Oooo, no, too scary…
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Point taken about weight, yes. In the case of my Mini3Pro, though not for my MavicAir2 (bigger profile anyway). Though out here I deepest, remote 'stix where I do most of my (very) occasional flying, it would take a keen/hardy Karen/Ken to flag this up 
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On the above subject, I wish to thank you all for your input to the matter. I have learned a lot from your comments and advise. I perticular like the one about flying in squares, circles and figure of eight to gain practice, thanks. As my old teacher ones said, “needs to try harder”. Thank you all.
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Yes it would, but how many police carry callibrated scales in their boot? In fact, how many police would even know why to check the weight.
I always fit two strobes, red on rear left, white on rear right. Same as the snow poles on the roads up here to stop you driving off the cliff in winter. That means I can tell the orientaion without looking at my screen and breaking the VLOS rule 
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spot on - I have a theory…some new drone pilots fly beyond VLOS as it’s quite tempting to ‘see what’s over there’ when they cannot be bothered to walk/get in the car and get closer. It’s very rare to capture usable video footage seen only via the drone and without your own eyes too which is why more experienced pilots probably don’t do it
Welcome
Just find an empty field
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. If you have a good gander at the surroundings you’ve just flown to, familiarize yourself and take it nice and easy, it’s basically just the same as capturing footage within VLOS. It comes with practice…so I’m told:wink:
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And I’m not getting sucked into the VLOS rabbit hole again…
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Starting this evening, albeit not very successfully! Dull & overcast all day in Cardiff, so no filming to be done, I went up the rec to have a go at some squares and circles, maybe a cheeky 8. Drone wouldn’t fly.
It repeatedly took off (palm launch) fly backwards, descended, and refused to answer the joystick instructions. After about half a dozen attempts and a prop cutting my thumb I abandoned proceedings and went over the pub before a serious crash happened. Suspect propeller problems, and have found all 4 rear props to have slightily loosened screws (by about 75% of a turn), which I’ve tightend up. Could have done this on park bench, but in failing light I thought that was asking for trouble, especially with screws that size…
Can’t find any damage on the props, after close inspection and running my fingers along the edges to feel for rough spots. Confirmed that the correct A & B props are fitted to the correct A & B arms. Fingers crossed for test fly tomoz! Think I’ll do this indoors with the propguards on.
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Indoor flying today with the propguards fitted, entirely successful so all is well, all will be well and all shall be well. I’ll pay more attention to the tightness of my prop bolts in future!
Weather looks to be fine, bright and sunny for tomoz, with very light easterlies, to good a day to miss out on! Winds are light for a while, but forecasts all agree on clouding over for the weekend and most of next week, though to different extents! So, filming trip tomoz, plenty of dull weather later for squares & circles…
But where? I could well change my mind, but at the moment my thoughts are on Llandaff Cathederal and wier. Something a bit scenic; I’ve been concentrating on buildings and architectural detail lately, no doubt something I’ll return to, but a change of scene is neede I think…
To get back on topic, all within VLOS of course!
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Actually wrote that last night, forgot to clickon ‘Reply’.
Bus got stuck on traffic so I bailed and revisited Blackweir as well, v. Nice around sunset!
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I am not getting this rule at all… I understand that you should see what’s happening around it but that can be done without drone within VLOS. Just look around if there’s anything else flying. Probably not anyway.
Most of the sky is mostly empty most of the time, the danger is becoming complacent and thinking that most = all. The CAA come at the problem from a ‘best safe practice’ and ATC point of view, that’s their job, certifying aircraft and managing the airspace, and have to consider the needs of all airspace users.
You should be able to see the drone, and hence what is happening in the airspace around it. This is actually quite difficult at anything like a distance, because it is difficult to judge perspective; is the tiny speck bird near the drone in your field of vision a sparrow in front of the drone, a seagull threatening it, or a golden eagle a mile away behind it? If it’s coming towards you or flying away from you, how fast is it going relative to your drone? And it’s not just the birdies; other drones, model a/c RC or free flying, gliders, unpowered microlights, kites, balloons, and first response helicopters need to be seen and reacted to as well.
And, as discussed, you have to glance at the screen fairly regularly. It is in fact a requirement that is impossible to fulfill strictly to the letter, and interpretation/common sense is needed. It’s easy to overthink this sort of thing. Don’t worry too much about it, do your best, fly to the CAA drone code, ‘don’t be a dick’, and enjoy yourself; the more flying you do the better you’ll be at it and the more in line with the CAA’s requirements you’ll be as well! I’m finding that increasing experience means I am able to spend more time looking at my drone and less at the screen! The obvious advice, which I know need to take myself before anyone chips in, is to get the hours in, even if it’s just aimlessly potching around the park.
If you flew exactly to the letter of what the CAA requires in terms of VLOS, you would almost certainly crash, possibly on top of someone’s head, because you would not be aware of battery drainage, signal loss, insufficient gps sattelites, loose props, your actual height, distance from home point, or speed, or any other information relayed through your screen.
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It’s also about being able to safely control your drone in the event of equipment malfunction or other emergency. If you lose your video feed you need to be able to safely bring your drone home or land it, so you need to be able to see it well enough to orientate.
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There’s only one way to fly keeping VLOS and knowing the orientation of your drone at all times throughout the flight. Take off, fly straight up to the desired height. Hit the forward stick, fly straight out. When ya wanna come back simply fly in reverse back towards you. You’ll always know which way the drone is oriented. Would be particularly boring and useless for video, but fully compliant with CAA rules.
Or, fit leds, different colours on front & rear. That should make it detectable from a good distance, the bigger the drone the greater the distance of course.
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What happens if they fail
Or fall off.
You either carry on flying or press RTH and cross your fingers. If we’re invoking failures, what happens if the drone/the pilot/the RC/the signal/the gps/the economy/civilisation as we know it fails, come to that?
You have VLOS, RTH is not a stipulation