Adding a location without flying there

Hi all,

Two things…

I wanted to fly at a place near me Called Silchester Roman City Walls and Ampitheatre.

Upon doing my usual due diligence before flying, I found out it is owned by English Heritage. Therefore permission is needed to fly there and according to the English Heritage drone rules on their website,

“All projects for Commercial or personal filming use, drone flying will be treated as a commercial hire and fees will apply as appropriate.”

So, Q1 is can I add this site to Drone Scene even without flying there as it’s not marked already?

And Q2, according to that quote, does that mean photos are allowed or is taking a photo classed as “filming”

Thanks in advance.

Andy.

No.

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You should only add places to Drone Scene that you have actually flown. That ensures it’s based on reliable information by people who have actually been to a location and checked it out.

EH can only prohibit what you do while you are physically on your property. They have no influence over overflight from elsewhere. There are various public rights of way around the Silchester sites (if you don’t have a local OS map, you can find these on the Streetmap website), which might offer suitable places to control a drone from.

So far as I know, EH have no bye-laws for their sites so can’t prosecute you whatever you do. If they don’t like what you’re doing on their land, they can eject you as a trespasser. If you have paid for entry, they’re bound by the terms of admission. If you are on a Public Right of Way, you cannot normally be ejected as a trespasser even if the own the land it crosses, although you can get into murky legal waters relying on that one.

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To be honest, if it’s not a manned site and a quiet time of day, I’d just crack on with it without a second thought.

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Most counties have an online Public Rights of Way (PROW) map which is basically a digital copy of the definitive PROW map normally help at County Hall.

So, after doing your due diligence digital search you can find legitimate take off sites and, when challenged, inform the complainant of the right of way, its type and its number on the definitive map. A muttered “So suck on that, pal” is optional :slight_smile:

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Nice resource. Just to be certain I would always go to the definitive county map - links are on rowmap - so, if challenged, I can raise a metaphorical 2 fingers to the person questioning me :slight_smile:

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That’s helpful, thanks. I love maps, always have and lucky enough to have a subscription to OS Maps online. I check rights of way on there generally.

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I found ukfootparths useful to find right of ways in the uk

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I did have a thought a while back that it might be a useful feature to be able to add places you want to fly, but that were visible just to you until you made the flight and subsequently made the post public.

Occurred to me when I was out and about without my drone and saw couple of interesting locations that I’d have wanted to return to later.

Far be it for me to add to @PingSpike’s considerable workload, but just thought I’d throw the idea into the ring.

Check this thread out @rustybarnet

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