The basic rules.
The basic rules, which apply in all situations are:
- We need the landowner’s permission to take off and land on their property. That may be our client, a private individual, a company or a local authority.
- Once in the air, we can fly up to 120m (400ft) above ground level and up to 500m away.
- The pilot must be able to see the drone at all times.
- We can’t fly over or within 150m of any gathering of more than 1000 people.
- We must adhere to a number of Flight Restriction Zones around sensitive locations throughout the UK. We can often fly within many of these but it requires additional permission to do so.
How close to things can we fly in reality?
Drones are governed by CAA rules which specify how close to uninvolved people the they can fly. There are two categories. The rules differ, depending upon the category of flight, the size of the drone and whether we can control those around us or not. Operating in the “Specific” category allows us considerably more flexibility with our larger drone.
Without their cooperation, our larger drones must stay 50m away from any person, vessel, vehicle or structure which is not under our control. Providing we can maintain safe working distances this does allow us to work within congested and built up areas. However, if operating our micro drone in the Open category, the only significant restriction is to prevent flying over crowds which provides far more flexibility in congested areas.
The micro drone is extremely good and enables us to get shots that would be all but impossible with larger drones. However, the price we pay is slightly lower image quality than we can achieve with larger drones. If we gain the cooperation of those we are flying near, they agree to be under our control for the duration of the flight, and we have considered the safety of those involved appropriately, we can fly as close to them as our pilot deem safe. Finally, if there is a need to operate outside these parameters, depending upon the location, we may be able to make a safety case which we can put to the CAA who may grant us a non-standard flight plan for a particular assignment.
Privacy
We need to be mindful of people’s privacy during our operations and are always sympathetic to those who may be concerned. People in public spaces in the UK have no automatic right to privacy therefore capturing wide shots of people in public areas either on the ground or in the air is permissible. However, those on private property, if not being filmed from a public area, would have a reasonable expectation of privacy, therefore they can’t be filmed or photographed without permission. However, It’s worth understanding that you can only invade an individual’s privacy, not their property. However, capturing images which feature people or buildings may require permission if they are being used for commercial gain. We are registered with the Information Commissioners Office as a Data Manager.
Leave it to us
The bottom line is that once we know the location you want us to fly at, we’ll do the rest and will be able to tell you what’s possible quickly.