Apologies if you see this elsewhere, currently a question in another group, pending approval.
I’m in Southport, and have generally been using my parents’ larger garden in Birkdale for getting some drone footage and taken my Mini 5 pro up a few times there since September. Their garden was well outside the nearest NFZ (Woodvale), which affected parts of Ainsdale and possibly small parts of the southernmost part of Birkdale.
Tried to fly again on 10th Oct, to find it was under a flight restriction, which I’ve not had before, then realised there was a royal visit to a nearby school and put it down to that and thought no more of it.
The NFZ is still in place, showing their house under one of the approach/departure paths to Woodvale aerodrome.
Does anyone have any information on this? (or general knowledge on changes to NFZs).
Why has the NFZ increased in area and/or altered the NFZ flight paths and is it likely to change back?
Alternatively, what are the chances of getting permission to fly under a certain height? (I appreciate this might be seen as a stupid question).
If the garden is located under one of the sticky out sections of the flight restriction zone then permission needs to be obtained before any flight can take place.
If the CAA have changed the flight restriction zone then thats down to them. You will still need to obtain permission to fly there.
here is the dronescene link:
the only layer active is the CAA flight restriction zone for woodvale.
You will need to contact Air traffic control to seek permission before any flight.
Yes. This has changed since September. They are now under one of the approach/departure paths, but this has changed sometime before 10th October. Is this a common occurrence with CAA FRZs?
The DJI fly app has had no warnings of being in a NFZ until 10th Oct. Granted, I have only looked once around Sept 2024, and carefully inspected the map of restrictions at that time, and flown a couple of times around Sept 2025. I haven’t ignored warning. None showed up.
Seriously though, the map in the DJI Fly App is showing you only what data DJI puts in there. It’s never been a true reflection of airspace and there’s a lot of stuff it either doesn’t show or doesn’t show accurately.
Use it to fly, but don’t trust it to plan. For that, Drone Scene is your friend
Checking for airport, airfield, spaceport or other airspace restrictions
You can find details of FRZs and other airspace restrictions on NATS’ map of airspace restrictions (opens in a new tab). Some other airspace restrictions, especially those created at short notice, are not shown on this map.
There are several drone apps that show airspace restrictions.
Details of airspace restrictions in your drone’s inbuilt software may not always be up to date. You must check a correct and up-to-date source before flying.
Last bit is the relevant bit, DJI has always had a very iffy take on where you can fly
Thanks all, seems this does explain the issue, as I wouldn’t have flown with a flight restriction flagged on the previous occasions. I was only staying within the garden space at very low altitude (highest I went was just above the roof), but I didn’t realise the Fly App might’ve not been accurate with such permanent and established NFZs (and evidently have now corrected any previous errors).
It makes more sense than what looked like a change in NFZ for no apparent reason.
Not questioning any of the rights and wrongs in this case, but I’m curious as to how the authorities would know that someone may have transgressed in this way, if the UAV was kept within their own garden at very low altitude? Surely it would be difficult to distinguish between that and flying indoors, given the errors in satellite positioning systems?
