Long range flights - opinions?

Grammar/drone police will be along shortly, they’ll be lying down after watching that distance flight :wink:

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Speed Cameras at the ready boys !!
Click .Click your Nicked !

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Just as a small amount of Info for you to digress.
Any drone over 250 grammes has to be registered with the C.A.A.(Civil Aviation Authority)
Failing to do that, and fly it in public without it, could land you with a £1,000 fine.
But, if you are serious about getting a real drone, and not a toy, feel free to enter in conversation, we will help you, in whatever way we can.
And welcome to GADC.
Have a great evening

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:joy: :joy: :joy: :joy: :rofl: :rofl: :joy: :joy:

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I totally agree I don’t understand why people have an urge to do such a thing

My guess would be that they do because…
They can
Want to see how far “their” drone is able to fly
And that the RTH thing works
Show their pals what it all looks like from above
Etc etc…
Why do people climb Mount Everest?
Go white water rafting
Fly to the moon

Because if we adhered to all the bloody laws we wouldn’t see zero.
Some guys on here remind me of the laws that said somebody with a red flag should run in front of an automobile when they first came onto the scene
For Crissake, its s field/mountain/ flat land and if 2000 ppl stood in there it ain’t my problem.
What about City flyers who have VLOS and their drone decides to go down? Get real ffs

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Yeah totally

Long haul, or BVLOS, can be done safely, but not with an off the Argos shelf DJI or similar craft as they are not suitably equipped to do so, more importantly neither are many of the folk attempting to fly BVLOS.

Nidge.

giphy

When I was on my PfCO training there was a mixed bag of opinions on distances. All the instructors had a military background background and our flight assessor dropped the MAIN reason why we have the VLOS rule:

If a helicopter is flying towards you, can you see your drone? Do you need to go higher or lower than the helicopter?

If you’re beyond VLOS then there is no way of telling.

There are emergency services flying around, military training exercises, low flying aircraft and plenty more air users dotted about and flying low.

Admittedly, you can use spotters and you’ll have to write an Operational Safety Case and request permission from the CAA to do this.

One of the big differences between the UK and the US is that we have a rich pedigree history of aviation. There are airports all over the place. The CAA and NATS concern is our drones going into their airspace.

The US is an interesting one, the have a lot more open space and less airports dotted around. They also have a considerably more relaxed approach to distances you can fly towards things not under your control. Seen recently they are introducing a VLOS rule to the States as well, it makes sense in my opinion. Things like congested areas and distance from things no in your control is a whole different thing…

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I have to hold up my hand here and admit to letting fly with a few range tests in the early days…before much noise was made of regulations…well that is as much as is made today about drone regs etc.

I know theyve always been there but until I got my teeth into this (wonderfully brilliant) forum the message hadnt been drummed into me quite so hard then as it is now.

Im surrounded by miles of open farm land with the nearest village being 5 miles away as the drone flies…so I felt I had to scratch that itch. I have to admit that there was a weird adrenaline thing going on plus some stupidity.

I dont bother now as sheer common sense and a need nowadays to very much adhere to the rules keeps my drone within sensible limits. A lot of that monkey business was also driven by me being a newbie and it being a new toy thing and a need to know what the limits are of the craft. (as it happens, I didnt need to know but I gave it go anyway)…curiosity n all that.

There is another angle on it and thats the exploration thing too. Again over open farmland its quite neat to be able to look around and admire the view from distance. Take in some of that country side that you simply cant usually access. That does give one a buzz.

Now obviously I dont condone this what so ever. Just trying to explain why I as a drone owner undertook such crude and darkly behaviour. :scream:

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Thats the very point of VLOS right there :point_up_2:

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Don’t all those big stuff have to stay so far from the ground though? So not to worry sheep and that sort of thing?

big stuff

Presumably you mean helicopters, military aircraft and the like?

Clearly for training purposes in the Brecon Beacons, remote areas of Scotland and indeed parts of England there will be low level training flights and people leaping out of planes and helicopters.

As someone pointed out a while back you can be minding your own business or so you thought flying over a beautiful loch in Scotland only to see a military aircraft heading towards you a few feet above the water. There are videos of such. I’m sure someone will meme it or point one out. They do have rather better sensing equipment than your MM or M2P I’m led to believe. Of course you would have done your research pre-flight and be aware of that possibility and be ready for evasive action which of course you wouldn’t have time to take anyway.

I doubt they worry too much about any sheep or rutting stags as they fly over. They certainly don’t worry about frightening the s*** out of me on occasion when flying over my house for essential training over the Irish sea.

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In the link here, military aircraft can be found flying in 20 LFA (Low Flying Areas) from 250ft to 100ft above the ground: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/military-low-flying

In the case of emergency services helicopters, they could be landing in the park you’re flying in or flying in the vicinity potentially at lower altitudes.

Obviously nobody will be flying a drone in a LFA and definitely not in a TTA to avoid traffic conflict of low flying aircraft. The aircraft will normally call in when entering these areas. Some calls are blind, I have often entered many TTAs in helicopters and on occasion come across the odd startled member of public. As for HEMS they can take a route to an incident and land at a point that has been deemed safe by the aircraft captain, and normally agreed by the crew. Normal operations would be to do a pass to have a look for obstacles and use ground crews to manage the public. I would think that no drone flyer is stupid enough to put a drone in the air near to such activity.

Your Link:

Published 10 September 2013
Last updated 18 June 2014 — see all updates

From: Ministry of Defence

Like all things with our Government, could not even keep the tea caddy topped !.

I don’t think any of that effects me I just fly in the park with my kid on a Sunday afternoon You guys have such amazing info it’s all a bit complicated is that because of the professional drones you fly?

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What amazing info?

What’s a MM or MP2?