Flying where not allowed Thailand Cambodia

[shb]

There are certain places, on my trip, where flying, for one reason or another, is not allowed. You need a permit to fly in Thailand. I tried to get one, but I couldn't get it, and even if you do get it, it takes a long time, so you wasted half of your 30 days just trying to get the permit. In Cambodia, you can fly drone anywhere except in Phnom Penh and Angkor Wat, which are probably the places you would want to fly at the most. So I found a few places, where you can take off, and land, without worrying about any police or any authorities seeing you. That's what this thread will be about.

In Bangkok I stayed at the White Orchid Inn 2 near Nana Plaza.
I found there's a room, on the top floor, the hotel uses for laundry and other things. It says authorized people only. Just ignore that. No one ever came in when I was flying. You can set your drone on a a fiberglass roof there and take off and land. The roof is green, and very easy to see from your drone, when you get ready to land. I thought I could insert pictures amongst the text, but it seems I can't, so that will be the end of this thread until somebody tells me how to do that.

 

[mrgadway]

When I checked into bringing my drone to Thailand as a foreigner last year it was pretty clear you needed permits and insurance. The penalties were said to include prison and heavy fines. That made my choice to leave them at home very easy.

 

[BobaFut]

If given the choice, I would simply choose not to illegally operate my flying surveillance device* in an authoritarian-ish country that has a history of putting foreigners in terrible prisons for petty crimes.


*this is what the cops will call it

 

[Sir Maxwell Greene]

Playing with fire...more about the connectivity and places to launch/ land ;-)

 

[Alejandro Villegas]

There are certain places, on my trip, where flying, for one reason or another, is not allowed. You need a permit to fly in Thailand. I tried to get one, but I couldn't get it, and even if you do get it, it takes a long time, so you wasted half of your 30 days just trying to get the permit. In Cambodia, you can fly drone anywhere except in Phnom Penh and Angkor Wat, which are probably the places you would want to fly at the most. So I found a few places, where you can take off, and land, without worrying about any police or any authorities seeing you. That's what this thread will be about.

In Bangkok I stayed at the White Orchid Inn 2 near Nana Plaza.
I found there's a room, on the top floor, the hotel uses for laundry and other things. It says authorized people only. Just ignore that. No one ever came in when I was flying. You can set your drone on a a fiberglass roof there and take off and land. The roof is green, and very easy to see from your drone,View attachment 165271 when you get ready to land. I thought I could insert pictures amongst the text, but it seems I can't, so that will be the end of this thread until somebody tells me how to do that.

View attachment 165272

These insignificant dull picks are not worth your time in jail or any fine. Bad choice, I want to see green, pyramids or monasteries, mountains. Not some top view of a city I have seen before.

 

[mavic3usa]

Nice! Any tips for when you reach Myanmar, preferably in a location where you won't be spotted by the ruling junta.

 

[shb]

It certainly isn't fun to fly illegally. I checked in Thailand, and only one guy has been busted. He didn't get caught flying, he got caught posting pictures on Facebook. He was Thai, and had to goto court. I exchanged emails with him a little. I flew two batteries this morning on waypoint missions. Then it started to sprinkle, so I had to stop. This place I fly in Phnom Penh is very safe. I will go their tomorrow. There is one building that is really cool looking. It has rooftop restaurant.

Here's a link to it. I took a lot of video of it today. It's bearly within my range.

Vattanac Capital - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Dogpilot]

It is one of the issues with tourists. They feel they can act like they would not at home. We get worked up when a "foreigner" does something inappropriate in our own country. We judge, even more harshly, foreigners behaving badly than locals. The basic thing is: Their Country, Their Rules. Kind of why there are different countries, so they can have differing standards of behavior.

More to the point. I just ran "Airspace" for AfrikaBurn. South Africa has very strict rules concerning events, closed airspace, training, licenses, permits, authorizations from landowners and insurance. The fines can total up to 5 million Rand. A whole lot of money. You folks think that you're being secretive in what you're doing, but it is actually quite easy to catch the drones and operator, without electronics or anything fancy. Confiscated 15 in 4 days in a population of 12,000 people. If I, a certified idiot, can do this, I think the Thai Police and Cambodian Police can do the same. You do not want the grief. I spent some time in jail in Sudan while I was working for the UN. Stupid political issues and I had the blunt instrument of the UN to get me out in 24 hours. Nobody, even your own embassy, is going to expend a lot of energy to help you if you're caught. Trust me, you do not want to experience some of these jails.

Bottom line, their country, their rules. Be polite and respect their right to have their own rules. There was a time before drones when we just took pics from the ground. Don't be that jerk tourist that gets caught and end up in the "Ha, Ha' article on the BBC. Go dig up the movie "Midnight Express" and you may be a bit more cautious and respectful.

 

[shb]

It is one of the issues with tourists. They feel they can act like they would not at home. We get worked up when a "foreigner" does something inappropriate in our own country. We judge, even more harshly, foreigners behaving badly than locals. The basic thing is: Their Country, Their Rules. Kind of why there are different countries, so they can have differing standards of behavior.

More to the point. I just ran "Airspace" for AfrikaBurn. South Africa has very strict rules concerning events, closed airspace, training, licenses, permits, authorizations from landowners and insurance. The fines can total up to 5 million Rand. A whole lot of money. You folks think that you're being secretive in what you're doing, but it is actually quite easy to catch the drones and operator, without electronics or anything fancy. Confiscated 15 in 4 days in a population of 12,000 people. If I, a certified idiot, can do this, I think the Thai Police and Cambodian Police can do the same. You do not want the grief. I spent some time in jail in Sudan while I was working for the UN. Stupid political issues and I had the blunt instrument of the UN to get me out in 24 hours. Nobody, even your own embassy, is going to expend a lot of energy to help you if you're caught. Trust me, you do not want to experience some of these jails.

Bottom line, their country, their rules. Be polite and respect their right to have their own rules. There was a time before drones when we just took pics from the ground. Don't be that jerk tourist that gets caught and end up in the "Ha, Ha' article on the BBC. Go dig up the movie "Midnight Express" and you may be a bit more cautious and respectful.

Too me, disobeying drone laws has nothing to do with being a tourist. Being American, I would disobey the US laws if I ever went back there.

 

[shb]

I'm working on a mission, to fly along the river tomorrow, Sunday, when there will be a lot of people there, if the weather is good. So I flew it at 160 ft, and I'd like to get down to 60 ft, but I can see there's this Tower there, with four guy wires coming up, that probably would not be detected by obstacle avoidance. This is what's called, an anti drone Tower!