Flying out of line of sight

[ncameron]

I have flown when I temporarily couldn't see the Mavic - usually when glancing between the controller and the bright sky. But that's a bit different from intentionally doing so.

LoS is the law in both the US and the UK; thus any insurance you have will be invalidated IF they can prove that you did so on purpose. Difficult to prove that...unless you post your intention on a public forum, for example...

 

[Robbie-O]

Thanks for all the responses everyone. Seems like insurance is my next step and I'll consider a tracker soon.

As the complexities of airspace become known to me, I think it will be nice to use this hobby as an excuse to explore the many areas of natural beauty outside of London.

But it does seem that going beyond LOS is the only way to "safely" get certain shots where a ground launch would be more dodgy. Next week I'll be in Sicily, for example. The wife and I are renting a BMW GS and riding around the island. I'd love to do a fly-over of Mt. Etna, but I don't want to rush things...

 

[Lelantos]

I am learning that this forum is a great resource for those who seek to impose greater restrictions on drone usage.

 

[ncameron]

Have fun. Mount Etna would be a perfect way of using a circular POI track - except that to mark the POI you first have to be directly over it, so insurance sounds good to me!

Italian done regulations here by the way:

Italy Drone Laws – UAV Systems International

 

[ncameron]

I am learning that this forum is a great resource for those who seek to impose greater restrictions on drone usage.

Don't get me wrong; I am strongly in favour of FEWER restrictions, I was just pointing out the current regulations. It drives me mad when I find somewhere gorgeous and get out Altitude Angel only to be told that I can't fly there because it is on the edge of a weather balloon zone, or some such. It's even worse in National Parks and private areas of beauty where the landowner just issues a blanket ban on flying drones at all, anywhere in the zone, at any time - all this is common in the US and the UK and I feel that it is unduly restrictive. I think that things will have to change...

 

[Ziggy01]

I am learning that this forum is a great resource for those who seek to impose greater restrictions on drone usage.

I guess some of us are aware that as fun as these things are they are potentially dangerous and without pilots taking all due care authorities will think nothing of imposing draconian restrictions on their use.

So I guess it's in all of our interests that rules are understood and adhered to.

What a drag, huh?

 

[Lelantos]

Don't get me wrong; I am strongly in favour of LESS restrictions,...

Me too, but I think you may have missed my point. Too many threads here talk about using the drone in a manner that is not consistent with the laws. If that matter is pointed out, there is a good chance the words "drone police" will soon follow.

We can either self police, or pretend it is not an issue and let others do the policing, by making greater restrictions - and they would not be wrong to do so.

 

[Ziggy01]

Me too, but I think you may have missed my point. Too many threads here talk about using the drone in a manner that is not consistent with the laws. If that matter is pointed out, the words "drone police" soon follow.

We can either self police, or pretend it is not an issue and let others do the policing, by making greater restrictions - and they would not be wrong to do so.

I misunderstood your comment too.

Agree with you totally.

 

[Owen Manderfield]

Have fun. Mount Etna would be a perfect way of using a circular POI track - except that to mark the POI you first have to be directly over it, so insurance sounds good to me!

Italian done regulations here by the way:

Italy Drone Laws – UAV Systems International

No, no! - use Litchi POI. You can set the POI and radius all from the map satellite image before even leaving the UK using mission hub on your home PC/Mac.

Call it up once you're there on your phone/tablet and tweak as required without ever having to fly over the crater.

 

[Chris.K]

Me too, but I think you may have missed my point. Too many threads here talk about using the drone in a manner that is not consistent with the laws. If that matter is pointed out, there is a good chance the words "drone police" will soon follow.

We can either self police, or pretend it is not an issue and let others do the policing, by making greater restrictions - and they would not be wrong to do so.

You sound like a reasonable and sensible guy. I think it works both ways though. Self police is a good thing but perhaps those that want to talk about breaking laws can self police when they inject that into the conversation.

