Hi, I am fairly new to drone flying, just a general hobbyist who likes to fly. I have a DJI Mini 4 pro and enjoy it very much.
My question is this, genuinely. (possibly leaving myself open for a pasting here, but I am a big boy) Why are so many drone flyers fascinated with flying near airports, I see lots of posts about this on various forums, people asking when runways are closed, how close you can fly etc, etc. Given the possible legal ramifications, why is it such big thing? TIA.
If the airport is closed for runway maintenance and full permission to fly has been granted, there are no legal ramifications. 
I love sea flying but I’d also love to fly along an aircraft runway. 
Having flown at East Midlands Airport - during runway closures - its quite an experience. Most of us never get a chance like that as unless its for a commercial reason, as getting permission to fly so close to a runway / airport is really tricky - not impossible but can be quite a challenge.
So working with ATC / Air Ops / Airport Safe Guarding teams to get approval is part of the experience. It gives an extra layer to that flight that you would not get by just flying around.
The big thing is that generally you just cant just do it - there is ground work needed and for big airports its hard to get that approval so just getting the good to go is one thing - then flying and making most of the opportunity given to you is the next step as you have no idea if and when you will get permission to do so again.
Here are some examples at East Midlands Airport
Cant wait to do it all again next year 
if granted permission to do so - they did have a limited number of permits last year too.
Don’t think that just because a zone has a NFZ around it like a prison / airfield etc that it means you cant fly - you can if you go though the proper channels and it does make that flight a bit extra special when you have to do a bit of grunt work before hand
It’s much the same reason that people enjoy visiting a “lost” vilaage when the MoD open a range for a couple of days a year - or a country house is opened to the public on a few occasions each year.
These are rare activities and perfectly legal - permission has been granted by the authority controlling the area.
In the same way permission can be obtained from the authority controlling a “no-fly” zone. A politely worded email or phone call to the relevant ATC giving date time duration reason and place of the intended flight works wonders, most ATCs arevery helpful. A courtesy phone cal before and after the permitted flight is always appreciated!
Like legolad said its the plannings and talkingnto ATC ETC and then when your there people will come upto you some wont be nice, some will be intrested, but gettingnthe correct permissions to fly it and you wont be allow to fly near the planes if rhats what ya thinking ,nyhe grass verge u see along runway near them is the limit, and u need public liability etc
As per previous replies, when else would you get this type of opportunity
Hi,
Airports have a huge area, I’ve applied and flown legally within the Glasgow Airport zone when it was open to take video and photos of my parents home…
Indeed, much of Paisley is a no fly zone and it has a number of historical buildings, it’s just a pity the weather cannot be predicted accurately…
If you want to fly legally there’s it’s no harm in asking the relevant authorities, in my experience they were great…
I asked for authority to fly to 60m and informed the police of this but then ATC cleared me to 120m in the final authorisation call…I didn’t go above what I’d advised the police of…
Really ? Not for me, I like the countryside.
and thats fine but there are many that like when the chance arises they wanna take advantage as its not a normal thing to get perimssion for
Thank you for the replies guys. It seems my views were misdirected and i need to have a look at this for myself. I live near Doncaster Robin Hood, and can see that a few flyers have shots from here. May I ask how to, and who do you apply to for permission to do such a thing?
There is a few ways to go about getting aproval
If you go onto Drone Scene and find the location and click on it there will be some info on how to apply
Doncaster Robin Hood is a bit of an odd one - there is some info on here as it currently is not open or is but it does not seem to have a NFZ / FRZ around it - so not sure on that one but there are loads of people that have flown here
Currently it just shows as that so you would not need permission going on that but do check the posts on here about it and ask the guys who have flown here for how they went about it.
Other airports you can go to there own website and search for drones on there and they generally have a policy / portal that will let you log a request to fly
It’s a bit complicated, and varies depending on the type of controlled airspace. You could start out by going to the website of the airport and checking who owns it and whether it has ATC or something similar. If you google this phrase “how to get permission to fly drone in restricted area” you’ll get some good ideas.
I just checked, and apparently Doncaster Sheffield (formerly Robin Hood) is closed, and may not currently have a flight restriction zone. They may reopen it next year. Their airport website is:
Hi John
If yiou are into planning safe and legal flights the it will be worth your while upgrading your membership to Silver or Gold to take advantage of Drone Scene and its companion Good 2 Go.
You will also be able to get £5m public liability insurance as part of the package. Many autorities ask for operator id and proof of PLI when you apply to fly in their areas, it’s good to have anyway in case the unthinkable does happen!
Drone Scene is a constantly updated interactive map of the UK that shows where flying is ok, where permissions are needed and those places that are definitely off limits. It pulls data from various sources, one of which is the CAA (who recommend the app!) so the information is current and correct. It also has a large number of sites flown by GADC members who have added them and recommended places to park, eat and take off and land.
Good 2 Go grows with you as your drone fleet expands. For any chosen site it says whether a flight is permissible according to the type and weoght of the aircraft and your qualifications. It will tell you of any hazards within 1000 metres and give you a weather forecast for the location according to the time and date you are proposing to fly.
Because both are web-hosted they work on any browser equipped device. Both are regularly updated and the beta updates are tested by a rag-tag bunch of ne’er-do wells panel of esteemed GADC members.
Well worth the cost of membership!