UK airports.....

[Jeroen van Craaikamp]

At first i tried to capture the international rules and no-fly zones on my www.hobbypiloot.nl website. Recently the DJI website provides links to (rules & no-fly-zones) of countries http://flysafe.dji.com/. Please be careful with the no-fly-zones on DJI site (or in Pilot App), sometimes the local regulators do not update DJI on changes to their local no-fly zones (it is better than nothing though). If you ever want to fly in the Netherlands, feel free to drop me a line, we have different rules and no-fly-zones for business and private use of drones. DJI's no-fly zones in NL are only applicable for hobby pilots (and by July 1st and Oct 1st these rules/zones will change).

 

[SteveE]

Hmmm, the rules for qualifying as a pilot make me think I will not be able to bring the Inspire along to Italy. Does anyone know of an Inspire owner in northern Italy?

Thank you,
Steve

 

[SteveE]

Yes, I have flown with batteries a couple of times now as hand-luggage. Always had to open the case, always found curious Airport staff, never had a real problem with them.
This summer i'm going to Italy and Greece and LiPo's don't like hot cars/boats. So I'll be using a padded cooling bag with lipobags and shoulder strap.
Inspire-1 goes into cargo hold. It's too big for hand-luggage.

Hi Jeroen,
Have you flown into Italy before, and did you have to have documentation for ENAC of pilot qualifications?
Thanks,
Steve

 

[Jeroen van Craaikamp]

Yes, I have flown my old (Phantom-2) drone for recreational purposes on the beaches in Sicily last summer. I assumed, I didn't need pilot qualifications since i'm a recreational flyer. In Sicily I have met the local Police a couple of times and they did not have a problem with my flight activities. However, whilst flying I didn't do weird stunts and I made it an effort to respect other persons' rights and safety. Clearly they police concluded i'm a rather harmless big boy with a big toy.

The Enac documentation (http://www.enac.gov.it/repository/C...ation/N1220929004/Reg SAPR english_022014.pdf) does not differentiate between Drones and other Aircrafts. It does differentiate "Model Aircrafts" that are used for Recreational use and other aircrafts.

In Italy, the typical laws that you see in most EU countries apply for hobby pilots with a Drone of less than 25 kilogram: Stay away at least 50 meter from crowds/buildings, don't go higher than 150 meter, don't go further aways than 300 meter horizontally (i.e. VLOS) and don't do things that may cause harm to others and/or their belongings/rights/privacy. Don't fly in the dark. Don't become dependant on technical aids to keep your drone in sight. ENAC mentions that you may not use odd frequencies and/or transmission power in Italy. If you have a standard CE certified inspire-1 without special FPV attachments, you should be fine.

Much like other countries, there are some grey areas in the Italian regulations. I.e. in the ENAC doc you can find you have to keep a flight-log for all flights and the pilot should be older than 18 years. It is not made clear if this also applies to recreational use of model aircraft. Although i have not seen specific Italian regulations for it, i recommend you stay away from roads/harbours/historic sights and fenced areas as well (it's just a matter of common sense: if officials have fenced something off, you should not climb or fly over that fence).

 

[SteveE]

Thank you for the reply, Jeroen. I tend to fly very conservatively anyway and we will be out in the countryside, so it is easy to be well within even the strictest interpretation of their rules for flying. I just am not sure if, on arrival at the airport, they check for medical certificates and training documents.
I wouldn't want anyone taking my little bird!
Cheers,
Steve

 

[Jeroen van Craaikamp]

I completely understand you don't want to loose your baby. I have brought my drone into Italy last september by (big) Al Italia plane and they officials did not check for certificates or training documents. I believe these prerequisites are not applicable for hobby pilots either. I had big stickers on my flight case stating "HobbyPiloot.nl", so there can be no doubt on what i'm doing with my drone.

 

[SteveE]

We went to the Caribbean for work earlier this year with a hexacopter and it was confiscated for a couple of days, until the local officials decided it was ok for me to have it back, so I get a little nervous about traveling with them. The inspire is smaller and definitely less scary-looking, so it would probably have been fine.
I'm looking forward to some nice landscape flying in the Italian countryside.

 

[Jeroen van Craaikamp]

Yeah, i know. The officials sometimes don't know the rules themselves. If you treat them nicely and show what you are doing with it (e.g. a video on an ipad), there shouldn't be a problem. The more exotic (or rather: the more corrupt) the country is that your are going to, the bigger the chances are you will may need some "persuasion" to hold on to your drone. Italy is not such a country. Anyway, happy flying in Italy, look forward to the results.

 

[AL_Gray]

Can anyone confirm what the Wh is for the Inspire Controller? I can see in the specs that it is a 6000mAh Lipo 2S, and the power output is 9W, but cant seem to find the Wh...
I am due to fly later this week, so I'm preparing all the necessary paperwork. In the past, after going through the usual declaring and explaining the batteries, I've had more problems with the controllers as they do not state their Watt Hours!

 

[The Editor]

Can anyone confirm what the Wh is for the Inspire Controller? I can see in the specs that it is a 6000mAh Lipo 2S, and the power output is 9W, but cant seem to find the Wh...
I am due to fly later this week, so I'm preparing all the necessary paperwork. In the past, after going through the usual declaring and explaining the batteries, I've had more problems with the controllers as they do not state their Watt Hours!

Well, you know the capacity of the pack (6,000mAh) and you know it is a 2 cell Lipo so therefore have the voltage. Therefore very simple to work out the Wh from

E(Wh)=Q(mah)xV(v)/1,000

I'll save you the effort - 43.2Wh

Your wattage figure of 9watts is way off BTW. That's the consumption of the controller, not the power of the battery.

 

[AL_Gray]

Well, you know the capacity of the pack (6,000mAh) and you know it is a 2 cell Lipo so therefore have the voltage. Therefore very simple to work out the Wh from

E(Wh)=Q(mah)xV(v)/1,000

I'll save you the effort - 43.2Wh

Your wattage figure of 9watts is way off BTW. That's the consumption of the controller, not the power of the battery.

Many thanks for that. In particular I'm trying to find the Wh stated within some official documentation that I can print out to show the guys in Security. I'd rather not have to make it a math lesson

 

[The Editor]

Many thanks for that. In particular I'm trying to find the Wh stated within some official documentation that I can print out to show the guys in Security. I'd rather not have to make it a math lesson

To my knowledge, it isn't stated anywhere within DJI spec since it is non removable (and can be worked out from the formula above in any case) and therefore not bound by the same carry on restrictions as loose rechargeable batteries since you could check the RC in the hold if you wanted to.
I have never had an issue on any international or domestic flight with the Inspire and associated accessories.