Southern California - L.A. area 323/213/818

[RAZR]

there is no Los Angeles area thread yet, just the OC and IE threads so here's one for us L.A. guys.

post up where you fly, where you are and your YouTube / Vimeo channel so we can check out your flights.

 

[RAZR]

i'm in Los Angles in Silver Lake near Griffith Park.
only flights i've done are around the Silver Lake Reservoir and out in the desert.
i ride a dirtbike and use my Mavic for moto videos mostly.
this is my first drone. i effing love this thing! and it's easy to use and has dramatically changed my YouTube moto channel with the addition of drone video along with GoPro helmet cam video.

 

[Advexure]

We typically fly either up in the valley (Van Nuys RC Park is a great spot), down in OC, beaches north and south or out in the desert.

Glad to hear you are enjoying your Mavic! Safe and happy flying!

 

[callahoohoo]

Thanks for making this post, RAZR.

ADVEXURE - do you need to be a member to fly at the Van Nuys RC Park? According to their website it looks like... maybe? Hard to understand.

 

[2nd2non]

Thanks for making this post, RAZR.

ADVEXURE - do you need to be a member to fly at the Van Nuys RC Park? According to their website it looks like... maybe? Hard to understand.

Nope. There is a separate area for dronies. It gets crowded on weekends, so be advised. I typically go on weekdays. Only issue is its common for airplanes to fly over very low (or so it seems). Don't go pushing the limits of the bird!

 

[callahoohoo]

Nope. There is a separate area for dronies. It gets crowded on weekends, so be advised. I typically go on weekdays. Only issue is its common for airplanes to fly over very low (or so it seems). Don't go pushing the limits of the bird!

Awesome! Thanks for letting me know. I'll try it out there. There are so many places you CAN'T fly these things, that it's good to have a designated place like that.

 

[2nd2non]

Awesome! Thanks for letting me know. I'll try it out there. There are so many places you CAN'T fly these things, that it's good to have a designated place like that.

It's not a large area, and you'll have to take turns when crowded, but it's very functional. I use it to test out firmware and commission new birds

 

[borealis]

there is no Los Angeles area thread yet, just the OC and IE threads so here's one for us L.A. guys.

post up where you fly, where you are and your YouTube / Vimeo channel so we can check out your flights.

Any restrictions on flying in the Silver Lake reservoir area?

 

[Rigel]

there is no Los Angeles area thread yet, just the OC and IE threads so here's one for us L.A. guys.

post up where you fly, where you are and your YouTube / Vimeo channel so we can check out your flights.

Hello... i usually test/fly my mavic in echo park. It gets boring already lol

 

[strykher]

Awesome! SFV here, Woodland Hills area. I haven't been to the RC Club, thought you have to pay as well.

I'd love to check out the LA area closer to DTLA, on the echo park, are there are other restriction on there? What do you do there usually? POI the fountain and sweep shoot the lake? The DTLA Skyline looks pretty sick in the background.

 

[Rigel]

Awesome! SFV here, Woodland Hills area. I haven't been to the RC Club, thought you have to pay as well.

I'd love to check out the LA area closer to DTLA, on the echo park, are there are other restriction on there? What do you do there usually? POI the fountain and sweep shoot the lake? The DTLA Skyline looks pretty sick in the background.

Yes the Skyline is amazing! I just fly there to test other features of mavic like the waypoints etc... i dont think theres restrictions but my rule of thumb is just be discreet flying anywhere you go... you dont want people coming to you looking at your stuffs... kinda like distracting you and wasting your mavic's battery life at the same time...

 

[strykher]

Yup, exactly, best to take it low-pro. I've shoot there before, but with the camera and tripod. First time droner, and just got the mavic last Friday, been flying for about 4x now, couple in OC and couple here in warner center. Beaches would also be on my list...

 

[Troncat]

New owner in the Santa Monica area here. Sad to discover lots of areas I wanted to fly/film are restricted (Malibu, all national parks, beaches, etc), per this article. Hopefully, I'm just reading it wrong, but are all beaches really off limits??? Looking forward to hearing where everyone is flying. Can't wait to get it up in the air in Big Bear and I'm heading out to Mammoth this weekend.

 

[Rigel]

New owner in the Santa Monica area here. Sad to discover lots of areas I wanted to fly/film are restricted (Malibu, all national parks, beaches, etc), per this article. Hopefully, I'm just reading it wrong, but are all beaches really off limits??? Looking forward to hearing where everyone is flying. Can't wait to get it up in the air in Big Bear and I'm heading out to Mammoth this weekend.

That is insane! I did flew in Santa Monica Pier but i was like hiding and im about 1.5 miles away... i was thinking of biking today in santa monica beach and have mavic follow me thru Autopilot app...

 

[Troncat]

That's one of the reasons why I bought this sucker, along with all the other awesome reasons. I flew it for about 20 minutes at Samo beach and a fellow drone pilot warned me I could get a fine, so I packed up and left. But if you're 1.5 miles away, how will they ever find you to fine you? I need to get more comfortable flying from 2+miles away... Palasades doesn't have any restrictions, so maybe take off from there? Was really pissed about the Malibu zoning; stupid insanely rich people!

 

[Rigel]

That's one of the reasons why I bought this sucker, along with all the other awesome reasons. I flew it for about 20 minutes at Samo beach and a fellow drone pilot warned me I could get a fine, so I packed up and left. But if you're 1.5 miles away, how will they ever find you to fine you? I need to get more comfortable flying from 2+miles away... Palasades doesn't have any restrictions, so maybe take off from there? Was really pissed about the Malibu zoning; stupid insanely rich people!

I fly discreetly... and as much as i wanted to fly low but i ended up flying about 150-200 ft which it will be invisible LOL. my favorite spot right now is the Balboa Park (not the main park just the side where theres not a lot of people 405fwy side) its huge and there's an RC Planes dedicated for them... its a nice place to practice and get used in flying mavic.

 

[Rigel]

That's one of the reasons why I bought this sucker, along with all the other awesome reasons. I flew it for about 20 minutes at Samo beach and a fellow drone pilot warned me I could get a fine, so I packed up and left. But if you're 1.5 miles away, how will they ever find you to fine you? I need to get more comfortable flying from 2+miles away... Palasades doesn't have any restrictions, so maybe take off from there? Was really pissed about the Malibu zoning; stupid insanely rich people!

I was planning in hiking in Malibu... so no fly zone there?

 

[strykher]

I've flown over at the Victory Trailhead near Calabasas. I had the mavic do the follow while we were mountain biking. It's in an open field -- hike/mountain bike trails. Pretty good view, and can get pretty windy there, well the last time I was there last week.

 

[its2loud]

I recently flew in the Santa Monica Mountains and had no idea it was a national park. I didn't get any warnings in the app. Glad I know now.

 

[ChrisRL]

Hey guys!
Chris from Sherman Oaks here. I can tell you a little about how the FAA will start to enforce the no-fly and restricted flight areas - they basically don't, at least not yet. They just wait until you post your videos and catch you later. And that could be up to years after the flight, especially now that companies like DJI have their flight controller programs like their Go apps able to record exact flight information and send it to the cloud.

That having been said, I'd love to be able to have a list of places around LA that aren't just the rec airfields (I fly the Apollo 11 model aircraft field in Woodley Park near KVNY at least three weekdays every week) that are good-to-fly areas but that cover interesting and / or photo-op locations.

Anybody have fave places to fly? I've often thought that the lagunas north of San Diego or Westlake would be cool shots, but probably unflyable...