Hi all,
Sorry about the title but this is my first post and I had a pop up asking if the title sounded interesting enough.
I have very limited drone experience as in laws etc but some flying experience of small toy drones. I have wanted a proper drone for a while but cost and red tape has discouraged me until last Thursday when in a fit of you only live once I bought a Mavic Mini 2 after realising that within reason there are no restrictions on them with the new rules.
So here is my issue, I know a little about my responsibilities but have no practical experience of the laws as up until now I have only flown inside my house or garden.
I have an operators ID which is about to expire in a month which I took only out of curiosity without any preparation or knowledge and passed first time.
I intend to be as responsible as I possibly can be so I looked at UAV forecast app and it said flying is not possible for the next couple of days due to wind and weather conditions so I have been very sensible and had only a quick flight around my garden below the fence level just to practice a bit of manoeuvring and get a feel for the Mini 2.
But here is the problem UAV forecast says that I live just inside the 5km restriction zone of a small airport!? In the 16 years I had lived at my house I have only ever seen the police helicopter in my area. When I zoom in on this apparent airport on google maps it looks like nothing more than a rolled out piece of grass in a field with no buildings for storage of aircraft and the access to the field looks like you would need a tractor to enter.
So my question is what is classified as an airport by the CAA? And is the fact that this strip of grass has shown up on UAV forecast enough to get me prosecuted for flying. And if I can fly what steps do I need to take to be safe and legal?
As you can imagine having just spent just the money on the drone and then to find out that it could be illegal to fly near my home, it’s pretty disappointing.
Thanks
Martyn.