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Sub 250g drone rules for flying near buildings

Carlos F

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I cant find the answer to this anywhere I’ve searched so far. The answers I’ve found seem to be geared towards drones that are above 250g in weight:

If I’m flying a sub 250g drone (dji mini 3 pro) what are the rules for flying near buildings? ie. a church for example?

I know if flying a sub 250g drone in the UK for example:

• I dont need a flyer i.d
• I can fly over people but not crowds
• I can fly in towns, villages, industrial and recreational areas etc
• I can fly closer than 50 metres to uninvolved people
• I can fly in all open categories

However it doesn't specifically state that if you have a drone weighing less than 250g that you can fly closer than 50 metres to buildings.

Does anyone have an answer?

Thanks in advance
 
Greetings from Birmingham Alabama, welcome to the forum!

Other than not having to register the drone, all other rules apply.
 
@Carlos F ,well in a way you have answered your own question
i can fly closer than 50m to uninvolved people
this includes buildings and structures
this of course is only applicable to the sub 250, group of drones right now
the main thing to remember, is to do so without endangering anyone during your flight
and of course respecting the privacy of people where you intend to film
the time when you intend to film also has a greater significance, in somewhere like a church ,early morning or a week day evening ,if there was nothing going on in the church would be much better than a Sunday, and although not legally necessary it would be better to seek permission from the person in charge ,or at the very least let them know your intentions ,to fly over their property ,

i would just add that these comments are for flying in the UK, other countries might be different
 
So, with permission could a sub 250g loop round the likes of York Minister etc, and film the glass? That would be🕺🕺 🕺 🕺 it would be even better if it could be done inside but I guess you'd run into no GPS restrictions.
 
i dont see why not
 
@Yorkshire_Pud ,go on, go get permission ,and then post the pics on the forum ,you know you want to
 
So, with permission could a sub 250g loop round the likes of York Minister etc, and film the glass? That would be🕺🕺 🕺 🕺 it would be even better if it could be done inside but I guess you'd run into no GPS restrictions.
Good luck on getting that permission.

And good luck og finding a time when there are no "crowds" around.
 
@Carlos F ,well in a way you have answered your own question
i can fly closer than 50m to uninvolved people
this includes buildings and structures
this of course is only applicable to the sub 250, group of drones right now
the main thing to remember, is to do so without endangering anyone during your flight
and of course respecting the privacy of people where you intend to film
the time when you intend to film also has a greater significance, in somewhere like a church ,early morning or a week day evening ,if there was nothing going on in the church would be much better than a Sunday, and although not legally necessary it would be better to seek permission from the person in charge ,or at the very least let them know your intentions ,to fly over their property ,

i would just add that these comments are for flying in the UK, other countries might be different
Hey thanks for your reply OMM.

So the exemption for sub 250gram drones in the UK that states you can fly closer than 50 metres to uninvolved people applies to buildings also?

I wanted to find out as when I read for the test it didn't explicitly mention buildings, alone anyway. I remember it just mentioning people, airports, towns etc. I do remember it saying this includes people inside buildings but I was thinking yesterday about flying around a church (not during the morning) in the town and questioned whether I could legally do it. I suppose if I could fly closer than 50metres to people with it, then buildings would be less of a hazard. Maybe overthinking it but couldn't find anywhere that explicitly said I could fly close to buildings.

I found this website for a group of churches in the UK church conservation trust I think and they said not to fly within 50metres of the churches in their group and you need permission? That might have been written before drone laws changed, I dont know but got me questioning.

 
Heres another question.

I just got a reply from a farm that grows lavender. I thought it would be nice to film and take photos of some growing but I just received an email from them saying:

“Hello,

Thank you for your email.

Unfortunately, we do not allow the use of drones anywhere on the farm.

Sorry for any disappointment.”


So does this just mean they don’t allow drones to launch from/land on their farm. Do they have any say about what flies over the farm or fields if I took off from a public road and flew over their fields then landed on public road?
 
As to their meaning, only they can tell you that.

