Is there any point in a drone in the UK?

[ICHOTT]

Quick tip for when you fly, if strangers come up and want to talk do not feel as though you need to answer their questions or have to explain yourself. You do not!

if you’re ok with talking then carry on but otherwise the best way is make no eye contact and if they pester just say “wait till I’ve finished working please” and no more. No need to be arsy just confident.

 

[THE CYBORG]

Good point Ic_hoTT
I always say I will talk when I have landed, answering questions while flying isn’t always a good idea, to easy to lose concentration.

 

[alanj49]

I quite often fly my Mavic Air 2 in coastal areas where there are no restrictions, as they are part of the Crown Estate. Invariably people will come up and show a great deal of interest, and are quite amazed at the technology. As long as you don't fly it in their face you should be Ok

 

[Dbez1]

Thanks for the advice, I think a big open field is definitely a good plan!!

Looking at the Dji refresh for £45 - guessing that's worth getting for the first year at least, since I'm likely to have some... accidents! Although that doesn't cover flyaways, so maybe drone insurance instead (which I guess is maybe worth having anyway due to the public liability cover?)

I live in the US but I’m a big fan of drone insurance. I’m not sure if you have State Farm over there, but it’s only $45 per year where I live and it does cover fly always.

 

[Haggisman]

I live in the US but I’m a big fan of drone insurance. I’m not sure if you have State Farm over there, but it’s only $45 per year where I live and it does cover fly always.

Unfortunately not, from what I can see, it's either DJI refresh (which doesn't cover loss), dedicated drone insurance (where the excess is 25% of the cost of the drone), or possibly your home insurance (but I've checked and mine has a specific exclusion for drones).

I'm probably going to go for the refresh - as a new pilot there's probably a good chance of me crashing at some point ?

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Just realised I missed several posts, sorry and whoops

 

[Youser]

Unfortunately not, from what I can see, it's either DJI refresh (which doesn't cover loss), dedicated drone insurance (where the excess is 25% of the cost of the drone), or possibly your home insurance (but I've checked and mine has a specific exclusion for drones).

I'm probably going to go for the refresh - as a new pilot there's probably a good chance of me crashing at some point ?

definitely go for Refresh. you have to purchase it within 48hrs of activating your drone. After 48hrs you have to record yourself dancing with the drone and send the video to DJI.

 

[Robert Prior]

Thanks, with regard to YT, I can only take youtubers in small doses and given I am deaf and have to use the auto subtitles which can be totally "up the left" there are very few YT broadcasts I can stomach. The trouble is for every good you-tuber the are 100's of posing prats who are primarily blowing there own trumpet.

Once you get comfy with flying, I would recommend "Drone Film Guide" as a YouTube channel if you want to improve your video footage. The subtitles seem decent. Stewart and Alina are not drone fans — they are film-makers who use drones to get shots they couldn't get otherwise. I find their videos refreshingly normal, as opposed to so many where the presenter is trying to be 'hip' and 'edgy'. And as you'd expect, the production quality is high.

 

[timlyg]

go fly at buckingham palace.

 

[SecureHttp]

Yeah it's not as restrictive as you may think, just don't fly near airports, respect other aircrafts, uninvolved people and private property and you should be good.

The good thing about the mini or mini 2 is that it's so small and quiet that most people aren't bothered by it. Most of the time they won't even notice you're flying a drone because it's just that small and quiet, especially the mini 2.

 

[Cymru]

Drone Safety Map | Altitude Angel

www.dronesafetymap.com

Most of the country is perfectly ok to fly in (see above link) provided you check for local byelaws for takeoff/landing/SSSIs on top of that.
Oh and follow the drone code, particularly the parts about built up areas and people.

98% of the country is perfectly fine to fly.

 

[phutureproof]

some basics of the new rules from January the first 2021
there will be three categories of operating our drones
(1) the open category
there are three main factors for operating in this category
(1) the maximum take of mass of the UA must be less than 25kg
(2) the UA must be operated within visual line of sight (VLOS)
(3) the UA must not be flown higher than 120m from surface of the earth
all three of these factors must apply for an open category operation,if they cant be met then the flight needs to be conducted under the specific category

(2) the specific category
these are operations that present a higher risk than flights in the open category,and where one or more elements of the flight fall outside those of the open category,these will then require an additional authorisation from the CAA based on a safety risk assessment

(3)the certified category
these are operations that present an equivalent risk to that of a manned aircraft,and will be subject to the same regulatory regime
these will be very large commercial type drones used for film making and large fixed wing drones that have a high degree of automanny

this is just an overview and each category have subsections based on weight of the drone
hope this helps to get you started

If you have the land owners/building owners permission, can you fly closer than 150m (horizontally) from their buildings?

eg: if I want to fly my M2P near/over an industrial estate that my client owns, is that in the 'specific' or 'open' category? If the buildings are empty of people, does that make any difference?

 

[Silverfox53]

Just do it the easy and legal way - do the online test ( its a piece of cake ), get onto ebay to get your "certification" printed ( dead cheap and a nice addition for the wallet or drone bag ), get 3rd party insurance ( again dead cheap ), then go fly with common sense using the go4 app or whatever your quad uses, The UK is NOT the USA so there are more places to fly than not to fly - just check an app for wherever you want to fly. You and your lad will then be able to have hours of fun outdoors whilst knowing that if any jobsworth opens his/her mouth you can shut them up in an instance. I would also suggest taking the drones out in the car whenever you get the chance, just like a camera - its better with you than sitting at home.
Happy flying