London Temporary Danger Areas (TDAs)

[aztec]

Anyone who flies or has flown in central London this year will be aware of the seven Temporary Danger Areas centred on seven Metropolitan Police stations to allow them to trial beyond visual line of site flights. They are calling these Drone as a First Responder, or DFR trials, and at each location there are restrictions from the surface to 600ft four nautical miles wide.

EGD186B - Islington
EDG186C - Charing Cross
EDG186D - Kennington
EDG186E - Kensington
EDG186F - Walworth
EDG186G - Stratford
EDG186H - Brixton

I hope this thread can serve as a central place to discuss and inform others about what is happening here. But I will also go into why I personally think it is a problem.

WHAT IS GOING ON?

There is surprisingly little information for such a major change to the airspace restriction landscape of London. These are areas which have for the whole of this year been impossible to fly in without seeking permission first. This is a long time for a “Temporary” Danger Area. Gary Mortimer of sUAS news complained of this “utter lack of transparency” when similar trials were held in one location for a week in October last year.

HOW TO GET PERMISSION

It seems some people have had success contacting arops@caa.co.uk for permission to fly within these areas after providing information about their prospective flight. So these restrictions need not stop you flying for work or fun. That is good news.

MY OPINION

But this is ridiculous and unfair. When you read the NOTAM it appears these are “only” in place for one month which is bad enough. But they have been renewed month after month after month and I’m getting a bit fed up with it.

Gary Mortimer put it well in the above article when just talking about what was at the time a one week restriction:

For those of us involved in aviation, the implications are clear and frustrating: the police have effectively commanded a week-long cessation of all other flight operations within that specific section of the sky. This is a complete lockdown, giving the NPCC unfettered access while completely sidelining all other airspace users.

WHO IS TO BLAME?

I have seen an explanation repeated online (though I haven’t personally seen any evidence of it - please mention if you have) that the Police running the tests don’t want the restrictions in place but that the Civil Aviation Authority has activated them anyway for safety. If that is so, what is the CAA doing to tell the NPCC that their conduct is out of order? Because it effectively sterilises Class G airspace for a trial that likely only uses a fraction of the time the ban is in place.

And who are the “Police” in this context. Is it the Metropolitan Police UAS Unit, the National Police Chiefs’ Council, or National Police Air Service (NPAS). Does anyone know?

WHO CAN HELP?

I don’t know, and I would love your suggestions. Is it ARPAS-UK that has the most influence within the airspace world? If so, what are they doing about it?

POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

It is easier to ask for change if it comes with a solution. I understand why the police would want to trial BVLOS “drone-in-a-box” systems to fight crime. But do they need to trial seven (mostly overlapping zones) all the time, all at once? Could they:

• largely test their drones within already restricted airspace like EGR157, EGR158, EGR159, or EGRU143?
• deactivate the zones when no craft are airborne?
• activate it some days/weeks and not others (especially as this is just a trial)?

WIDER IMPLICATIONS

I think the Police here are contradicting the CAA’s principle of Flexible Use of Airspace (FUA). And if the drone community takes this sort of thing lying down then more and more airspace is going to become “ask-permission-to-fly”.

I also dislike how there appears to have been no consultation, accountability or transparency for such broad restrictions on such a large amount of airspace for so long. The airspace is essentially “blocked” for convenience rather than active tactical use. It would be a shame to let this become the norm.

[milkmanchris]

Not just in that London, these are up and down the country

Quite a few threads going back a couple of years of them

[uav_hampshire]

@aztec

I have seen an explanation repeated online (though I haven’t personally seen any evidence of it - please mention if you have) that the Police running the tests don’t want the restrictions in place but that the Civil Aviation Authority has activated them anyway for safety.

No they don’t, I have acquaintances in police drone units and they played no part in these restrictions.

@aztec

But they have been renewed month after month after month and I’m getting a bit fed up with it.

Simply apply to AirOps for permission, I know one flyer who does on a regular basis and it’s granted each time.

[aztec]

Interesting. Have any of those though been renewed for 4 months in a row or is that just a London thing? I’m not opposed to temporary ones. But this amount of time with no end in sight seems quite a bit excessive.

[aztec]

Thanks for sharing the inside knowlege. It’s a shame there’s nothing official online about it.

When you apply to AirOps for permission does that require knowing the hours and location well in advance or can you just ping them a few hours before you head out? Just yesterday evening I made a spontaneous decision to fly for the sheer beauty of the sunset on the Thames (obviously further east than these restrictions).

[milkmanchris]

Coventry and West Midlands Drone First Responder’s programme update

This local reporting provides police perspective and quotes on the UK’s experiment with “drones as first responders” in Coventry, which has been trialing this for a while now. (Google Coventry DFR to find more on this.) The impact on amateur drone enthusiasts like me is not covered in the article and I am thinking of talking to the reporter about this topic. But first I would like to get a sense of how other folks feel about this subject. For example, the police drone project has created an …

[uav_hampshire]

@aztec

When you apply to AirOps for permission does that require knowing the hours and location well in advance or can you just ping them a few hours before you head out?

You won’t get permission a few hours before you head out. They require date/time/location.

[uav_hampshire]

@aztec

Have any of those though been renewed for 4 months in a row or is that just a London thing?

Not just a London thing… The Southampton TDA started on 1st Dec 25 and has been rolling since.

