except the title is Flying During Lockdown
Didn't see anything specific to a location
I thought we were all like minded people
Connecting the world through drones and drone experiences

I think there are a few threads about flying during lockdown on here in a number of subforums, and I was interested to read the UK perspective in this thread. There is also one in the general section.

subcon959 · Apr 11, 2020

I've been flying my MM up from my back garden to about 100m and then around a 300m radius. It's a bit of a pain due to the amount of wifi interference but it has been enough to keep me sane during lockdown.

I know I could get away with 50m but I don't wanna bother anyone with the noise. It's actually pretty cool as I can just about get close enough to see how big the queue is outside the local Tesco without having to leave the house ?

dougiefresh27 · Apr 11, 2020

subcon959 said:
I've been flying my MM up from my back garden to about 100m and then around a 300m radius. It's a bit of a pain due to the amount of wifi interference but it has been enough to keep me sane during lockdown.

I know I could get away with 50m but I don't wanna bother anyone with the noise. It's actually pretty cool as I can just about get close enough to see how big the queue is outside the local Tesco without having to leave the house ?

That sounds like a great use of the drone.
Stinks that you have lines to get into places

roc342 · Apr 12, 2020

Lucky Im in US. Been Flying every day on Lockdown. But staying a good ways aways from anybody, barley get out of Car sometimes

harry moes Aruba · Apr 12, 2020

old man mavic said:
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'm in luck then we can still go out just need to keep distance from other people and thats easy here went flying on the beach yesterday empty just a hand full of people there all hotels are empty to did find out to check my props ones in a while one broke off mid flight oceaan landing

Rockycat · Apr 12, 2020

old man mavic said:
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

Old man Mavic did you ever in your wildest dreams ( or nightmares ) think that you would have to ask permission to travel around in your home town? Here's to hoping that we can get back to normal as soon as we can. In the meantime we have to do everything to keep ourselves and or neighbors safe.
Looking forward to better days.

Peace

old man mavic · Apr 12, 2020

Rockycat said:
Old man Mavic did you ever in your wildest dreams ( or nightmares ) think that you would have to ask permission to travel around in your home town? Here's to hoping that we can get back to normal as soon as we can. In the meantime we have to do everything to keep ourselves and or neighbors safe.
Looking forward to better days.

Peace

@Rockycat no i certainly did not,the two things i love doing most in my retirement,driving my car and the freedom that gives and flying my drone ,were taken from me in one moment,
these are trying times for sure ,and the one thing that does not stop is growing older each day and all that goes with that, i just hope that at the end of all this,i still have my health and strength left to resume my hobby

MAvic_South_Oz · Apr 12, 2020

old man mavic said:
i just hope that at the end of all this,i still have my health and strength left to resume my hobby

Pray God yes. Try and get out when you can, but of course be very wary of others around, best to protect yourself.
Although I am fairly healthy at 57.5 or so years, I am being careful, mostly for the wife, as she is very susceptible to a bad response if she gets this virus.
Take care and hope you get out soon.

Rockycat · Apr 13, 2020

old man mavic said:
@Rockycat no i certainly did not,the two things i love doing most in my retirement,driving my car and the freedom that gives and flying my drone ,were taken from me in one moment,
these are trying times for sure ,and the one thing that does not stop is growing older each day and all that goes with that, i just hope that at the end of all this,i still have my health and strength left to resume my hobby

Chin up my friend, we do what we have to now, so in a few months we will be back to doing what we love to do. The news is stating to say that this social distancing is starting to work, so we have to trust in the good Lord that we, as a society, will come out of this darkness into the light of a new day.

Be safe...

John Locke · Apr 15, 2020

It would seem to me that walking for exercise, or riding a bike (which is deemed acceptable) is more risk of injury than flying a drone, assuming you don't hand catch, and you're flying in rural areas void of people. I sure hope we all use common sense to mitigate risk of injury to anyone, leading to the use of emergency services. None of us want to visit a hospital or doctor's office these days.

IdahoPaul · Apr 15, 2020

Bob1956 said:
I'm in good health but in the at risk demographic. Still working in the airline biz but with passenger loads of around 10% or less, maybe not for much longer. Then I'll go home to my own rural hilltop in western PA and fly the Mavic again.

Sorry to hear that. I hope you come out the other side of this okay.

IdahoPaul · Apr 15, 2020

We're on a stay-home order but luckily my yard is next to a farm on the edge of town, and some range land north of that, so I can fly my Mini over that ground without leaving my yard. Now if the wind would slow down enough that the drone won't just blow away...

diego · Apr 18, 2020

Andrex said:
This is the view from directly above my back garden...

So my new lockdown project is a timelapse one - photos at exactly the same time of day, every day, for as long as I can. Then in a few months, process it all into a timelapse and stabilise the footage as best as possible.

Using Litchi to send the drone to the same coordinates and height as best as possible.

View attachment 98263

Good idea and great photo. Which drone did you use to capture this?

Andrex · Apr 18, 2020

diego said:
Good idea and great photo. Which drone did you use to capture this?

It's a Mavic 2 Pro and that's the unedited JPG output rather than the RAW.

Working on stabilising my timelapse using PTGui Pro and Adobe After Effects in the long run...