I flew over a forest yesterday. I was 2 kms away. I lost sight of it after about 300m. If I get a message about line of sight I'm just gonna get a good laugh.

Now...if I'd flown it over busy freeways, over loads people down low or dodging helicopters, then I'm all for the self policing people to tell me Im being a fool and I'm with you 100%. But I'm not going to pay much attention to someone who just says "line of sight" regardless of the circumstances.

 

[MavicCF]

I live on the edge of National Forrest land with no homes or people and very rarely any aircraft. I have been out a max of 3 miles before I have to return due to low battery. It is hard to stay line of sight with something with the capabilities of the Mavic .

 

[Lelantos]

...I flew over a forest yesterday. I was 2 kms away. I lost sight of it after about 300m. If I get a message about line of sight I'm just gonna get a good laugh.

I agree that it would be good if all those that feel the need to share their outside-of-the-law experiences, that they would emphasize that they did so only in remote areas. That doesn't change how legal it is but at least it is not encouragement for others to do the same in a less responsible manner.

It would be best to not fly outside the law, second best would be to do so with great care and no danger to anyone else - then keep quiet about it. That way there is no encouragement for less responsible people to repeat the action, and less ammunition for those that seek to increase restrictions. There is also the added benefit that you are not publicly incriminating yourself.

 

[bucefalo]

Newbie here with a newbie question.

How comfortable are you flying your Mavic out of your direct line of sight and how many flights did it take you to start venturing farther?

On the whole, this little drone seems relatively straightforward to fly if you're taking it easy and focusing on image capture. But I feel like it'll be a while before I send it out a mile or more.

Any tips for safely operating at a distance? One YouTuber recommended staying behind the vector of a longer flight so you can more easily scan for obstructions.

have a look at my last video and then read my reply :

hi, unfortunately you'll receive many replies from "web police".. those are the paladin of fly safe and probably the first of breaking the same rules!
I'm new to drone world and Mavic is my first drone.. is just amazing!
I started slowly.. that means 1 Mt from me.. 2 mt altitude.. getting to know how to move it! day by day I took little more confidence with it, until I decided to test some real distance and I took it 2km far away from me.. what can I say it was a shock.. afraid to lose it even if everyth5was just smooth and I could get video feed!
the point is FLY Safe which means don't make your drone hobby a nightmare /problem to other people lives/privacy!
many countries included Italy have some bad restrictions on where to fly the drones.. honestly some of those rules are just stupid and "break" them with conscience of being respectful of environment and people around is not a crime : " NOT A CRIME"!
still if in those cases they catch you then you should just be a victim of your own actions!
I close by saying that I'm not willing to make" long distance " test everyday or every month.. is not necessary and you will discover as me that even just take off over your own head and see how panorama looks is an amazing experience itself!
p. s. it took me months of training to feel good about losing my mavic from my sight..

 

[Chris.K]

I agree that it would be good if all those that feel the need to share their outside-of-the-law experiences, that they would emphasize that they did so only in remote areas. That doesn't change how legal it is but at least it is not encouragement for others to do the same in a less responsible manner.

It would be best to not fly outside the law, second best would be to do so with great care and no danger to anyone else - then keep quiet about it. That way there is no encouragement for less responsible people to repeat the action, and less ammunition for those that seek to increase restrictions. There is also the added benefit that you are not publicly incriminating yourself.

Come on man...outside of the law experiences ? So is jaywalking. lol

 

[Owen Manderfield]

IIt would be best to not fly outside the law, second best would be to do so with great care and no danger to anyone else - then keep quiet about it.

I don't entirely agree with that statement.

Yes, where people fly in spots mode down a city street or fly only feet above people along the length a crowded pier - yes, I totally agree with you ,we don't want this publicised in any way that might encourage any other drone users to do the same.

But with more minor infringements like not keeping LOS, I feel it would be better to accept that it is going to happen, and to encourage and educate people into doing it as safely as possible.

Its a bit like underage sex. Children shouldn't engage in that behaviour according to the law - but human nature dictates that they will. We are better off giving good sex education to minimise the impact of underage unprotected sex - rather than pretending it doesn't happen.

