Surrey Spots

Morning all! Just joined up and need to get my flying hours up before my PfCO course. I’m based in Kingston so thankfully not too far from the Surrey Hills and just wondered if anyone has any specific areas around that way that they would recommend for flight practice! Thanks in advance!

1 Like

I live for most of the week in Worcester Park. Use the NATS app as a start point.
I also live the rest of the time near Gatwick (it’s a work thing) so it does get complicated or impossible to fly in these areas. For example. All Royal Parks in London are drone exclusion zones.
I basically go for low level flights in deserted playing fields like Priests Hill Epsom or Epsom Downs, just to get skills up. I push it much further depending on what I see, like moaning dog walkers, horses, people accusing me of spying etc ! Then I Calm it all down.
I have a Spark.
I look forward to other suggestions on your thread.

Hi @FergusonFlyer and welcome to Grey Arrows!

Have you looked at the Users Map to see if anyone is located nearby?

Please do add yourself to the map too :smiley:

You have Richmond Park Model Flying Field just up the road from you (a Royal Park) and totally legal to fly from this field if you comply with the Drone Code. Have you not tried it?

1 Like

Thanks PingSpike, I’ll check it out now!

1 Like

Thanks Harbrimar, no, I had no idea! That’s a great shout, thank you! I’ll head down there today and check it out!

Thanks Higgs and all. I drove around Guildford for a while checking out various ‘commons’, but quite a few where quite densely populated with trees and quite a few horse riders, but I eventually stumbled upon a great place called Newlands Corner. It had great views and was fairly quiet - until I started up the Air! I got quite a few dirty looks from the dog walkers and earshot comments of ‘those bloody things are a damn nuisance’, but all in all it was a very successful flight.

Hello and welcome.

I know Newlands Corner quite well as I used to live in Guildford but I would be reluctant to fly there as it is a real magnet for visitors given the huge car park and cafe there. However, you could probably get away with it early morning before the crowds arrive. Further along the ridge is St Martha’s church which is not quite so popular with tourists and I have seen one or two videos of it on YT taken from drones.

1 Like

Yes the dog walkers think they own surrey hills for themselfs when I used to go up there on a motorbike you could hear them moaning

Sutton and Merton parks are ok to fly in. Nearest Worcester Park is Nonsuch Park and Morden Park.

1 Like

I had a dog walker tell me that he had called the police because what I was doing was illegal. It wasn’t of course but he didn’t accept my explanation so I waited for 10 minutes for the police while he continued to rant away before I realised they were not coming. He hadn’t called them at all.
Strange thing is that his dog was very friendly and looked as puzzled as me.

4 Likes

you should of said to him well I have called the rspc because your obviously not mentally stable enough to own a dog :rofl:

2 Likes

I will now, when confronted, insist on the police being called.
Then when they come I will await the response from the Police, and then tell them that I am not the one wasting their time !..
I do love wankers like that !.

1 Like

Public mass hysteria is really INCREDIBLY annoying not to say infuriating. One of the things that annoys me the most about it is that if ou go to Trafalgar Sq and take a photo of the square like any tourist would, it is fine. Selfie sticks (creations of the devil himself) are fine. BUT if you launch a small drone up in the air to take a picture, OMG, you are invading people’s privacy and you can’t do that without permission… WTF???

2 Likes

Nonsuch Park is nice. They do have a lot of dogs at the weekend but they also have three ‘dog free picnic areas’ which means a hassle free fly most days. As long as you stay 30m distance from public on take off and get it 50m up nobody can complain.
I say this because when I first started flying there I would get a lot of big dogs chasing the drone and it didn’t please anyone too much.

5 Likes

Nonsuch Mansion 20180228_133408%20Nonsuch%20Mansion|666x500