But as far as I know they can not prevent you overflying the farm providing the drone was launched and landed from outside their land but they do have the legal right to prevent you taking off or landing on the farmland. Do a search for threads concerning National Trust land/sites.
That said, they might have grounds to challenge an overflight if there was someone or people in the fields based on privacy.
Since you appear to be UK based .....Also a farmer may have a shotgun and might blast a low? and annoying drone from the sky. There may be rules concerning such action close to roads but deep within their boundaries ?????
I haven't read anything to suggest that, in the UK, drones are considered as aircraft and as aircraft are illegal to shot down providing that the shot did not endanger the public. "Damaging the property of others" law might apply but...........
 
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Meddling with the flight of or taking one down or even distracting a drone pilot while theyre flying a drone is illegal in the UK yes.

I don't know about rights to airspace above the land. I did think all airspace was regulated by the CAA. It has seemed hard to find correct information unless I phone CAA or Nats or someone official.
 
Thanks for the prompt, I now vaguely recollect the "distracting the pilot" thing but can you post a link to anything, other than damage to property of others, that would prevent a farmer from downing a drone that was over their land and well away from the public and or roads?
 
@Carlos F you will notice that the farmer said, we do not allow the use of drones anywhere on the farm
which implies to me that they would not let you take off or land on their property
the problem you have is if something were to go wrong, and the drone came down on their land, then they do not need to return it, or allow you to retrieve it ,if you did so you would be trespassing.
of course there is nothing stopping the farmer from taking out a civil action against you ,if they felt so strongly about a drone flying over their land ,but this would require them to have absolute proof it was your drone
 
@old man mavic regarding
"of course there is nothing stopping the farmer from taking out a civil action against you",
civil action for what, the overflight or, if you attempted to walk on their land, trespass?
 
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@Yorkshire_Pud ,well trespass is a matter for the authorities
flying over their land is a totally different matter, they would as i said ,have to have proof that you caused them distress because of your overflight ,or that for instance you flew over some of their livestock, and in doing so caused them to be spooked ,and suffering injury ,
if on the other hand you flew up at 350ft had the camera pointed down wards with the drone moving all the time then you could still get the images of the lavender in a safe manner
in any sort of civil action there are going to be considerable costs involved ,and being realistic i doubt if any farmer would want to be forking out large sums of money to bring such an action,
the most that they would probably do, is inform the police that there is a drone flying over their land, and let them deal with the matter ,you as the pilot, would then have to satisfy the police that you were following the drone code, and provide the information they requested ,thats of course if the police turned up at all,
 
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So this thread is a perfect example of the problem with drone flying. That problem is the non-specific language that's used in regulations, language that is completely dependent on interpretation.

You would like to fly over that lavender farm and get some nice photos or video. The owners of that farm say they do not allow drones. But the farm owner does not own the airspace. So anyone is free to fly their drone over that farm if they takeoff and land from some public land just a few feet away and then fly over the lavender as much as they want....as long as it's not flown too low, or as long as it does not violate anyone's privacy, or as long as it doesn't cause some animal distress, etc.

But those are not "black and white" (binary) conditions, they are all "shades of gray"...so how does one determine those things?

What's too low? 1 meter? 10 meters? 100 meters? OK, most people would say 1 meter is crazy low, but where do you draw the line?

What exactly violates someone's privacy? Is that shooting a video where you can see people, but not identify them? Some people (and computers) are really good at identifying individuals others not so much. What standard is applied?

Based on my casual observations, plenty of drone flights violate regulations -- in fact, maybe amost all of them do (certainly most of what's on YouTube do). Is that because people just don't give a **** (well, that's true in some cases) or is it because drone regulations are so poorly written that it's essentially impossible to really know what's legal and what's not, so people eventually just give up trying to follow the rules, because doing so would be impossible unless you are out in western Australia -- since it's almost completely up to how one interprets the regulation language, so (surprise) the drone operator shrugs and says to themselves, "well, this isn't too low, and this isn't invading anyone's privacy, I don't see any particularly sensitive animals around, at least in my view". Ask the lavender farmer or the cow owner or the nude sunbather in their backyard, and they're going to disagree.

So what is the average drone owner to do?

I know of a lavender farm nearby, too. I'm sure the owners will tell me they don't allow drones...
 
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@Aerophile ,what you say is exactly the issue we all have ,when it comes to making a decision of whether or not to fly at a certain location
and the regulations dont make that decision any easier ,all we can do is to make sure that as far as humanly possible ,we have observed any flight restrictions that may be in force,made sure that the drone we are flying, is applicable to the location ,and that the flight can be carried out safely within the spirit of the regulations
 
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