Hi, my first new thread/post so please forgive any naivety or gaps in my knowledge.
I recently bought a DJI Mini 2 SE and up to now have taken it out twice locally in areas where there are few people, plenty of space to operate safely and observing all laws and rules I agreed to when taking my Operator ID test.
So my question is regarding the matter which is covered in @ianinlondon 's excellent, informative video posted some time ago where he visited a military installation to see the Apache Helicopters and the relevance to us as drone pilots and altitude etc. Anyhow where I live on the outskirts of a large town, quite close to an airport we get lots of aircraft, usually small planes and Helicopters, flying really low. One this morning couldn’t have been more than 30m above my property. Another one a little later I tracked on the Flight Radar website and that was showing 100ft (see attached pic) before it passed over my place and showing 0ft.
This doesn’t look like a military aircraft or a Police or Coastguard aircraft. It isn’t in the orange zone on the UAV app I tend to use to check for safe flying as part of my pre flight checks. Is there some anomoly I’m missing? I mean it seems I’m permitted legally to fly some 90m higher than this aircraft in the very place it passed over?
Obviously with the situation being as it is I would/will use my commonsense regarding the comments you made in your reply. Thank you for taking the time for the feedback.
For dronescene, you have to be a paid member of GADC to access a lot of the different layers. If you can’t see what’s on the map that PingSpike has put up, try downloading and installing drone assist app
Looks like I’ll have to drive some distance to get it in the air. I still don’t understand how aircraft are allowed to fly so low over properties. That said I’ve seen the videos of Jumbos and bigger landing near Heathrow.
Aircraft have to fly on a set path which sometimes looks like they are flying low, if they didn’t they would have to nosedive to land, now that would look interesting,but would not like to be a passenger on the plane.
Just to note that Warton generally don’t operate at weekends - I’ve heard their ATC are quite friendly and are usually happy for drones to fly in their aispace at weekends.
Also that when I last checked DJI’s database unnacountably doesn’t include Blackpool airport, so don’t rely on automated warning of being in their airspace
Thank you very much for the reply. Just another question if I may? Where do you find the phone numbers for the ATC? Are they readily available doing a quick Google search. And is there a protocol to follow when you ring up? ie do they need your Flyer/Operator ID, make and serial of drone etc? Would you just say “hi I have a drone I’m flying nearby is that ok?” Or is there a more professional approach? Sorry for all the the daft questions, as you can tell I’m a total newbie and very green!
Thanks for the reply, and the phone number. I did manage to Google the ATC phone numbers for both Aerodromes I enquired about earlier without the resource you referenced. Also I was able to find other info pertaining to getting permissions and was recommended an app called Air Portal.
I’ll continue to delve around for the rest of the info. Im sure it’s available out there on the big wide web?
Sorry for all the the daft questions, as you can tell I’m a total newbie and very green!
