Legality of flying at home

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Welcome to the forum from the deserts of Arizona! Enjoy.

Welcome to the forum.
OMM is from the UK and will answer your question shortly I’m
sure.

BGloss18 said:

Hi, I'm a new mavic mini pilot and I live in England so am under the rules of the CAA.

I live in a 'built up area' as defined in the drone code, it's a large town. I was wondering what the legality of flying in say my front or back garden would be. Once the drone is in the air, its regulated by the CAA so therefore I would be breaking the law, as you shouldn't fly within 150m of a built up area, but it seems a bit silly that you wouldn't be able to operate your own UAV on your own property. That would be assuming I didn't fly more than 6ft high as then there would be a risk of recording/encroaching on other peoples property.

Are there any other British operators around who have some experience/knowledge on this subject?

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Welcome. Silly as it might seem you can't fly in your own garden unless it is a very big one. Your neighbours probably won't object if you keep the height low enough but flight rules begin as soon as you're airborne - the one exception is if you're under a canopy or similar that counts as indoors.

Ask yourself the question, what happens if a flight goes wrong and some 3rd party is injured or 3rd party property is damaged? If they report the matter to the police and or the CAA do you face the risk of prosecution? Would you face the risk of a civil suit which is supported by knowingly illegal flying?
I do actually understand where you are coming from but look at the situation in the cold light of day, then only you can judge whether it is worth the risk.

It doesn't matter if you fly at even 2ft. Things can truthfully go wrong and drones misbehave but I would say that a lot of 'seemingly errant behaviour' is due to our not understanding precisely what these things will do in a given set of circumstances.

I triggered an RTH in my garden in full expectation of the drone landing where it was, I was within a certain distance of the home point, ( I will leave you to look that up). That distance 'should', in my mind, have triggered a landing. The home point was the other side of the house. Did the drone land? No, it climbed until it was about 1m clear of the roof and then started to move toward the home point. Oh sugar or words to that effect. It was heading for a tree that in hindsight would probably have caused another climb to 25+m, this was from a starting point maybe 4ft off the ground. Did the drone misbehave, no, after going through the manual again I relaised I had misunderstood the way it should behave.
If this had been say a Mavic Mini those climbs could easily put the mini up into dangerous winds. (the climbing to 'avoid the house' is actually an impossible thing to happen with the mini as it has no obstacle avoidance but it gets my point across).
Then there are things such as interfence to consider and possible loss of control. Even bird strikes from pigeons circling lofts.

You seem aware it is contrary to the law, it is up to you to judge whether flying in your garden is worth the risk.

@BGloss18 welcome to the forum, flying in your own garden is not really practical, even an MM can do unexpected things and end up in disaster,,
if i do have to check that say an update has downloaded correctly ,then it fine to go outside leave the props off my MPP ,and check that everything is set properly ,with the MM i just dont take off ,because of your location you would be out of compliance ,once you were in the air ,as you would not be able to fly within the guidelines

Welcome!

Welcome to Mavic Pilots! Enjoy the forum!

Also UK based & CAA licenced. I have a big garden and live in the country, I have flown my drone quite a few times and taken it straight up to over 50 metres so technically not encroaching on another property. I have one neighbour currently who has a large field with a horse in behind my house. He moaned it was upsetting his Horse so I haven't flown there since ( at the time the drone was at 400ft 150 metres away, a speck in the distance). I doubt it was upsetting his horse anymore than his lawn mower, chain saw and collection of other garden machinery but hey ho if you piss your neighbours off your screwed ! So probably not a good idea in a built up area.

I had exactly this situation with a person last week flying her drone above the houses on my estate. The local whatsapp group was exploding with complaints about the drone spying on them in their gardens.

There is a small country park next to our estate where I practice and so I jumped into the conversation as I didn't want it to escalate to people complaining about me flying in the country park. I confirmed that what she was doing was illegal and offered to meet her at the park or for her to message me directly to have a chat about the drone code and what she was doing wrong.

She did contact me and it turns out she was taking off from her garden and flying FPV over the houses to the open space. We had a chat and she saw where she was going wrong and I pointed her to the correct websites to get more information. She went on the main whatsapp group and apologised to anyone she had upset. So now everyone has been appeased who was upset and she knows the legality and ignorance of her actions.

You seem to understand that taking off from your garden is wrong and effectively illegal. So the simple answer is don't do it.

Welcome to the forum from Chicago the Windy City.

Welcome to the forums - a lot of good info here. So, take a look around and hope you enjoy some of the fine photography and information posted by the members.

Welcome to the forum from the beautiful woods of Maine!

Please Advise my reading after 31st December The Mavic Mini gains quite a few benefits re flying over people and buildings as long as dmares registered or am i totally misinterpreting the new guidelines

It depends on where you live. Here in Greece people don't really care so you can take off from almost anywhere without others even complaing about, but don't push it too (=don't spy on other people), just take off and do a fly around your area. People usually wave their hands at it.
In the UK it's the other way around, many people are overtriggered by almost anything and -sometimes- you have to stick to the rules. Someone may sue you because you just said "Good morning" to them. LOL

For safety reasons I'd just go to the local park and keep a visual on the drone, just follow the rules in case something goes bad (injury etc), plus you risk losing it when you fly above other houses in case it goes down/crashes or lands on a roof and you have no idea where it might be.

swampydude said:

Please Advise my reading after 31st December The Mavic Mini gains quite a few benefits re flying over people and buildings as long as dmares registered or am i totally misinterpreting the new guidelines

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I have read something like this also....we will wait and see !

Heck, tie a light fishing line to the little bugger, give yourself a few feet of slack, and practice away. It's a tethered aircraft and can't really fly away from you! (Not legal advice, your mileage may vary, I am not a barrister, other disclaimers apply where appropriate.)