Hi from a new drone owner in Wales

Hi,

I joined yesterday and hope to learn about drone flying and photography.
I was bought a Mavic Air a couple of weeks ago, and having never owned a UAV at all this is quite exciting.

I live in South Wales but travel quite a bit in the summer months on holidays and hope to get some decent photos and videos from those trips.

That brings me neatly to the first question:
We’re off to Pembrey Country Park at the end of the month for Easter.
It’s a large country park near Llanelli, and having been before I have some ideas for photos etc.
The thing is that I checked on the DJI map and it doesn’t seem to have any flight restrictions, but when I checked NFD it seems to be a no-fly zone.

Has anyone got any advice?
I’d love to take some shots of the park, but I don’t want to cause any issues or get into any big trouble.
I realise the Mavic Air has Geofencing, but that’s based on the map I saw if I’m not mistaken.

Anyway, looking forward to joining in on here.

Ampsy.

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Hi Christopher / @Ampsy and welcome to GADC.

A large number of members are also Mavic Air owners, so if you have any questions ask away over on #questions-and-answers and someone with the relevant knowledge will be happy to offer advice.

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 wood, some of whom I’m sure will come and say Hi…

(Don’t forget to add yourself to that map :+1: : How to add yourself to the Members Map )

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.

Hi OzoneVibe,

Thanks for the welcome!
I’ll be adding myself to the map soon enough,
I checked dronescene.co.uk to see if anyone had flown at Pembrey, but it doesn’t look like it so far, although I take your point that it’s still no guarantee that it’s allowed, that’s mainly why I’m trying to find out so far in advance.
Lake District later in the year, and I know most of that is safe to fly.

Thanks for your help!

Ampsy

Good to install the “Drone Assist” app.
Get your settings like this …

… and it shows all the air space issues, especially the new FRZs (Flight Restriction Zones) around airports.

Pembrey … not the most drone friendly area. :rofl:

Clicking on the coloured areas gives more info.

Hi,

Yes, that’s what I saw on NFD.

However, on the DJI map it shows something totally different.

I’ll go with the “best not to fly” option.

I’ll install that app later, looks great, thanks!

Ampsy

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The DJI map (and onboard Geo-Zones) only shows their own implementation of restrictions to effect a minimum of critical safety for airports and other highly sensitive locations.

Obviously they are having to do this for all 195 countries around the world and cannot include every quirk and idiosyncrasy at national levels, let alone local legislation and bylaws.
The size of the memory to carry all this information would be huge … and expensive. And the updates would be constant and annoying.

That app is issued under the umbrella of NATS, so should be as up-to-date as their own data …which, hopefully, for the sake of all aviation in the UK, should be right up-to-date. :wink:

Fully understood.
App is now installed and I’ll use that as a reference in future.

I appreciate the time you’ve taken to assist with this.

Cheers,

Ampsy

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Hello Ampsy :+1:

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Welcome to the place we call home(or i do lol), some call it the nut house :crazy_face:

you will pick up some real good tips from the group i have, I even met one of the group members, but the less said about that the better(he’s not right)

enjoy

2 Likes

Welcome mate! Mavic Air is a cracking drone!!!

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Hi,
Thanks! The Mavic Air certainly seems to be a “top flight” bit of kit!
It’ll take me a while to get to grips with it, but so far a few test flights and pictures, a couple or panoramic shots which are very clever, and a test of the “smart capture” mode which is like witchcraft.
I’ll post a couple of pictures soon.
Cheers
Ampsy

so were monkeys now…
@Ampsy Hi chris welcome to the Madhouse :wink:

Welcome Chris

Welcome from Wigan @Ampsy :+1:t2:

I’ll second that :+1:

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Bore da - shwmae?

I’m a Bridgend based boy** and fly an Air and as others have pointed out Pembrey is mostly no-no due to Pembrey Airport. However, I recently flew at Kidwelly Castle (despite the rant from the staff member) after obtaining permission from the airport. If you fly weekends or evenings then there shouldn’t be an issue but it doesn’t hurt to ask first.

** early late 50’s boy but still a kid at heart :smiley:

Hi Christopher

Welcome to GADC