drone above Statue of Liberty permission

Buzz In California · Jun 28, 2017

Capo said:
In Canada we are banned from flying in most places due to this unreasonable fear.

Canada, guns are banned, drones are banned... you guys have no fun at all

lickitysplit11111 · Jun 28, 2017

SRJ_Phantom_4_Pro said:
Lickity... did you take the picture that is next after the lady of liberty? Yum!

LOL, yeah I took all the pics on my Flickr & 500px. pages.
Some of the more revealing shots may be blocked by filters unless your logged in.

SRJ_Phantom_4_Pro · Jun 28, 2017

Nice to know! I'll have to get logged in!!
Thanks

John Locke · Jun 28, 2017

shockwave199 said:
I'd only do it with everyone having full knowledge I'm in the area.

Good luck with that. I'd like to hear the steps you take to notify everyone. Seems like an enormous task, given the number if heliports in the area.

John Locke · Jun 28, 2017

Nice Photo, eh? I have a print of this that looks really nice. One of my favorite shots, taken with my P3P. I'd really like to get one with my P4P someday, but it's going to be a while before I visit NY again, and by that time I'm sure they'll have this area locked down, tighter than a drum. I'll need a boat.

shockwave199 · Jun 28, 2017

John Locke said:
Good luck with that. I'd like to hear the steps you take to notify everyone. Seems like an enormous task, given the number if heliports in the area.

Use airmap, it's 13 heliports and it's very possible they'd help get the word out as well for any scheduled runs to other pilots due in the area for the 15 minute window. That's not really that many phone calls in planning a mission. Set a drotam for the mission. Call the local fisdo as I have already in researching a proper way to safely do a real mission there, not just buzzing the lady and hoping for the best. Having a 107, I certainly can do a recreational flight too and make the poor choice of buzzing the lady. I just wouldn't do it though. As I said, take the free online faa sfra test for that area and see if you don't come away a lot more apprehensive about buzzing the area. If nothing else, learn the area that way. But for me specifically, I'd be flying that in a very specific manner, at night, with my daylight waiver in hand and a VO, possibly multiple VO's. If I get shut down, so be it, there won't be a way to do the mission within a compliance and disclosure framework. I'll take the 'good luck' wishes but that's really best to wish drone pilots for buzzing the area. I'm not looking for luck. I'm looking for compliance and working with any and all AHJ's. It's that approach that sets a good precedence for future working relationships. Not the other way around.

John Locke · Jun 28, 2017

shockwave199 said:
Use airmap, it's 13 heliports and it's very possible they'd help get the word out as well for any scheduled runs to other pilots due in the area for the 15 minute window. That's not really that many phone calls in planning a mission. Set a drotam for the mission. Call the local fisdo as I have already in researching a proper way to safely do a real mission there, not just buzzing the lady and hoping for the best. Having a 107, I certainly can do a recreational flight too and make the poor choice of buzzing the lady. I just wouldn't do it though. As I said, take the free online faa sfra test for that area and see if you don't come away a lot more apprehensive about buzzing the area. If nothing else, learn the area that way. But for me specifically, I'd be flying that in a very specific manner, at night, with my daylight waiver in hand and a VO, possibly multiple VO's. If I get shut down, so be it, there won't be a way to do the mission within a compliance and disclosure framework. I'll take the 'good luck' wishes but that's really best to wish drone pilots for buzzing the area. I'm not looking for luck. I'm looking for compliance and working with any and all AHJ's.

So do you plan to be compliant with VLOS? From a boat? You certainly aren't launching from the island, right?

I never "buzzed the island" myself, you'd never want to fly over the island with all the people. I was always at least 100' away from the edge of the island, probably more like 150'. I even went way around the boats sitting at the docks. Staying at 275' elevation was quite safe, as all of the manned craft I saw the previous day was at least 500' up, including heli's. During my flight I had no company nearby. My flight and photos took 10min.

The photo above in post 65 is a crop of the full photo. Here's the full photo

shockwave199 · Jun 28, 2017

John Locke said:
So do you plan to be compliant with VLOS? From a boat? You certainly aren't launching from the island, right?

I never "buzzed the island" myself, you'd never want to fly over the island with all the people. I was always at least 100' away from the edge of the island, probably more like 150'. This photo above is a crop of the full photo. I even went way around the boats sitting at the docks.

Full photo

View attachment 84621

You'd be surprised by what permissions you'd be granted within the planning of a specific event if you peruse it with full disclosure about what you want to do and why, which by the way has everything to do with getting actual faa waivers.

Btw, you have nice pictures. I'm not a saint by any means. I make my decisions on a flight by flight case and I've been tightening my prerequisites as time goes on. You also tend to get more picky when you have a 107 to lose, at the least, btw. Would I love to get shots like yours? Hell yeah! But the area and limited access to closer launch points as well as air traffic puts it on my can't do list for recreational.