There was a video I seen from another flyer where he launched from the dirt parking area but my concern is how many people will be around in the AM. ... I think he went early AM cause I hardly saw any cars there.
That would be me. I launched around 09:00 on a Saturday. There were only a few cars there. This could be hit-or-miss because you'll never know if a tour bus would be there or not. Also, check the lighthouse's website to see if it is open to tourists on the day you want to fly. It is only open one day a month to visitors. In the video below, scrub over to 03:30 and you'll see the parking lot and the cars (or lack thereof). Keep in mind that if you go beyond that dirt lot to the paved lot and grass area toward the interpretive center, it's a city park and is therefore illegal to launch from there.
The wind is more conducive to flying in the morning because the afternoon winds definitely blow greater than 25 km/h, with faster gusts.
90% of the time, I have someone approach me when flying to ask questions. This time and location was no exception. Just be nice.
Here are my recommendations to anyone flying in "unknown territory" (e.g.not knowing if it is a UAV-friendly area or not):
- Do your research ahead of time. Know the area with respect to the terrain, trees, and other vertical obstructions.
- Do not "loiter" and fiddle around with your aircraft out in the open. Put your props on and other configuration/setup while it is in your car/trunk/boot. If you are on foot with your aircraft in a case/backpack/etc, quickly do this at the launch site.
- Take your aircraft to the launch site and perform a compass calibration (if necessary)
- Launch quickly to a good height (30 m or 100' or more) and do a quick controls check (yaw, rudder, etc).
- Climb to cruising altitude (high enough to not be heard)
- Do not hover close to the ground! (hovering draws attention and it also increases suspicion)
- If asked about what you are doing, DO NOT use the word "DRONE"! Refer to it as a quadcopter and say you are flying around as a hobby for recreational purposes (if that is what you are doing)
- Land quickly (again, no hovering)
- Take aircraft quickly to its hanger (your car, backpack, case, etc).
Hopefully the weather isn't too bad............just a litte paranoid to because it'll be over a cliff/water
Just be aware that if you decide to video the cool shoreline with the crashing waves on the rocks below, you probably will be in a sub-altitude flight (negative altitude). In other words, you could be flying below your launch site's altitude and your altimeter will show negative (
-15 meters, for example). Do not be alarmed—that's how the DJI Go app and the Phantom work.
Finally, as a responsible pilot, do your homework/research of your flight path. Remember this is not a toy. You'll need to reference the Google Earth application and/or hivemapper.com to familiarize yourself with the terrain. For example, the cliff is about 35m MSL. The lighthouse is shorter than the tree next to it, which is about 60m MSL. Set your RTH height to the height above the trees, but set it relative to your launch altitude. Therefore, some math is involved!