So lets be open about it. Most of us will do it at some point and most of us will try to be as safe as we reasonably can. Lets educate by telling somebody that wants to fly further than LOS of the pitfalls and what precautions to take. Share our own mistakes or near misses so that others can learn from them.

Recently on this forum, a new Mavic owner tried to fly round the back of a large cathedral in a busy city. He was surprised to lose signal (hadn't thought about several tons of stone in the way), hadn't set RTH height and so created a dangerous situation with the drone probably crashing into an historic building with tourist underneath (he was the other side of a river at the time and didn't recover the drone).

People are obviously going to want to fly round objects, its what POI is for - if they go behind something big they might go out of LOS and might lose signal - we can easily say "just don't do it". Better would be to say, its dangerous, don't do it with people around, set RTH higher than the building, better do a waypoint mission in case of signal loss..... , also mentioning that it is strictly illegal - lets pint out why this rule is in place (awareness of other aircraft etc)

 

[jarred125]

I guess people just won't be happy until the FAA completely limits drone flight to a pre-approved status only. With so many just not caring about anything but their enjoyment that's the only way it will go. I dislike laws upon laws, they don't work, but when people completely disregard WHY those laws were created in the first place it's just as bad.

Know the rules with flying, it isn't a right for you to fly it is a privilege just the same as driving a car. You could cause injury to someone or damage to their property, the same as a car. Be responsible and let as many people continue to enjoy flying their drones.

 

[bucefalo]

I guess people just won't be happy until the FAA completely limits drone flight to a pre-approved status only. With so many just not caring about anything but their enjoyment that's the only way it will go. I dislike laws upon laws, they don't work, but when people completely disregard WHY those laws were created in the first place it's just as bad.

Know the rules with flying, it isn't a right for you to fly it is a privilege just the same as driving a car. You could cause injury to someone or damage to their property, the same as a car. Be responsible and let as many people continue to enjoy flying their drones.

jarred.. you got the point : so next generation car will have a NO DRIVE ZONE.. as we have now a NFZ! what I believe is that as a driver of a car a pilot of drone must be fully aware of the rules and above all be responsible for his flying, just like it happens with a car! we can go anywhere (except some MUST NFZ) but no other sort of limitations.. then if something happen you and the insurance must take care of the situation!

 

[Worthyo]

I'm in the UK and for peace of mind I bought 3rd party insurance..up to 5 mil covers everything of your mavic hits something it shouldn't..join FPVpilot for around 15 quid. All online. Then print off your insurance and keep. Easy peasy

 

[Worthyo]

It's FPVUK

 

[DSGDSG]

Me too, but I think you may have missed my point. Too many threads here talk about using the drone in a manner that is not consistent with the laws. If that matter is pointed out, there is a good chance the words "drone police" will soon follow.

We can either self police, or pretend it is not an issue and let others do the policing, by making greater restrictions - and they would not be wrong to do so.

If anyone in the US thinks that self policing is going to keep government from making increasingly tightening restrictions, on anything, you're only kidding yourself. The US is all about government and how we the people simply couldn't survive with out daily government micromanagement. Every department in the government wants a larger piece of a pie which can only feed so many. Each department then operates in a manner which makes it look like without them the four horsemen will begin their ride. Thinking that doing ANYTHING, even if it's knee jerk based on no real information or reality, justifies why they deserve a bigger slice.

Inform someone of the rules because they legit might not know. The fact they took the time to sign up on this forum though, at least in my eyes, shows they choose to be more informed than the average bear and are more likely to already know them. But I'm not going to be admonishing anyone here for how they claimed they flew because I know that like every single other person here, I make conscious choices every day to flout rules/laws. Jaywalking, speeding, jail broken firestick for movies, sharing netflix logins. Whatever. I'm a big fan about the whole casting the first stone thing. I know I can't throw any, so I won't. I personally think it would be great if others had the same thoughts.