Question to U.K. Pilots... Tower Bridge

[ColinF]

Hello, traveling for business to the U.K. in 2 weeks. Thinking of bringing the Mavic Air. I wanted to film Tower Bridge. I checked AirMap and it looks like a restricted area ends right at Tower Bridge? Would it be legal to fly on the other side to capture some video? Thanks in advance for any help! I would hate to end up in the Old Bailey for a few nights!

 

[AeroJ]

No, if you are planning to try and do that legally, you are out of luck. Can't be done, because even if it wasn't controlled airspace (it is), no matter where you fly from you'd fall foul of the 'not within 150m of any built-up area or crowds' rule. It's all a built-up area, and there'll be a lot of people on that bridge ! Also you'd be right on the edge of (but still inside) R158 restricted airspace, so you could get into a lot of trouble for flying there :/ If you kept outside it, there is still a lot of air traffic in the area, and it's right next to helipads and close to a medium size airport, so really I'd abandon that aerial mission, and get good photos on the ground instead !

 

[ColinF]

Hey, thanks. I figured there would be some restriction. I only fly legally so that mission is grounded. Thanks for letting me know!

 

[gnirtS]

Airmap is useless outside the US. If you want to stay legal worldwide, do NOT rely on Airmap.

FWIW in the UK the official app is NATs Drone Assist.

 

[ColinF]

Thanks. I installed NATs. Going to leave the Air home this trip.

 

[ataraxia]

It's not a completely stalled mission, as you can request an exemption to the law from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) by filling out an SRG1320 form, found here

It is up to them if they allow it, seeing as it's London which is quite an intense area and under constant security concerns you should make sure you've completely nailed your risk assessment and detail exactly what you're doing, where/when you're flying and for what purpose, you may get lucky. The CAA can exempt you from both the restricted airspace and the 50m and 150m limits from a legal point of view, but whether they will or not is another matter.