UK Tethering

[Red90]

So a client of mine has asked if it’s possible to get some shots of a large (approx 8000 people) crowd watching a sports match.

Whilst I appreciate that I am not allowed to fly over a crowd of more than 1000 or even near people not under my control, would a manual tether allow me to launch closer than 150m?

Please excuse my ignorance on what is available, if anything, that anchors the craft to prevent fly-aways. I have only seen incredibly expensive systems to power/send back high quality imagery - but all I am after is a system that physically prevents the Inspire encroaching onto the pitch/seating.

Am I asking the impossible?


Cheers,
Martin.

 

[Casey53]

Been through the same thing once, but luckily the noise of the I2 was messing with the sound guys so it was back to the crane. Mine is prone to break connection from the RC itself to the I2 even <300 feet at times so I am hesitant to try it until DJI comes up with a fix for the disconnection reason as to why my green LED goes dark on the RC and others stay on and I need to restart the RC while the drone hopefully hovers in place and does not fly off to wherever.

From the tethers I've seen, most have a heavy line maybe 4-5 feet long so it goes straight down in flight and won't get sucked into the props, some look like a small chain. From that, a thin line goes to you. The wired tethers that also power the drone so it can stay up longer look much the same type of heavy-to-thin wire cables, but those are the costly ones.

 

[NickU]

Best bet is to find someone with a lower distance minima and extended OSC's, and even then I think they're usually limited to straight up n down, no wandering around away from take-off zone.

Other way is rig up a cable cam of some sort. Most sports/arena stuff you see on tv is done with cable cam rigs, some are quite complex beasties.

Cable cam will completely do away with anything to do with CAA... but of course brings its own set of costs, headaches & risks.

 

[MarkLincs]

short answer is no.

some people with OSCs are down to 75m

good zoom camera would be a good idea say z30 or x5s with a decent lenses might get the shots you want.

I turned down a bit job 20,000 or so because I couldn't find a way to do it.

 

[Mad_angler1]

It’s a crazy situation this as some kid in the crowd will probable fly his phantom up for back hander and nothing will come of it.

 

[Eyeup Aerial Solutions]

I know of an outfit with 30m large crowd clearance on an I2 if it is of any help.

 

[Red90]

I know of an outfit with 30m large crowd clearance on an I2 if it is of any help.

That’s great, many thanks for the offer. I’ll check with my client & see what they need in more detail.


Cheers,
Martin.

 

[Eyeup Aerial Solutions]

That’s great, many thanks for the offer. I’ll check with my client & see what they need in more detail.


Cheers,
Martin.

They are south coast based if that makes any difference.