Hi everyone,
Just spent the last few days investigating the legality of using multicopters for aerial photography in the UK, and the best route into it. Would appreciate anyone's thoughts about this.
I hold an Airline Transport Pilots License and lapsed Instrument Rating, so have some understanding of the Air Navigation Order, principles of flight, safety, meteorology etc. Previous experience in RC limited to building one helicopter, immediately flown into a barn door, and then buying a bigger one, and using it to plough a field on its first outing. That was about 10 years ago. Now I see the technology has moved on and everything I read suggests that multicopters are now far easier to fly (though I am still planning on getting some training this time around).
Primarily, my interest is recreational. But the more expensive the kit I end up buying, the more I think I ought to try and earn some money back to pay for it.
Anyway, I was told today (by a commercial organisation involved in this field), that ANY flying, anywhere other than on private land is classed as a 'public display', in which case you need either the BNUC or alternatively something about following BFMA display rules and roping off the area, having marshalls etc.
ie. if I was walking along a public footpath in the country, could see that there was noone for miles around, I would still need to be commercially qualified to put the thing in the air and get some aerial shots, either that or something about following BMFA display rules, and having marshalls. When I asked this company about the people I see flying models off the Downs: "all illegal" they said.
So then I ring the BMFA. They tell me that the above is completely untrue, and that one simply needs to follow the ANO and CAP 658, in which I can find no reference to a requirement to fly more than a certain distance from a structure or person, or public spaces. Just the requirement not to be an idiot and endanger anyone. By that line of thinking, you could fly one in a London park, so long as it was at 5:00am in the morning, and there was noone within the immediate vicinity.
So who is right?
And those of you who are using multicopters to indulge a photography habit, how freely do you use your machine? Do you happily put the thing in the air on a countryside public footpath when it is clearly safe to do so. Or do you feel it necessary to get permission from adjacent landowners, hire marshalls, put up 'danger, model aircraft' signs, etc.,
I've been quoted around £4000 for the training for the BNUC flight test + flight test + ground school and exams. Add the cost of the machine and, well, it's a lot of money! I'd rather do it as a aerial photography hobby first, and then decide whether I want to go professional. But if the rules are too restrictive to do aerial photography as a hobby, that rather blows the whole idea out of the sky.
Just spent the last few days investigating the legality of using multicopters for aerial photography in the UK, and the best route into it. Would appreciate anyone's thoughts about this.
I hold an Airline Transport Pilots License and lapsed Instrument Rating, so have some understanding of the Air Navigation Order, principles of flight, safety, meteorology etc. Previous experience in RC limited to building one helicopter, immediately flown into a barn door, and then buying a bigger one, and using it to plough a field on its first outing. That was about 10 years ago. Now I see the technology has moved on and everything I read suggests that multicopters are now far easier to fly (though I am still planning on getting some training this time around).
Primarily, my interest is recreational. But the more expensive the kit I end up buying, the more I think I ought to try and earn some money back to pay for it.
Anyway, I was told today (by a commercial organisation involved in this field), that ANY flying, anywhere other than on private land is classed as a 'public display', in which case you need either the BNUC or alternatively something about following BFMA display rules and roping off the area, having marshalls etc.
ie. if I was walking along a public footpath in the country, could see that there was noone for miles around, I would still need to be commercially qualified to put the thing in the air and get some aerial shots, either that or something about following BMFA display rules, and having marshalls. When I asked this company about the people I see flying models off the Downs: "all illegal" they said.
So then I ring the BMFA. They tell me that the above is completely untrue, and that one simply needs to follow the ANO and CAP 658, in which I can find no reference to a requirement to fly more than a certain distance from a structure or person, or public spaces. Just the requirement not to be an idiot and endanger anyone. By that line of thinking, you could fly one in a London park, so long as it was at 5:00am in the morning, and there was noone within the immediate vicinity.
So who is right?
And those of you who are using multicopters to indulge a photography habit, how freely do you use your machine? Do you happily put the thing in the air on a countryside public footpath when it is clearly safe to do so. Or do you feel it necessary to get permission from adjacent landowners, hire marshalls, put up 'danger, model aircraft' signs, etc.,
I've been quoted around £4000 for the training for the BNUC flight test + flight test + ground school and exams. Add the cost of the machine and, well, it's a lot of money! I'd rather do it as a aerial photography hobby first, and then decide whether I want to go professional. But if the rules are too restrictive to do aerial photography as a hobby, that rather blows the whole idea out of the sky.
