Thought I'd share how and why I wound up not flying my Mavic Pro Platinum in the course of the past 4 days touring Iceland's Golden Circle in the south, and Diamond Circle in the north:
1) Prudent restrictions: As others here have noted in this forum, drones are disallowed at all popular tourist sights, national parks, and protected natural areas, which constitute most of the must-see routes and places.
2) Marginal benefit: Even without a drone, you can take beautiful up-high handheld shots overlooking many noteworthy waterfalls, canyons, gorges. And in between those POIs are mostly vast plains with distant mountains, where aerial drone vantages don't add much value.
3) Wind (and rain): Weather varies, of course, but our two days in the Lake Myvatn area (which is itself a no-fly zone), in particular, were too gusty for safe flying (too bad, the rim of Hverfjall crater would have made a great dronie vid at sunset, and we were the only ones there)
4) Access: It's illegal to drive off road in Iceland, few places to pull over safely, and many small roads lead to private farm houses, even along the coastline.
5) Wildlife disruption, nesting birds in particular, but also horses
6) People: By mid-morning, there are hikers and tourists around any generally accessible point of interest or roadside viewpoint, even where drones are permitted.
7) Time/Stress: With hours of driving between sights and destinations on typical tourist itineraries, it's hard to work in extra time for side exploring to seek out interesting and legal drone spots, and distracting from the already rewarding Iceland experience to be obsessively wondering if there's one a mile that way, or up that trail, or around that bend. (And as mentioned above, car access is limited).
All that said, I'll stop short of recommending other hobbyists leave their drones at home, since I did come across one or two isolated spots I would have tried to get aerial shots or a dronie for social media, if weather had permitted. But my hindsight is that discovering interesting and viable drone spots here requires more time and flexibility than afforded by most car-centric, several day itineraries. I'm sure there are more possibilities for those dedicating full days to hiking, though again, many such trails are in no fly zone natural areas and parks.
I did have one drone-related experience in Iceland: My original MPP OEM battery swelled after charging in our rental car (using a DC charger that's been fine before), so I dropped it off at a Reykjavik recycling center, too risky to carry onto our next flights.
On now to rural France, here's hoping for better luck there.
1) Prudent restrictions: As others here have noted in this forum, drones are disallowed at all popular tourist sights, national parks, and protected natural areas, which constitute most of the must-see routes and places.
2) Marginal benefit: Even without a drone, you can take beautiful up-high handheld shots overlooking many noteworthy waterfalls, canyons, gorges. And in between those POIs are mostly vast plains with distant mountains, where aerial drone vantages don't add much value.
3) Wind (and rain): Weather varies, of course, but our two days in the Lake Myvatn area (which is itself a no-fly zone), in particular, were too gusty for safe flying (too bad, the rim of Hverfjall crater would have made a great dronie vid at sunset, and we were the only ones there)
4) Access: It's illegal to drive off road in Iceland, few places to pull over safely, and many small roads lead to private farm houses, even along the coastline.
5) Wildlife disruption, nesting birds in particular, but also horses
6) People: By mid-morning, there are hikers and tourists around any generally accessible point of interest or roadside viewpoint, even where drones are permitted.
7) Time/Stress: With hours of driving between sights and destinations on typical tourist itineraries, it's hard to work in extra time for side exploring to seek out interesting and legal drone spots, and distracting from the already rewarding Iceland experience to be obsessively wondering if there's one a mile that way, or up that trail, or around that bend. (And as mentioned above, car access is limited).
All that said, I'll stop short of recommending other hobbyists leave their drones at home, since I did come across one or two isolated spots I would have tried to get aerial shots or a dronie for social media, if weather had permitted. But my hindsight is that discovering interesting and viable drone spots here requires more time and flexibility than afforded by most car-centric, several day itineraries. I'm sure there are more possibilities for those dedicating full days to hiking, though again, many such trails are in no fly zone natural areas and parks.
I did have one drone-related experience in Iceland: My original MPP OEM battery swelled after charging in our rental car (using a DC charger that's been fine before), so I dropped it off at a Reykjavik recycling center, too risky to carry onto our next flights.
On now to rural France, here's hoping for better luck there.
