Nice photos! I’m taking my
M2P to Iceland next year...can you tell me what restrictions are in place in the popular places? Thanks
Thanks!
Here is a copy/paste of my reply to someone else who had a similar question, hope it helps:
Long story short, you can't fly at any of the major tourist spots but there are still lots of amazing places to fly.
First and foremost, Iceland is not a place you want to fly without experience. The weather there can change on a dime (think tropical island weather, but near the Arctic) and things like wind profiles and precipitation can be completely different even 100ft away from where you're standing. Make sure you devote the necessary time to learning what you need to.
As for Iceland....
As soon as you guys get out of the Golden Triangle area, it's WAY less busy. I was there in May of this year and on the East/North I would often drive for 20 minutes without seeing another car. The boutique hotels we stayed in often only had 1-2 other guests. It was fantastic. Reykjavik and area were much, much, busier, but never too bad.
Just off the top of my head, some of the nicer areas you could fly were:
Barnafossar (Drive up)
Bruarfoss (short, very easy 4km hike/walk required - very worth it)
Urriðafoss (Drive up)
Sauðárkrókur and area
Anywhere you can safely pull over that is not in a National Park and not near prominent visitor areas. Lots of areas in the South/South East are gorgeous and there is nobody around.
There were lots of random places I wanted to fly, but couldn't due to wind/rain.
You will probably want to fly, but unfortunately you can
NOT fly at all the really famous stops, including but not limited to:
Kerið crater
Godafoss
Seljalandsfoss
Skógafoss
Gullfoss
Svartifoss
Dettifoss
Kirkjufell
Geysir
Anywhere inside Vatnajökull National Park (very recently declared a UNESCO World Heritage site)
Anywhere inside Thingvellir National Park
(this includes Silfra and Oxararfoss)
Anywhere inside Snæfellsjökull National Park
If you're looking at the suffixes, 'jokull' means glacier and 'foss' means waterfall. You will have waterfall fatigue by the end haha - there just so many, even just on the side of the road as you're driving around, so don''t worry about not getting enough pictures/video of those.
The "no drone" signs were usually obvious, but sometimes not. They were usually located at the entrances to various parking lots, so keep an eye out for them and respect them.
Also note I could not calibrate my compass anywhere in that entire country, but it was never incorrect (you can check on the map), and it was not an issue whatsoever.
Your drone has to be marked with your name & phone number to fly there legally.
If you have any other questions about Iceland itself or flying there, feel free to PM me.
EDIT: I have recently read from several different sources that Godafoss now has "no drone" signs, so I changed the above lists accordingly.
. It was illegal to fly in most of the popular/postcard spots but there were still lots of other nice places:
www.icetra.is
