I am filming a short documentary about the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. I am taking my DJI Mini 4 Pro. I’m confident in my UK credentials of course, and I have my “Proof of completion of the online exam for UAS operations in the sub-categories A1 and A3” from EASA (via the French).
My question is whether there are any rules about flying over a border (controlling it from one side, flying in the other).
It is hardly a problem if there is an issue. I can easily get the shots I need without actually doing that. I’d just choose to stay on one side or the other. But it did make me curious, because over fields it may actually be quite hard to tell where the border is (which is one of the main points of the doc)…
You are supposed to display your IAA label on the drone when flying in The Republic of Ireland and your CAA number in the UK. I have both numbers on mine and have flown frequently in NI and ROI. As to flying across the border,
I don’t see a brief incursion into Irish airspace as being an issue. On some rural roads you can criss-cross the border without even knowing it. Just go for it, you’ll have all your footage and landed the drone before the jets are scrambled.
Knew a bloke years ago whi’d been in the Republic of Ireland Army (other Irish armies were available but we’ll gloss over that for now…). Height of the troubles, early 80s, and he was part of a border patrol on the Cavan/Fermanagh border, probably the very area in question. Bit wiggly by there, isn’t it.
It was night, foggy, and blacker than the inside of a cow down a coal mine, and they were lost. You can claim to be proper lost if you don’t know which country you’re in… Then, they ran into a British patrol. ‘Halt, who goes there?’ from both sides followed by the ‘clack-a-clack of lock and load. Mick decided he’d throw a lump of shit at the Brits because he was about to produce one!
The Brit sergeant solved the issue with the most British peice of battlefield diplomacy imaginable; they brewed up, both sides admitted that the best either could say for sure was that they were somewhere on the island of Ireland, agreed that all commissioned officers were c*nts, and that none of them would ever speak of this again!!!
Dont worry about flying in northern Ireland as nobody gives a crap, I will say this along the border farmers are more untrusting to people and especially English accent, you think know one knows your there trust me every farmer in a 5 mile radius will know before you even get the bird up, Fermanagh Tyrone upto Londonderry ok but I even to this day would not go along south Armagh bandit country since the troubles especially crossmaglen, but that’s me mentally but a tourist be ok.
structures set in place like big concrete blocks at hundreds of unapproved roads and the approved roads there was about 20 PVCP’S, so when these permanent concrete blocks removed you never know when you were in the north or south until you hit a signpost ever welcoming you to Northern Ireland or Southern Ireland or mostly a signpost changing from mph to km/h.
Where there was 20 PVCP’s along the border they all got removed and land returned to the farmer and today there not be one sign of there ever being a PVCP, where the crossing from Strabane to lifford that was iconic checkpoint and I did my duties there at the Camel’s Hump and today no sign of it but about 100 yards away they did place giant stainless steel figures there a symbol of north and south so that’s the only one I know have where you know where the border line is.
I bought a car few years back on the same road I spent many duties at on the border at Derryard PVCP and I drove around testing the car and trying to work out where this checkpoint was and only I knew it was on the fork of a road that i knew where it was once but signs of it to a stranger none existent and I at times never knew if I drove in the south or north.
If your going to do the whole borderline what’s your allow a lot of time for getting lost and continuously without knowing going back and forth over the invisible line