[DroneGeek]

@uav_hampshire

Not just a London thing… The Southampton TDA started on 1st Dec 25 and has been rolling since.

How much notice have you had to give?

[uav_hampshire]

@scobb will give you a better idea on timescales for a flight within a TDA, he applied not long back.

I will be doing one myself in the very near future.

[scobb]

So, I have made one email request to AirOps and I got a reply within 5 minutes. That was during normal business hours. Not sure if that level of response would apply if a spur-of-the-moment request was made out of hours. (I may try this on Bank Holiday Monday when Coventry City FC are having a victory parade in a TDA, and report back.)

Here is a rough copy-and-paste of my correspondence, the ask and the answer. Next time I ask I will remeber to include my Drone ID.

========= Ask by Drone Operator ==========

From:Stephen Cobb <scobb@scobb.net>
Sent: 02 March 2026 11:42
To: AROps <AROps@caa.co.uk>
Subject: [External] Request to fly drone in Coventry

I request permission to fly a small drone (160 grams) to a height of 300 feet in or near the following location:

Earlsdon Ave N, Coventry CV5 6HE, 52.404524, -1.535219 between 10AM and 3PM on March 12, 2026.

This location is currently subject to a NOTAM: Temporary Danger Area (TDA EGD298B).

Many thanks for your consideration.

Stephen Cobb

========== Answer from AirOps =========

From:AROps AROps@caa.co.uk
Sent: 02 March 2026 11:47
To: Lorraine Hawthorn Lorraine.Hawthorn@caa.co.uk; Stephen Parry (Airspace) Stephen.Parry@caa.co.uk
Subject: FW: [External] Request to fly drone in Coventry

OFFICIAL - Public. This email and any files transmitted with it have been cleared for unrestricted distribution.

Good Morning,

Your request to operate VLOS not above 400ft within EGD298B is approved; the Sponsor of EGD298B will contact you if they deem it necessary. [SC: nobody contacted me.]

Please maintain a good lookout for BVLOS quadcopter activity for which EGD298B has been established.

Permission to enter EGD298B does not remove the requirement for authorisation/permissions of any Enhanced Non-Standard Flight requirements to operate in any other FRZs or Controlled Airspace and these should be sought via the usual channels.

Lorraine

Lorraine Hawthorn
Airspace Regulator (Utilisation)
AU2

Airspace, ATM & Aerodromes
Civil Aviation Authority

AR(U) Hours of Operation: Monday - Friday 08:30 to 16:30 (UK Local Time)
Make your NOTAM request via the ACOMS Home - ACOMS Portal

CAP 722 Unmanned Aircraft System Operations in UK Airspace
CAP 736 Operation of Directed Light, Fireworks, Toy Balloons and Sky Lanterns within UK Airspace

Published NOTAMs:
To check if your NOTAM has been issued you can use the NATS UK Internet Briefing System (free access but logon required).

==== End ====

[scobb]

P.S. A few weeks after I sent my AROps TDA email in March I discovered, much to my embarrassment and chagrin, that members of the public are not allowed rto fly drones anywhere in Coventry that is council-owned. This includes pretty much all the parks and green spaces that I was going to use in my planned series of videos about growing up in Coventry (the city I love and live in).

I can’t believe I missed this when I was planning to buy a drone and do this project. If my wife ever gets well to the point where I have more time, and my prostate cancer treatment permits, I plan to campaign for changes to what is a ridiculous blanket ban instituted years ago due to poor behaviour in the early days of public droning in one particular park (adding an exemption for licensed and insure droners like us would be a simple fix).

This relates to the matter at hand (TDAs) because getting the okay from the CAA to fly in a TDA does NOT override or negate local authority restrictions, and I highly doubt the CAA is cross-referencing GPS coordinates with local ordinances.

Hope this is helpful … Stephen

[uav_hampshire]

Did you ever enquire if you can request more than one days flying?

[DroneGeek]

Just a reference point to encourage others not to be put off by these.

Planning a rare flight this week in Southampton.

Had zero issues in getting permission.

Very basic details of flying a drone at this rough location between these hours.

I added my nunber as well.

Didn’t specify the drone or height etc.

To be honest the first email was sent expecting them to reply asking for lots of information. But no. They didn’t seem to worried.

I had kept it brief on purpose as more of what do I need to do etc.

Now whether this is true of all these zones, I don’t know.

[uav_hampshire]

@DroneGeek

Planning a rare flight this week in Southampton.

Bar London TDA’s and some other big cities … I wonder how much police drone activity has actually taken place within the Southampton TDA since it was first established in December last year. Very little I’d wager.

But it’s not their fault a ridiculously sized zone has been thrown up.

[Jabtas]

The one up in Middlesbrough (I live about 500yd from its centre) has been renewed every month since at least last October, and just a few mile away, the same in Stockton has been in place since the beginning of this year

[DroneGeek]

I am wondering if folks were to organise a rota to request access daily in every location, whether they would ask for changes

[uav_hampshire]

Those ever increasing TDA’s in London are coming dangerously close to the regular flying location of Hermitage Gdns by Tower Bridge..

[uav_hampshire]

So I enquired with AROps at the CAA.

Extended windows of operation within a TDA can be approved when applied for.

[CheerPhil]

I presume we don’t have to request permission anymore to fly in the Drone as First Responder (DFR) trial TDAs, based on the updated text in the NOTAMs.

See the bit below highlighted in blue in the full NOTAM text:

Is that everyone else’s understanding too?