Police Safer Drones course - Southwest UK

[frogbmth]

i thought I would post up about this course having attended in January, it’s £20 and gives a great insight into the current regulations and more importantly insight into its interpretation by those enforcing it. A few new dates have been announced for Dorset, Devon & Cornwall, I found it very valuable.

Devon and Cornwall Police

 

[droneing]

Really interested - thanks for post
Anybody know of courses around the country? Midlands, Lincolnshire.....if not, I would still drive down to it.

 

[VARSITY]

I will wait and see what 2019 brings, with the much advertised possible new UK rules, that , as yet, have not been made law

 

[Simmo]

In March 18, you are waiting for 2019 rules???
By the time you have absorbed that, you will have been teleported......

 

[VARSITY]

i don't fancy paying £20 to be told what I have already learned, and if/when any changes are made, I can be confident IKOPTA will cover it well in a freely available video. @Simmo, I already wear tin foil under my hat to protect myself from the radio waves, I hope it works against teleporting too

 

[droneing]

I agree, we all know the rules but I would pay the £20 just to have a police certificate of safety and competence to put in to the ‘jobsworth’ faces when challenged without reason!
The same reason I have public liability insurance, to prove we are competent and responsible for our DRONEing activities

 

[frogbmth]

Personally I found it very valuable to know what they would and would not prosecute me for, it’s not just explaining the wording of the legislation. It’s about how the law enforcers interpret it and under what kinds of circumstances they are likely to bring cases against us, and which they would not. It was a very informative and open communication session.

Also I do not agree that we all know the rules, every day I see videos clearly filmed illegally.

 

[droneing]

Bad wording on my part [emoji52] - we do not know all the rules! I just want to distance myself from these idiots otherwise we will all be grouped together.
Knowing the interpretation of the law is in reality more valuable than just knowing the law.

 

[frogbmth]

Mwahaha keep at least 50m from the idiots

 

[Whitwellian]

Sadly, I've not seen one of these courses for my own area (Derbys/Notts/S Yorks). I'll book one when its available.

It's all well and good some of the folk above saying they know the regulations, they may know one interpretation of those regulations - their own. The legal interpretation may be entirely different.

Along a different line, but still concerning rules and regulations, a good number of the people on here will be licenced drivers of road vehicles. Just go out and look at how fellow road users interpret those regulations.

We've all got a lot to learn.

 

[droneing]

On the subject of interpretation of the rules - I would like to use my Mavic Pro to film from a ridge on the A15 near RAF Scampton Lincolnshire. The NATS App says ‘high risk’ (obviously!).

My question is: If I fly along the ridge at 2 metres height purely to get a nice smooth panoramic shot over the valley - am I taking a a video as I would if I was walking or am I flying?

 

[Simmo]

You are piloting an RPA. Hence come under the rules of 'flying'...
If you only need to be tht low, use a Katana or Osmo?

 

[droneing]

Booked in for the Police Safer Drones Course at Weymouth 6th May - looking forward to it

 

[FL1H1]

Personally I found it very valuable to know what they would and would not prosecute me for, it’s not just explaining the wording of the legislation. It’s about how the law enforcers interpret it and under what kinds of circumstances they are likely to bring cases against us, and which they would not. It was a very informative and open communication session.

Also I do not agree that we all know the rules, every day I see videos clearly filmed illegally.

Wouldn't be a bad idea to post some interesting facts you discovered. I know that sounds cheeky given you paid £20 for the course but let's face it, a lot of people here can't get to Devon and Dorset very easily and at the end of the day it's £20 we're talking here, not 200. I myself would actually be interested but the times and dates would have to be convenient as it would involve me travelling and staying with my sister. Wouldn't attend and pay to stay in a hotel meal as well as petrol but I would go when visiting my sister. I'd share it personally though I accept there's probably a lot to cover but must be just a few points of great interest surely?

 

[droneing]

Not a problem! - I’m looking forward to it, even though it’s a 5 hour drive. Will be going in our camper van so will be staying over for a few days to get some DRONEing in along the Jurassic Coast.
Will be in touch...........

 

[frogbmth]

Looking forward to hearing what you think and also seeing what footage/pics you get whilst down here.
For me the biggest interest was about privacy and also trespass. So for example there is a feeling only me that you can fly over land you do not have permission to as long as you take off and land someplace you are allowed, for example a private farm or national trust land etc. What they said was that in general it’s tough crap if the landowner doesn’t like it but, if you film somebody and publish it online, then they have consequences like it is exposed they were having an affair or bunking off work, they could sue you for damages. So it’s not a criminal thing but you are open to legal action if you film people and it turns out to open a can of worms.
Also how a lot of the time it’s about what’s reasonable, they will tend to caution most times you do something wrong if there was no real harm as a first instance but if you blatantly ignore this they would look to prosecute.
We also talked a lot about common issues. Like when there is nobody about when you take off but come time to land there are people who have appeared, and a dog running around your legs. They pay a lot of focus to the “ensure the flight can be conducted safely” thing and that all comes down to reasonable judgement. If you were being reasonable then they would tend to be lenient.
They even covered financial gain, things like getting money from a YouTube channel for views which they do view as commercial use of the drone.
Hope this gives a flavour of the things that were discussed.

 

[FL1H1]

Looking forward to hearing what you think and also seeing what footage/pics you get whilst down here.
For me the biggest interest was about privacy and also trespass. So for example there is a feeling only me that you can fly over land you do not have permission to as long as you take off and land someplace you are allowed, for example a private farm or national trust land etc. What they said was that in general it’s tough crap if the landowner doesn’t like it but, if you film somebody and publish it online, then they have consequences like it is exposed they were having an affair or bunking off work, they could sue you for damages. So it’s not a criminal thing but you are open to legal action if you film people and it turns out to open a can of worms.
Also how a lot of the time it’s about what’s reasonable, they will tend to caution most times you do something wrong if there was no real harm as a first instance but if you blatantly ignore this they would look to prosecute.
We also talked a lot about common issues. Like when there is nobody about when you take off but come time to land there are people who have appeared, and a dog running around your legs. They pay a lot of focus to the “ensure the flight can be conducted safely” thing and that all comes down to reasonable judgement. If you were being reasonable then they would tend to be lenient.
They even covered financial gain, things like getting money from a YouTube channel for views which they do view as commercial use of the drone.
Hope this gives a flavour of the things that were discussed.

I think that is a great answer and massively appreciated. In the end, the world learns to live with these new developments. I mean, I can remember when anyone carrying a mobile phone back in the 80's, when they were attached to a brief case sized power pack, all who used them were laughed at, then they became bricks, then pebble sized flip phones - then came smart phones, ipads, lap tops, and for years theatres and amusement parks, they hated cameras, and the airline industry hated smart phones being used in flight but as time's gone on, so they've just had to learn to live with them. I think its good to be able to use them so, and my view regards exposing an affair is thats unrealistic - I mean, loads vlog and in it can be seen couples sat behind them in bars and restaurants and again, so long as its not intentional I can't see one being sued - its the modern world, cameras are EVERYWHERE, now in the air too.

 

[frogbmth]

It’s worth mentioning there were some clubs present that had a lot of interest in the laws around putting on open days, and a couple of guys looking to do their commercial training. They did tend to tailor the discussion somewhat around the audience as well as going over the legislation itself. It was also really cool to see some police drone footage and get up close to their drones. I was amazed to hear that the local traffic cars each have a Mavic Pro in them ready for quick deployment.

 

[colinfowler]

traffic cars each have a Mavic Pro in them ready for quick deploymen

Much cheaper than putting up a £3 million helicopter to take stills at fatal or life threatening RTA site