USING DRONE IN RHODES GREECE

[Chainsaw]

Hi all i am thinking of taking my mavic pro to rhodes greece is it allowed

 

[deleted member 877]

Hi all i am thinking of taking my mavic pro to rhodes greece is it allowed

google.com

 

[gnirtS]

As above. ALWAYS use the official legal source for a country, not forums of 3rd party websites.

Drone Aware - GR

dagr.hcaa.gr

You'll see from their map you cant fly on the north of Rhodos due to the airport and other areas. The south is OK.

Then see here: https://dagr.hcaa.gr/img/HCAA Consumer Drone Leaflet - EN.jpg

The important part is the maximum distance from you - 50m only....

If you want to fly further you have to pre-register the flight on the app and notify people.

 

[SoCalSteve]

Does the app force these restrictions upon a pilot? Or do we, as pilots, just make sure we do not violate the law?

 

[gnirtS]

No app forces restrictions. But you're looking at a big fine and confiscation (and a criminal record) if you choose to ignore a countries laws and regulations.

DJI Geo outside the US causes more trouble than it fixes. It'll let you fly pretty much anywhere and people assuming because the app says yes then its legal. In reality that isnt the case. DJI Geo has some absolute last resort restrictions for better known airports but thats it.

 

[Thomas B]

Does the app force these restrictions upon a pilot? Or do we, as pilots, just make sure we do not violate the law?

Interesting question. Does it matter if you do all you can to fly legally?

 

[SoCalSteve]

Thanks String, thats great info for a DJI newbie!

 

[SoCalSteve]

Interesting question. Does it matter if you do all you can to fly legally?

It does! It matters because if I'm restricted to 50m, then I need to practice at 50m so I know what my limitations are. A pilot needs to be able to look at the drone and know it is approaching that limit instead of constantly staring at his controller. If I know my app will stop the drone from exceeding 50m, then I don't have to worry about monitoring my distance or wondering how high I can fly if the drone is XXm horizontally from me.

I'll be using my drone in a half dozen countries over a month. While I'll research all the restrictions before traveling, having an app that imposes local restrictions means the likelihood of doing something wrong because I forgot, missed something, or misinterpreted the law is greatly reduced. Similarly, if one was to visit a new city, they may not know about a small airport or a helipad. My current (non-DJI) drone alerts me of the no/reduced fly zone and keeps me from making a dumb mistake and violating the law.

Having an app hold the drone withing legal regulations, makes life a lot easier for the pilot who wants to fly legally. I know plenty of folks don't fly legally, but for the sake of forum conversation, I'll pretend those people don't exist.

 

[gnirtS]

The distance thing is easy - the app has a built in maximum distance setting.

The important thing is to use the official source of information for no fly zones, restrictions, distance from airports and so on. Dji GEO, Airmap and so on are fairly worthless for that outside the us.

FWIW you can go further than 50m in Greece but currently flights have to be pre-authorised via an app or form so takes a while (a few hours sometimes).
This *might* change with the new EASA rules next now.

 

[SoCalSteve]

The distance thing is easy - the app has a built-in maximum distance setting.

Good to know. That will certainly be a nice upgrade.

The important thing is to use the official source of information for no-fly zones, restrictions, distance from airports and so on. DJI GEO, Airmap and so on are fairly worthless for that outside the US.

Any suggestions on what to use in Europe? It's my first time over there.

FWIW you can go further than 50m in Greece but currently, flights have to be pre-authorised via an app or form so takes a while (a few hours sometimes).

I saw that posted earlier. So 24 hours advance notice would be good in most cases then?