Planning to visit relatives in Greenwich last weekend and with the weather on Friday looking excellent I decided to take my Mavic 2 Pro and fly it in the park. I checked Drone Scene to find that the park is within the CTR and FRZ for London City Airport. Contacted the airport and was put onto the lady who deals with drone flights. She told me that I couldn’t fly in Greenwich Park without putting in a non-standard flight (NSF) request to City Airport. I did so and received a reply within about 20 minutes. The reply said that I didn’t couldn’t have an NSF because one wasn’t needed to fly there. I took that to mean that I could fly in Greenwich Park, and so I did! Just coming to the end of my first battery and landing, I was approached by a very friendly police officer who asked me if I had permission to fly. I informed him that Air Traffic Control was quite happy with me flying. He then informed me that it is against the regulations to fly any sort of aircraft in the Royal Parks. I told him that I wasn’t aware of that – which I wasn’t - apologised profusely, and promised not to do it again. He then told me that I could fly to my heart’s content on Blackheath, which is outside the park. I are now totally confuzzed, because Blackheath is also shown, on Drone Scene, as being within the FRZ and CTR for City Airport. Hopefully, there is someone out there who can educate me as to whether I can fly on Blackheath or not next time I visit my relatives.
As an aside, I actually achieved what I wanted to do with my flight, and that was got photographs of the Maritime Museum and the Royal Observatory. I have appended a couple of panos for any critique which may be forthcoming.
Interesting issue. I did not know it was a Royal Park but I did know they all all banned for flying. However the airport lady should have known that and pointed you to an area you could fly in ie Blackheath. But to be real I suppose that’s not there job it’s just to say yes or no 
Blackheath is outside the FRZ for London City. It is within the CTR but this is just class D airspace, so just get the DJI Geo Zone unlocked and you are good to go. As long as you are south of the A2, you are clear of the Royal Park.
Excellent, thanks, fully understand now!
Is this a specific DJI zone? You shouldn’t need to unlock any Class D area unless there are other restrictions in place. My whole flying area is Class D airspace, as is my modelflying Club where we have an altitude exemption to 1000ft.
When I tried to take off I got a message on my controller asking if I wanted to get a geofence unlock code from DJI. I ticked ’No’, the message disappeared and I took off.
You are correct that Greenwich / Blackheath lies outside the DJI Geo Zone for London City. However, it is quite close so, personally, I’d unlock the zone ahead of time anyway. (This particular DJI zone does extend quite well beyond the FRZ into straightforward D airspace)
I’m guessing because you were just outside the Geo Zone but, as the controller doesn’t know which direction you intended to fly, it gives you the reminder. From where you were, you could have “hit” the Geo Zone boundary within VLOS as it bounds up against the north-eastern edge of the Royal Park.
Thanks, I’ll do that next time
… And there in lies the problem, DJI Geo Zones. These often do not correlate with real world CTR and NFZ regions.
The only true zones are those dictated by the CAA, DJI’s zones are an over reach and why I disable them.
Disabling the DJI Geo Zones is not an act of disobedience. If I intend to fly in an unfamiliar area I always check the true origin for any restrictions that may apply and if there are any relative NOTAM’s in effect in the area of interest.