Must-have apps?

Another app for weather i use is Windy. There is free and paid versions. I use the free. You can use it for different activities, and as a bonus for me living on the coast it has tide times, heights and swells, so i know if i can get onto the beach or not.
For air sports

For surfing

I use the surfing one as i tend to be able to judge the windspeed higher up by looking out of my window at the trees in the park.

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Just me - or is that site down??

What drone scene? nope working fine for me? :man_shrugging:t2:

Sorry - to be clear I meant this link:

https://dronesafe.uk/safety-apps/ - I get: ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT

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Didn’t they say they killing it recently.

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Thx a bunch for all useful info. As a new pilot and forum member I’d like to share a bit of feedback on my journey, and maybe somebody can figure out how to it less painful for newcomers. My story:

  • got a Mavic
  • a random youtuber told me there are laws - ouch!
  • read UK Drone Laws 2022: Where Can I Fly? – heliguy™ 60 or 70 times, kind of understood it; also that extension to 2026 and EU/UK similarity/divergence
  • got myself Drone Assist app as it’s referred somewhere in gov’t or CAA websites
  • noticed Drone Scene website lists locations to fly in my area, wow nice!
  • noticed greyarro.ws is a nice place to chat, alongside mavicpilots and inspirepilots
  • learnt about https://rcc.bmfa.uk/article-16 - great addition to A2 CofC
  • learnt there are other (one or two?) organisations that have Article 16 authorization from CAA

Then I had to be told by other forum members that

  • Drone Scene is maintained by ppl on grearro.ws
  • Drone Scene is referred to as an app on greyarro.ws
  • Drone Scene is as accurate and as official as Drone Assist when displaying restricted areas
  • …and in fact has more layers, more sources of information
  • you can submit flight reports via Drone Assist

…and by sheer luck on another thread I leant that

  • it is also possible to submit flight reports via Drone Assist - I did honestly try before but I didn’t know which icon to click
  • you might be able to draw a geometrical shape and get a PDF confirming your submission there

Separately it took me serious effort to understand that “GADC” means “grey arrows drone club”.

Great many thanks for all those who created all this and to those who helped me understand. On the other hand it seems terribly inefficient to explain some of these things to each newcomer separately.

To me the above seems like a “must-see” FAQ that each new drone pilot in the UK should be made aware of. But sadly I don’t know how to reduce this communication inefficiency and make this info more easily available to newcomers.

P.S. all of the weather apps mentioned in this thread probably deserve a honourable mention on that hypothetic FAQ somewhere in small print

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The opening line in that About link says “Drone Scene is operated by the Grey Arrows Drone Club.”

Actually, an FAQ sheet would be quite useful. Not that I need it now, but I spent a lot of hours in here trying to find all the info I needed at the start. A single page would be handy for the newbies?

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https://greyarro.ws/faq

Cheers @DeanoG60 but I meant for stuff like drone regs, useful apps and documentation. Basically an FAQ for new pilots on where to find all the info in one thread.

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Darren with the way regulations change at the moment, and the way even the CAA confuse and contradict themselves, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea for us to try and maintain legal advice in a FAQ section. I think the best we could do would be to have links to the relevant CAA pages.

I didn’t mean GADC giving legal advice. But more as you point out, to provide links to where all the relevant info can be found. Links to apps like Litchi, Dronescene, CAA, dronetweeks etc, what they are and why you might want to use them.
Plus some other useful stuff, like have fun but don’t be a dick!

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Hey, just reference Heliguy, that’ll be good enough :wink:
My prev. message above is actually a serious attempt at writing that missing FAQ

@stevesb ill look into Windy as I’m often flying over the sea, tide times would be very handy.

@eastsuffolkdrone Simon i edited your post to flag the right person who you were replying to, which was me not Rich @PingSpike

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Sorry, and thanks for reminding me.

@stevesb Do you know if it’s Windy.app or Windy.com?

Windy App. On google play.

Thanks, Steve,

Downloaded and paid for (there’s an offer on) for a year, The free offer only lasts a week. so I’ll suck it and see.

I’m going to enjoy this!

Simon

Ive never paid and been using it for at least 3 years. Whether thats because it was free when i first got it ( i can’t remember) and have sort of grandfather rights i don’t know. I fo get messages to upgrade now and again. But ignore them.

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