I have just added this to the map of places to fly your drone at Drone Scene:
A misaligned pano (the aircraft moved some 55 metres between first and last shot). But ok to illustrate a location on the edge of a HIRTA and close to a beacon.
From the launch point you can see the city of Portsmouth, the top of Portsdown Hill and the land running north toward Petersfield, and, depending on time of day and thus height of sun, see clearly toward Southampton or Bognor. Good place for night shots of Portsmouth.
The launch site I chose was down the slope away from the car park, Be careful of the picnic tables, they contain a lot of metal, stay 10 metre away if you donât want to recalibrate you compass.
The car park is home to the justly famous Mickâs Monster Burgers, open 24/7. The location is a very poular meeting place for car and motorbike clubs as well as the general public
The originator declared that this location was not inside a Flight Restriction Zone at the time of being flown on 21/09/2020. It remains the responsibility of any pilot to check for any changes before flying at the same location. Landowner permission may be required before taking off.
Hi all,
Iâm still learning STUFF clearly.
On Drone scene I see Port Solent as HIRTA zone but yesterday I was mouching around and its not on DJI Fly app which has usually looked pretty restrictive for most places. Actually the DJI fly app doesnât have an HIRTA filter but it has a ârecommendedâ filter and Port Solent showed to be when I was there.
Port Solent looks nice and Iâd love to have a quick fly over.
So, how do you gauge the strength of these HIRTA warning filters?
That could be a how long is a piece of string type question depending on drone set up and range etc I guess.
But if I were within 500m of RC handset, DJI Mini 2 and Occusync, is that a good sign or bad sign?
Thanks in advance.
The DJI Fly app should NOT be relied on for Flight Restriction Zone information. DJI put their own restrictions in place which rend to be larger than the officialareas. They will prevent your DJI aircrafy from takeoff unless you unlock the app either in the field or at home, prior to flight.
Drone Scene uses some of the same datasets as the CAA, it is always up-to-date and has a wealth of detail in its many layers.
A HIRTA is a High Intensity Radio Transmission Area. It may interfere with the electronics of your aircraft dependent on strength, frequency and direction but there is no way that it forms a circle or hemisphere like a forcefield with electricity crackling and zapping on the inside and total calm on the outside where little lambs gambol and butterflies flit from bush to bush .
As Drone Scene shows:
PORTSDOWN HIRTA
Category
Radio Interference
Summary
Yellow zones indicate regions where operation of your drone may raise security, privacy or safety concerns.
Altitude
This piece of airspace is in effect between Surface and 6600ft AGL
Increased risk for drone operations
Radio Interference is present in this location from High Intensity Radio Transmission Area.
Actually the southern half of this particular area is downhill from the device propagating the radio waves. The biggest problem to my mind is that the devices transmitting are operated by a defence research establishment who might be less than amused if a drone persistently overflies the site itself.
The only way to test whether it is safe to fly is to fly in the area. If your drone survives then it was safe to fly at the time you flew it - the transmissions may well vary in strength and frequency at other times. Portsdown Hill seems to be involved in shipâs radar. Not a problem. Unless they are testing their new device that fits in a 5G phone and uses 2.4 and 5,8 GHz for transmission âŚ
There is a discussion from the general aviation view:
Are you not a touch too close to the hospital helipad flyibg there? Port solent is not the problem in that area, you have the naval diving training facility behind it and that is a no fly zone. Hope this helps
If you switch off various layers in Drone Scene to simplify the mapyou will discover that QA hospital is marked as an area where care should be taken but no mention of the helipad.
However it is the legal responsibility of the pilot to keep a watch for aircraft in the vicinity and react accordingly. Helicopters can be encountered at various heights from surface upward and at all times. You are also in an areaw here military air traffic and coastguard missions are also common.
So, yes, be aware!
I know Horsea lake well, having done civilian diving training there. Yes, it is an active military base, like Whale Island just to the south of it. And, no, matlows donât take too kindly to people breaking the no photography rules by overflying.
With due regard to sensitive areas and adherence to the drone code the area can be flown without causing anyone any hassle!
I appreciate what you are saying about it being an area where care should be taken, it was just an observation on my part knowing how easy us drone flyers get bad press.
I generally go further along the hill by Fort Nelson and the Nelson monument.
Just re-reading this thread and noticed your remark about the QA helipad. Iâm not sure whether to be proud or not but apparently I was landed on it last June after a slight unpleasantness involving a heart attack (not caused by Mickâs burgers!), a car crash and roadside CPR
I was thinking of heading down that way fairly soon, and was quite keen to get the nice dramatic views of Portsmouth etc, but am quite concerned that the whole area might now be excluded due to the Article 293 restrictions we have recently had shoved in our direction.
You have an area of High Intensity Radio Transmission, a hospital with a helicopter landing deck (been there!) and a Defence Research Establishment run by Qinetiq all relatively close by. Come to that the site overlooks His Majestyâs Dockyard, Portsmoutth.
But, unless you make a nuisance of yourself continually overflying sensitive areas, I donât see how you can be contravening any regulations.
Well, if itâs included, weâd be contravening the âunwrittenâ rule under article 293 which forbids flying or taking pics anywhere near any sort of government facility or business that supplies one ! And the first weâd know about it is when old Bill rock up at the house to âinform youâ and demand any published footage is removed !
Hence the need to see if anyone else knows in advanceâŚ
I mean it all seems bloody ridiculous given how close we can zoom right into that defence installation on Google maps, and theyâve probably already got me on some sort of list for doing that !
So if I take pictures of the local park and in the background is the rear of the Gregge that the workers in the Job Centre visit at lunchtime I will be ending my days at His Majestyâs pleasure?
What do you mean by âanywhere nearâ ? I believe around prisons its a 400m exclusion zone. Qinetiq are further away than that.
