Drones are amazing tools to complete many tasks from creative and commercial photography through building inspections and thermal surveys.

However, the legal restrictions on how far pilots can fly from a subject (whether it be person, vessel, property, or vehicle) can mean that it is not always a practical solution for every situation.

Pilots with standard permissions (PFCO) are permitted to take off and land no nearer than 30m from any person, property, vehicle, or vessel not under their control. When the drone is in flight, the separation distance increases to 50m. This means that drone flights can be a complicated solution in some built-up urban areas, necessitating extra staff for the pilot, potential road closures, and widespread communication with surrounding people and properties.

However, Drone Media Imaging is now thrilled to announce that our track record over years of safe operations and enhanced safety procedures mean that we can now operate safely at significantly reduced distances and with full permissions from the CAA. We have been working with CAA personnel over a period of months to refine and enhance our procedures to make it possible to receive our Operating Safety Case (UAS-OSC). We now have permission to take off and land from 10m and fly at a separation of 20m.  This means that we are ideally placed to be able to carry out your drone work requirements where other drone operators cannot.

In addition to closer take off and flight distances, we also have enhanced permissions to fly to 800ft in altitude (standard 400ft) and 1km from the drone pilot (standard 500m). When flying near crowds of more than 1000 people, we can fly as close as 50m, when standard permissions require 150m separation distance.

So please get in touch, even if you have had a prior drone quotation which was not a practical solution for you due to distance-related issues. With our enchanted safety permissions, we are excellently placed to take care of your drone photography, videography, or thermal inspection needs.

The CAA state…

“The aim of the OSC is to present sufficient evidence that all relevant hazards and resultant safety risks have been identified within an operation and that these safety risks have been reduced to a Tolerable and As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP) level”

This means we have thoroughly reviewed and implemented significant safety mitigations, operational procedures and flight protocols to ensure that when we operate much closer to people, properties, vehicles and vessels, we do so in a safe professional manner.