Tees Rowing Club

Where to fly your drone in the UK
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Looking for some help if someone could assist a newbie.

Tees rowing regatta is on this week (TS18 2NB) and I wanted to get some race coverage but drone assist has the whole of Stockton as a TDA. I think it’s for the police drone first responder.

I will only be following the straight river for the 800 metre course. My question is am I absolutely not allowed to launch the drone in this area.

I’m a new flier and don’t want to be in trouble straight away.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Craig

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Hi @craig159 it looks as though you’re quite new here :wave:t2:

Why not nip over to the Introductions page, and say hello properly and tell us a bit about yourself. :+1:t2:

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Flying within a TDA without permission is a no-no.

Permission can be sought, though whether it’s always granted, let alone as quickly as this experience, is another matter.

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4

As above, absolutely not :pensive_face:

Those drone bvlos trials often aren’t running 24/7 so permission may be granted.

If you don’t ask, you’ll never know :slight_smile:

You can request permission to fly by emailing arops@caa.co.uk – telling them where and when you want to fly – and quoting references EGD494B and AR-2026-187/07.

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Thanks for the quick reply. Drone Assist clearly shows the TDA but I felt a little ray of hope when it wasn’t on dronemap. Unfortunately rowing season has come round before I’ve learnt all I need to know about where I can’t fly.

Thanks again

Craig

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Thank you for the information. I’ll email now and cross everything I can.

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@craig159 if it helps, it’s showing as active on Drone Scene too:

Drone Scene
Drone Scene2374×2112 2.48 MB

It’d really help other club members if you could share your experience of making the request, and what the outcome was.

Please do let us know how you get on :smiley:

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So far so good, had a response within minutes asking for times I planned to operate, now just waiting for the reply to my 2 hour afternoon window

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:crossed_fingers:

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Excellent, sounds promising :smiley:

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DroneScene and the support we offer is the best in the land (and sky).

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12

Thank you all so much for all the help.

Had the following response from arops.

Hi Craig,

Your request to operate VLOS not above 400ft within EGD494 is approved; the Sponsor of EGD494 will contact you if they deem it necessary.

Please maintain a good lookout for BVLOS quadcopter activity for which EGD494 has been established.

Permission to enter EGD494 does not remove the requirement for authorisation/permissions of any Enhanced Non-Standard Flight requirements to operate in any other FRZs or Controlled Airspace and these should be sought via the usual channels.

Took less than 2 hours but wouldn’t have known where to start without all the assistance from this group.

Very happy this afternoon

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Great result, don’t forget the benefits of Grey Arrows membership include public liability insurance for all your recreational flights, as well as the great support for all things flying in the UK and beyond

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Fantastic news :clap:t2:

Thanks for sharing the outcome too, always good to share experiences with other club members.

Look forward to seeing some Photos by Drone and Videos by Drone of the rowing in due course :blush:

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Brilliant news.

These TDA are relatively new, but the “temporary” aspect is also looking to be a tad strange when most seem to just get renewed.

Glad to hear everything got approved. :clap:

A shame one can’t do the same with the meteorological office and book the necessary weather for your flying.

Hope the planned fights all go according to plan. :crossed_fingers:

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