London City Airport

I got approval to fly at London City Airport, and yesterday the weather was good enough to perform the flight.

A shout out to both London City Watch Manager/ATC and the Met Police, both who were very friendly and accommodating.

Wish it was a little less cloudy, though. Would have been great to have a beautiful blue sky!

Took off from Royal Victorial Gardens. There are some seating areas near the rear of the gardens, with very few people around. I had print offs of the ‘NSF’ PDF that I had been emailed, along with a CAD number from the Met police (so that if someone were to call them about a drone in the area it would be on record that they were aware). ATC asked me to call once the flight was done, which I did, but about 15 mins later I had a (friendly) call from the police asking if the flight was complete, which I confirmed.

I only had one person approach me, and he was interested in how to obtain permission to fly in the area :grinning_face:

LCY is probably the only airport you’d be able to get approval to fly near, as it closes from Saturday lunchtime until Sunday. This has encouraged me to explore other possible places to fly with appropriate approval!

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Did you take a shot above the centre line?

Do you mean over the airport itself? I was not allowed to fly over airport land. (Would have been very cool to ‘take off’ from the runway, but alas, it was not to be!)

Did you call Met police of your drone intentions ! Or ATC London airport let them know ?

I was advised (by a person on the chat facility on the Met Police website) to fill in their usual contact form, which I did. I did receive a call from the police a day or so later, just confirming a few details. I then got an email from SO18 (aviation police) thanking me for the details and confirming (again) the CAD number. While it was not a legal requirement for me to advise the police, I thought it prudent when flying so close to the airport, as not everyone would know it was closed, so the likelihood of a call to the police was higher. I also included the police in my email a day beforehand to let them know that the flight was going to take place.

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Not on a regular basis it appears… I’m currently staying in the LCY area on business and flights have been arriving since yesterday evening and departing most of today.

That’s interesting. Didn’t know that. Not sure where I read about the closures, but glad I managed to sqeeze in a cheeky flight!

According to the London City Airport website they close between 1pm Saturdays until 12;30pm Sundays…

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Trust me , I wasn’t drunk! :joy: Flights were going in and out. I was literally in eye sight of the airport.

Not THIS time … :stuck_out_tongue:

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