Our lifeguard club would very much like to learn more about drone flying and we would welcome any visits from drone pilots to our club house on the promonade at Chalkwell beach on The Thames Estuary to fly your drones from here and take advantage of our club house facilities at the same time.
We meet most Sundays, if any if you guys would like to pop down for a visit and a fly please drop me an e mail we would very much like to welcome you to our club to be able to meet you abd watch you demonstrate your flying skills.
That sounds a possibility for your local drone pilots in or near Southend.
I do say a possibility, as you sit right near Southend Airport (a matter of a 2 kilometers to the north)
That would almost certainly be in a No Fly Zone.
Doubt that a drone would even fire up as you are so near.
It is possible to get permission for a drone flight from the Airport Air Traffic Control, but, I think i know what the answer would be !.
I may be wrong, no harm in trying !.
Input from the members please?
We have seen drones flying along our section of beach in the past so we assumed that it would be ok below a certain height and there is a radio controlled plane and helecopter club at two tree island which is not that far away,
@chalkwelllifeguards (Tony),
Glad to be of help. hopefully a few of the London Guys on here will be in touch, and may have a “Local Meet” at some point, I for one (when i am in your area) will be in touch for a session.
It is always nice to have invitations from associations such as your Lifeguards.
Especially in view of your location so near to London.
I would have thought that having a drone as part of your SAR would be extremely helpfull.
Many of the services are now turning to drones as part of their equipment.
Great that you have taken the initiative to contact our GADC Forum, I hope our Members can be of help in getting the bad press our hobby has had of late, put into good use.
Drones are the future of lifeguarding and search and rescue just as you say and its a great way to bring some much needed pisitive publicity to your activity, we would very much like to meet you all if you have the time to spare to be able to visit us at some point.
Tony,
Obviously from our point of view the guiding factor for us is the weather.
This time of year is very much a lottery as far as that goes.
Hopefully we may have a decent weekend in the not to distant future where a few of us can come along and show you what our drones can do.
Our members have a variety of different drones that can be demonstrated.
I am sure that in view of your locality getting permission (out of courtesy to ATC) from Southend Airport for us to be able to show you our drone, hopefully will not be a problem.
I personally have 5 drones, which if need be i can bring along in one hit to show you.
I will have words with a few of our members who are in the area and see what can be arranged.
We are only a small lifeguard club with a currently lowish membership at the moment but we have been sited here at Chalkwell by the beach for over 40 years now.
The general public have already shown great interest in our drone launch pad but its the next step that we need some expert assistance and advice with.
Our clubhouse is quite well equipped with all the traditional lifesaving equipment but the exciting development of the use of drones in the field of life saving and life saving observation is one that with your help we would very much like to support, and encourage with future visits from yourself and all your members to our club house.
Thats great scorps, we look forward to meeting you at some point, we normally meet at the clubhouse on Sundays at about 10.30am but could be there earlier if it would suit you better.
Just drop an e mail in advance and we will get the kettle on for you all and have the toasted tea cakes at the ready too.
You are all bound to hear about it sooner or later so I should actually confess that my maiden flight with a newly purchased basic drone last year at our club house ended in a disaster with much embrassement for myself but did create much amusement for other club members when I foolishly tried a test flight in a quite strong offshore wind and my little drone flew off with the wind out over the water of the Thames estuary into the distance towards Kent never to be seen again, I am reminded of my doomed maiden test flight every time the subject of drone lifeguarding comes up, unfortunately my enthusiasm over rode the need to avoid flying in the unsuitable prevailing weather conditions at the time on that day.
Tony,
Ours drones are now of the very latest technology, GPS locked position, 10 to 20 megapixel live feed Video/Stills Cameras, Mapped Missions, Stunning Hover Capabilities, Long Range (within the drone code limits of LOS) Automatic Return to Home (should signal be lost with drone) to name but a few of the features, far to many for me to mention in my post.
This may be of help to you:
