Capotec2015 Posted December 21, 2018 Share Posted December 21, 2018 Hi, I live in the sticks -a beautiful area and I occasionally fly my drone. When I do its usually from the top of a mountain or over water -but its never near buildings (I'm more into landscapes anyway, for footage). I dont fly over people either and the idea of flying it deliberately into airport airspace both baffles and horrifies me. Why T.F. would someone do that? Recently my wife and a colleague were at a training course in a rural country spa location -middle of nowhere -- and at one point during the class her colleague leaned quickly away from the window as there was a loud bang - only to find that someone had accidentally flown a drone into the window..... I have had the feeling for some time now, given the prevalence of drones, that their day will come and I think that the Gatwick incident might now be the start. What the govt will do about it, I'm not sure and I just wondered what others thought? Thanks Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyB Posted December 21, 2018 Share Posted December 21, 2018 As of 1 December any drones used for filming must have CAA approval.....this means any drone with a camera must be registered...... https://www.caa.co.uk/Commercial-industry/Aircraft/Unmanned-aircraft/Small-drones/Guidance-on-using-small-drones-for-commercial-work/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
admin (Simon W) Posted December 21, 2018 Share Posted December 21, 2018 That's not going to help though. If you were planning on flying a drone for any illegal reason, one would simply not register it of course. SW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyB Posted December 21, 2018 Share Posted December 21, 2018 You can also now buy an agricultural drone with a 25 kg payload. The biggest of these, with a flight time in hours is just $5400. These can be pre-programmed to follow a gps coordinate pattern at a predetermined time and height. The owner can be another country when the drone takes off and does its stuff. I could do this tomorrow without any checks being made! I was amazed at the Gatwick event because they seemed to not have any means to tackle a drone. I would have thought by now that key places such Westminster and airports would have some sophisticated anti-drone technology. This is not really difficult. Model flying clubs have been looking at how to fend off idiots who try and crash our planes by sending in powerful signals for a laugh. Technology to identify source of signal and be able to block it is available. I would have expected an airport to have their own powerful drone that could be sent to intercept and knock out the offender. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptwizz Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 The timing of the Gatwick drone event was extraordinary, both as a distraction from the chaos in parliament and with respect to the sale of the majority of shares in the airport to a French company on the 27th December. With the tin foil hat on... one might suspect that the event could have been brought to a conclusion very quickly if there was a will to do so. As usual, there will likely be a knee-jerk response, introducing legislation which causes cost and inconvenience to legitimate users while having no effect on those with malicious intent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Jackson Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 I'm still amazed that someone flew a drone around me, whilst I was flying, and I was utterly unaware of it! I had been out playing in the mist on my tod, quite oblivious to the world... just avoiding livestock and dog walkers wherever I chanced upon them (i.e. looking down a lot of the time). I went to work and thought no more about it until, 8 hours later, a chap I didn't know sent me a 'is this you' message on Facebook. I was completely dumbstruck... firstly that he'd be flying around me without me even seeing a drone, but also that he'd managed to track me down! There is an argument that he was naughty to do this, as I certainly didn't know the guy or pre-agree to it, but I think he just chanced upon me and it was a bit of luck for both of us. He also didn't come too close or compromise my lines so I'm not fussed in the slightest. I'm actually grateful for the cool footage he shot and we've now agreed to meet and plan a filming session somewhere later in the year. I honestly think the future of drones is assured by sheer practicality. These things are modern day UFO's. They will almost certainly get bigger, become much more numerous, get cleverer and be heavily regulated. Anywho, here's the footage the chap, Alex, sent me: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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