Having now retired I’ve moved from my home town on the Dorset coast to South Wales, to the southern edge of the Brecon Beacons. As far as I can see there are less restrictions and more open space here in Wales than in Dorset, time will tell?
I have a Mavic Air bought new a couple of months ago, as yet untested due to the atrocious weather and strong winds that seem to prevail here (something I didn’t research!). The plan is for a test flight in the Spring, I’m told that summer is only 2 days a year here but unfortunately nobody will tell me which 2 days.
Meanwhile I have taken the ‘test’, and it looks like I’ll have plenty of time to peruse this brilliant site, hats off to whoever set this one up. Most drone sites are American and whilst I would never cast dispersions to our friends across the pond (not that I’m jealous of all the open space they have…), it’s great to have a British site and the relevent ‘local’ information.
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Hi Nigel @Oilburner and welcome to Grey Arrows!
Glad you could join us mate 
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Hello and welcome, I’m not that far south of you in Cardiff, perhaps I can meet up with you one of those two days in the summer 
Plenty of lovely places up your direction but still lots of miserables to spoil the fun as well as National Trust land.
Where exactly are you located?
I shot this up and around Ponsticill and north towards Pen Y Fan, you might already know this area but if not it’s well worth a visit or three.
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Hi Nigel,
Yes far less restricted than Dorset, lucky you ( although I’m not to bad here ether)
Welcome to the forum, there’s a lot of help here and friendly communication.
Have fun.
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Indeed welcome to the best part of the world aside from the weather.
Similar to @MementoMori I’m not too far away in Bridgend and there are lots of places to fly - the reservoirs in particular can be good from the right spot.
I’m hoping someone will organise a Welsh meet up as I’ve not yet met anyone from the forum but, as you sy, the weather right now is a bit pants.
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Welcome to GADC Nigel. A finer bunch of lads you’ll ever meet.
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Welcome and I hope you enjoy the site it’s great
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I’m in Brynmawr, just a short walk to the Beacons. Lovely video you’ve done, enjoyed it very much 
Thank you.
Not far from Trefil and the Naughty Stone then, that’s a nice area to fly, you also have the quarry further east that they filmed some of His Dark Materials recently.
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Hi
Welcome to the forum.
Be careful in the Brecons flying, I worked as a volunteer warden and asked if I could fly to record some of the paths we had restored and was told no. The Brecons are either owned privately, by the MOD or the BBNPA (whom I volunteered for).
Nice video …
Regards
Stuart
Stuart, I once volunteered my time maintaining the Roman Road near Llandovery, only a few months later myself and a few chums were approached by a BBNP Warden in company with 2 policemen and the Sennybridge Range commander, we were given a right ear bashing and told we were illegaly riding Sarn Helen (a false accusation), later we all recieved threatning letters the letters were illegal
We recieved a vague apology months later.
The BBNP Wardens are a disgrace (thats the polite version of my opinion)
The Term National Park is a disceit even the bits that aren’t privately owned are policed with regard only to the rights of farming and logging
Sorry for the rant, the way this country is corruptly run is my pet peeve
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I’m tired - I read that as farming and dogging.
Sorry 
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That’s the final nail in the coffin for filming the Brecon Beacons 
For sale. One unused drone.
Only joking, I think 
As for Wardens on the Beacons, this doesn’t explain why the place has a problem with youngsters riding motorcycles on the paths to the extent that very few locals actually make use of the paths. I myself was taunted and surrounded by 5 motorcyclists. I reported the matter to the police and was told this has been an ongoing issue for years!
The Police told me I would need registration numbers for them to act, the motorcyclists don’t have registration numbers. Though they did tell me they had a £40k drone! I’ve yet to see it and probably never will. Chatting to locals here, nobody has ever seen or known of any Warden visiting this part of the Beacons. Seems both the Wardens and Police don’t want anything to do with the issue.
Hi,
Just to clarify the wardens arent the police they have No police powers, regard them as estate managers. They just maintain the area. They can stop you from doing something that is in the bye laws but would also need police assistance if you told them where to go.
They do a fantastic job repairing foot paths and walls for future generations to enjoy , and eco / wildlife projects like introducing pine martens back into the area. These things are what they are passionate about and will try and stop anyone e who they think is damaging their interests or the local wildlife.
We needed a helicopter to lift tons of stone up Cwm De to repair foot paths and lots of info had to be gathered as to the best fime to do this due to lambing season and then wildlife breeding seasons, in the end we went for September . On the day it was torrential rain so it was called off and we end up carrying up in sacks my hand.
Just saying about the other side of the coin
Nigel @Oilburner just to provide some more information for you mate.
If you haven’t already, take a look at the Map of Members and you’ll see there are a few other members in your neck of the woods.
(Please feel free to add yourself to that map 
- How to add yourself to the Members Map )
The forum’s search functions are a very efficient way to find previous threads and posts that might already have covered topics in which you are interested in learning more or answer that niggling question but, when this doesn’t turn up what you’re after, there’s a wealth of knowledge amongst the members, so ask away over on #questions-and-answers
Also, if you’ve not seen it, check out our map of places where members have flown in the past … which, obviously, doesn’t necessarily mean they are still OK to fly and, as always, any pilot needs to check that everything’s OK before flying at any of them.
Please also take a moment to look at the Membership Levels section on our FAQ as we’re quite different to other clubs 
Welcome once again!
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Just to clarify the wardens arent the police they have No police powers
Someone needs to tell them.
The Wardens and Police share a building, they work very closely and the Wardens are not averse to pretending they have powers they actually dont…I have written proof of this
I agree about tearaway bikers being a problem, I Ride legaly on a fully legal bike with number plate in full view and go out of my way to be friendly to fellow users of the countryside but you know what they say about bullies, they like to pick on easy targets
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Does anyone know if you are allowed to fly in the BB National park if you take off from a farm with the landowner’s permission?
Nigel