Yes, although I’ve not tried yet, you can fly over the Thames, definitely from the Greenwich side. Although it’s a real narrow area and a big gust could take you into the red so exercise caution.
There is apparently somewhere else with views or the city down near blackwall tunnel I think it is
Thanks for confirm. I will fly with extreame caution knowing that I am really close to a no fly zone.
What app lists the zone numbers?
Photoshop 
While we’re on the topic of the Thames, just checking in as to whether anyone is able to shed any further light on the helicopter routes - they show as a warning in most of the apps showing NATS data etc, rather than a restriction, and I have not been able to find any legal basis on which they would be restricted (which makes a lot of sense given presumably helicopters would fly at above the permitted drone altitude anyway).
@nathankw I saw your post over at this thread where you discuss the area to the east of Tower Bridge and you seem sceptical but I would have thought this is actually pretty clear cut - as long as you’re east of the bridge, which is essentially exactly the border for R158 so a nice clear visual barrier, the next Eastward restriction is actually R159 which comes before the City Airport FRZ, so there’s a good 2.75km / 1.7 miles between them horizontally. Within that window, there don’t appear to be any other restrictions over the Thames (we know R160 does not restrict us, and on the assumption that I’m not wrong about heli-route H4).
This is all assuming a sub-250g flight with all the other standard drone code provisos re altitude, LOS, only when wind is safe etc.
My interpretation and someone with far more expertise on this may say otherwise is it’s a yellow are, which means operate with caution.
Wasn’t sure on which thread to reply - so here goes!
I didn’t say it you couldn’t fly there - just it’s quite ballsy - being right on the edge of the city of london zone (you’re right that City Airport is some way away).
But as you say if you stay east of the bridge you should be out.
The other issue though is where you take off from? Have you idenitified any legal TOAL spots?
As for the heli routes - I’m not an expert either but I understand it’s just a matter of caution and being extra careful about height and staying VLOS.
Ok great, thanks for clarifying!
In terms of TOAL, my perspective would be that any of the public spaces along the river which are not subject to park bye-laws would be ok - even a quiet street if you could be confident of not obstructing anyone and of course always taking into account the safety of anyone who could be in the area. Would you agree?
I wouldn’t use a street. You’ve no control over what happens after you take off with regards to traffic, people parking, pedestrians etc. I’d want landing options. The last thing you need is a RTH or some other emergency and there’s a car, van or worse in the way
Just brought myself a mini 2, and I had a quick look on the app to see if I could use it close to the tower of London and the app says it’s ok.
This okay to use then?
Which app are you using?
The DJI fly app
There are a whole load of restrictions which the DJI geozones do not cover - in fact the DJI source is pretty much the worst way to check for airspace restrictions. Others will provide further detail I am sure, but you can check https://www.dronesafetymap.com/ which should contain the NATS/Altitude Angel data which is fairly comprehensive, if not always perfectly easy to interpret.
The area you have flagged as “1” in the map looks like it would be within the R158/“City of London” no-fly zone in which no UAS can be flown without special exemption.
The best being our very own DroneScene
No you can’t
That’s inside the City of London R158, a big no no without a non standard flight permission from the CAA, which unless you’re well qualified they’ll probably turn down.
If the mini 2 is your first drone, you’d probably want to get pretty competent as pilot too before flying anywhere so congested also The wind effects around tall buildings, the loss of GPS from the buildings or reflections causing inaccurate GPS, planning processes (it’s so busy it could go very wrong, very fast) and so on. You really don’t want to be the next tabloid headline for a fly-away. If you are, then ignore all that of course 
.
Just a quick one, if it’s restricted, would the DJI app stop me from unlocking that area then?
The app restricts it, but as I said a suitably qualified pilot with the relevant permissions would need to unlock it to fly. Chances are there will be a record of your unlock request.
Please don’t do it. I know it’s tempting and it’s probably not what you wanted to hear but that flight would be illegal. We may try not to be the drone police but that’s a designated restricted area in the heart of a massively congested area. Do you really want to be the person who’s drone hits the front pages and ends up bringing in more legislation?
We learnt last week that all DJI GEO unlock requests are made available to all AeroScope users (local police forces, airport security, etc). Will discuss that in more detail in a separate thread in a bit to keep this one on topic.
