In defence of Rich et. al, that wording isn’t theirs. It’s built in to the dataset provided by the CAA (via Altitude Angel), which is why you’ll find it word-for-word on any of the airspace/planning apps and websites out there. What they’ve done with DroneScene is take that dataset, combined it with others, and built around them all a really useful set of tools to help us plan our flights.
Ultimately, you could go one of three ways:
-
Win big on a quadruple Euromillions rollover, then blow it all trying to build a no-thought-needed flight planning app.
-
Build in a huge list of caveats on top of the CAA dataset to guide new flyers towards the exceptions to the rules.
-
Present the facts as provided by the authorities and trust experienced flyers to know when they can apply caveats and exceptions.
There are good reasons why nobody has gone for option 1 and built a website where beginners can simply stick a pin in a map and be given a ruling on whether they can fly there.
For one thing, the datasets just don’t exist. Sure, there’s one for the airspace from the CAA and you have some for land owned by bodies like the National Trust (though even there, only in England, not in Scotland), but how do you map every bylaw enacted by community councils and local authorities? And how do you keep it up to date? You’re looking at a full-time job for dozens of people, with office space and IT costs to boot. You aren’t going to fund all that by selling GADC hoodies and mugs.
Even if you could get all the datasets together and guarantee that they are always 100% up to date, you still couldn’t say with certainty whether somebody could fly where they’ve dropped a pin on the map because you wouldn’t know all the variables of their flight. For that you need eyes on the ground at the time.
Option 2 is a minefield of legislation and advice that would need a community forum to become more like an RAE with all the paperwork and auditing that comes along with it. Another office full of people crossing Ts, dotting Is and ticking boxes.
So we have option 3 - a bloody useful set of tools on top of trustworthy, accurate data that makes DroneScene (IMHO) the best planning aid out there.
For newbies, red means ‘stop’ - to use an example given earlier by somebody, it’s an FRZ and you can’t fly here.
With experience, red starts to mean ‘planning’ - it’s an FRZ and you need to get permission.
I don’t see a problem with that. To my mind, if you don’t know that you can apply for permission to fly in an FRZ then there’s a very good chance that you shouldn’t be given permission to fly inside the FRZ anyway. Great power… great responsibility… etc.
I think you hit the nail on the head when you said:
Anyway, that’s my t’pence worth. I shall now shut up and let this thread get back on topic.