I’m a US licensed commercial drone pilot and would appreciate your input please.
I am currently in the UK on holiday and have read that there are restrictions flying drones in the Peak District National Park. Specifically no drone flying in the “Park’, but I presume you can fly on private land with permission if practical. How do you know what is private and what is public? I see many post and videos all over the area.
Would appreciate some advice please.
Planning just to take some photos and videos for recreation purposes only and have my UK Operator and Flyer ID.
Thanks.
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Only 10% is owned by the National Trust, who have a “no drones” policy. Although what I do, and about 17,348 others do, is either TOAL from outside the NT boundary … or just chance it 
The remaining 90% is privately owned land, mainly farm land. And much of it is ‘Open Access’.
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Thanks
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This is confusing National Trust with PDNP. They are different things, although they both own or control land in the Peak District.
The PDNP have byelaws that very clearly ban model aircraft and drones from “open access land”.
See byelaw 17(ii).
You can find maps of the Access Land in this area here:
http://www.openaccess.naturalengland.org.uk/wps/portal/oasys/maps/MapSearch
If it is Access Land, and within the PDNP’s overall boundaries, it’s covered by the byelaws.
Having said all that, I’ve flown within this land and nobody seemed very bothered!
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You can apply that statement to just about all leglislation surrounding drones.
The problem I have with it all, is there is so much of it, and hardly any of it standardised. The “policies” and “bye-laws” are mainly localised, either by trust, organisation or whatever. It is all too fragmented and contradictory. Just when you think you’re making sense of it all - one rule opposes another. Yes, there is CAA and the Drone Code, but this is kind of like “follow this unless anything exists locally”.
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Yes, it’s ridiculous, and no surprise that most of these laws are completely ignored 
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Have known many to fly on such land too and virtually none of them were approached or questioned. Fact is, at least for now, the majority of people that may be in the area, are most likely tourists or locals, the majority of them know little to nothing about drones or the bylaws that are in place to prevent them. It’s more of the “Well they aren’t doing me any harm, so let them alone” attitude that the majority of the public seem to have Or “Wow is that a drone, that’s amazing”.etc. Sure there will come a day, when a Park official is in the vicinity and you’ll likely get a talking to and told you cannot fly your drone in that particular area and you simply apologise, tell them you didn’t know and move on. I can pretty much guarantee, as long as you don’t go showing off, harassing other people, doing you best to get noticed, that you’ll spend more time flying in such places than you will being approached by officials and being told you cannot fly there.
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“Flouted” … I love that word … and I love a bit of flouting! 
This!
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For such a vast amount of land just in the Peak District, just like stated above, I’d guess theres 10% chance of being confronted by someone and 90% chance of nothing. Unless your deliberately going out to attract attention in busy tourist areas, most of time as long as you fly to the DC you’ll be good.
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Th e Peak National Park have a list of property they actually own on their website. One place to keep clear of is Stanage Edge which they own and regularly have rangers patrolling it. The edges to the south are just as good and Ive never had a problem there. The problem in the Peak District is that it is so close to large urban areas so gets very busy. Early mornings and evenings are best and you shouldnt have any problems.
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Go fly, if someone asks you to stop then just be polite and say “sorry guvnor, I’m not from here and didnt know, give me a second and I’ll bring it in” As above, TOAL from a public road and fly wherever you want.
I was in a supposed no drone area at the weekend, nobody batted an eyelid, not even the forestry rangers. They were more interested in seeing my photos and videos than asking me to leave.
Be sure to be visit https://dronescene.co.uk/
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The situation here is a little more complicated than some have suggested. Much of the Dark Peak moorlands [ virtually all of Kinder Scout, Bleaklow and Black Hill] and many White Peak areas are SSSI -site of special scientific interest and drone flying is banned despite this being ‘Access Land’.
The stated reason is the potential for disturbance to threatened, ground nesting birds and this carries the possibility of an unlimited fine if proven. Getting permission from Natural England is VERY long winded and the landowner themselves cannot override their authority. There are many videos of drone flights in these areas, but I’d be wary, as you could be providing the evidence of ‘damage’ to an SSSI, which is a criminal offence.
You can use the MAGIC map site to show the various categories of land use inc SSSI - Magic Map Application
(look under designations/stautory)
I’m happy to provide more specific help with locations if needed)
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Always good to know from someone with better knowledge of the area, much that the scenery is amazing and obviously people have chanced a flight, is it possible to gain knowledge of how many people have been caught in the past, I’m guessing that if someone was prosecuted it would be plastered all over the news or net
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I’m always keen to learn more about this, as there are mixed views about legalities around SSSIs. Where in the legislation does it prohibit flying a drone over a SSSI?
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Byelaws have to be consistent with Parliamentary legislation and not contradict it. If they’re not they’re invalid. People don’t realise this and just accept the fine or police caution if they’re caught. Chances are the majority of them would fall if someone who gets caught lawyered up properly challenged them.
Chances are most police officers will just leave you alone and wag their finger after a conversation so long as nothing like ANO article 241 is being broken tbh. They don’t want to deal with this mess either.
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Well, the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1918 (as amended) doesn’t.
It just makes it an offence to intentionally or recklessly damage, destroy or disturb (fauna only) any of the ‘special features’ of the SSSI.
That said, Natural England have the power to introduce byelaws for SSSI’s.
Lo and behold, the model byelaws published by Defra as a template include a prohibition on:
3.30 Launching or landing (except in case of emergency) any hang glider, micro-light
aircraft, hot-air balloon, paraglider, model aircraft, sky lantern, unmanned aerial
vehicle (‘drone’) or similar airborne contrivance and/or operating them at a height or
location that may disturb the features of special scientific interest
Note the ‘and/or’
Also, I wonder what constitutes an ‘emergency’ ?
No idea which (if any) SSSI’s have the additional protection of a byelaw.
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As with anything in law it’s on the accuser to prove so even with a byelaw like this in place it’s on them to prove you were in breach. Your defence would be along the lines that your operation was unlikely to disturb the features of special scientific interest. Keep a flight record showing you overflew at a reasonable altitude above tree level so as not to disturb nesting birds etc. for example.
The devil is always in the detail.
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Ahem, I believe that Putin has shown us the way… it’s not just your operation, it’s your special operation!
What’s so special about it? Well, it’s for science! It’s a special operation in an area of special scientific interest!
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I think the chance of actually getting fined for a SSSI disturbance is very small, as the area is large and there’s almost no one to enforce any rules. However, as responsible drone pilots ( especially in nesting season right now) it’s best to exercise some caution about choice of location and timing of flights.
rrudas- I’d be happy to give some pointers if you want some help…
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