Haha! He might need to get up early, then.
I’d start with big problems first. Go over the following:
Air traffic restrictions and permissions for central London. If you can’t pass this hurdle, give up. I’d def get ATC approval due to air ambulances.
Then do permissions on buildings and people. Where can you take off and how to stay 50m from them or how to get consents etc. If too hard, give up!
Then flight plans and risk assessments etc
Hmmm okay I see where you are coming from and totally agree
Good advise there, from Glenn / @Longstride … who has PfCO …. although he tends to use his out in the middle of the Scottish wilderness ….
Huh?
Glenn is more to be seen in this environment : 3D Mapping and Deer Surveys in Scotland than the city when he’s using using his PfCO.
Far easier on the risk assessments and permissions!!! One huge land owner, TICK!
Is it worth passing the job to someone experienced on the caviat you can shadow them to gain experience
Get him to do more than that, get him to do all the permissions from the nearby building owners, police, council, fire brigade, airspace, notify specials although the site is not that close to palace.
Building work requires quite a few permits so your client will have contacts so let him do that leg work and then you approve those permissions as the pilot. The job isn’t a one man show, to get the footage they want will cost them.
It can be done, but it will be a logistical nightmare. Your going to need multiple spotters to keep the drone visible at all times, your also going to need to find a take off location that will allow you to cover the distance and obstacles without losing the signal.
You’ll need to plan that flight path out diligently as to avoid any possible obstacles like trees, signs, cables etc
Then of course there’s the permissions to actually fly there, with a DJI drone your gonna have fun, might be easier to get an FPV pilot to do the hard work, slap a gopro on the quad and do some editing work on the footage
It’s clear of DJI Geo Zones. It’s beneath their new extended London City Runway Geo Zone at that point.
It’s only London CTR that needs ATC permission/notification.
Local permissions probably the biggest issue/nightmare.
I was in that area recently - tower cranes might be an issue, too.
I’d agree with the suggestion to hand it over to (certainly discuss with) someone with experience of drone flying in such a location.
It can be done - I’ve seen it being done. It’s the how-to you need to pin down.
Good luck! Let us know how it all unfolds if you manage to pull it off.
I will definitely let you all know how it goes if I manage to pull it off!
FPV is not permitted for commercial work ‘CAA’
I’d suggest trying to get roof access to a property and position yourself there as it gives you better take off/landing area and line of sight for the signal. Urban zone, so spotters are also required. I’d pop in an NSF request (28 day minimum lead time on those). Do it on a Sunday morning at 5 AM and you’ll be fine. The permissions would actually be relatively straight forward, it’s just the logistics
Pinging @scorps …. you hang-out with the mega-pro movie drone guys …. who I’m sure have flown in such locations … any chance of posing this scenario to them and getting any tips? Thx
Oh - if you need a spotter (or ten) …. let me know.
You’ll need people on the ground too asking the public to wait a minute or two whilst you overfly. It’s cheaper and easier than applying for road closure.
As an aside for anyone else reading along - UAV8 specifically include planning central London jobs for just this kind of thing in their PfCO course