Cutting it too fine

[Tonysmedley]

Vincent Campion, 44, was fined £1,250 for flying closer than 500ft to a steam train which he had been hired to film. The train was “The Royal Scot” hauled by 60019

Tony

[MoonKid47]

Ask a daft question, did he get permission from whoever fined him?

[Crimpsal]

Ask a daft question, did he get permission from whoever fined him?

"However, the pilot's low-level flying has landed him in trouble with the CAA, who prosecuted him for
flying closer than the legal 500ft limit, landing Campion with a £1,250 fine."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... uzzed.html

[dkightley]

Reading between the lines it looks as if its perfectly fine to follow the path of a railway line filming whatever train is running on it...providing you fly within allowable areas, and in accordance with the flight path you have submitted. ....Martin will be able to expand on this - he's a pilot!

What is not okay, is flying within 500ft of it....and I assume that means at an altitude of less than 500ft..which in flying terms is bordering on the edge of "low"!! This is to prevent such things as flying into power lines, etc, and causing distress to animals and humans.

I think some spend too much time watching James Bond films. All that treetop skimming.......

[martinhodgson]

Reading between the lines it looks as if its perfectly fine to follow the path of a railway line filming whatever train is running on it...providing you fly within allowable areas, and in accordance with the flight path you have submitted. ....Martin will be able to expand on this - he's a pilot!

Indeed - in fact it is standard practice for pilots flying under Visual Flight Rules to use this method of navigation as line features are very easy to track. No flight plan would be required for visual flight, though.

What is not okay, is flying within 500ft of it....and I assume that means at an altitude of less than 500ft..which in flying terms is bordering on the edge of "low"!! This is to prevent such things as flying into power lines, etc, and causing distress to animals and humans.

Correct - the CAA rule (and thus the law) is that no aircraft may fly within 500' of any person, vessel, vehicle or structure except when taking off or landing; and this applies to helicopters as well - obviously being closer than 500' to the train breaks this law.

The other issue is that features such as aerials below a certain height above the ground (I can't recall the figure off the top of my head, but it's a fairly significant height) don't require any notification to the CAA and thus do not feature on any charts - in an unfamiliar area, a thin antenna could easily be missed, but could do significant damage or cause a serious accident.

Presumably excemptions can be granted for filming purposes, though I'd imagine these require significant audit and various other safety factors before approval will be granted.

[oldrocker]

Have they heard of zoom lenses?

[Tonysmedley]

Many years ago I travelled on a steam hauled special with Union of South Africa from Edinburgh to Aberdeen. This was filmed by a helicopter and indeed became the subject of a BBC feature. The pilot was prosecuted for dangerous flying in exactly the same way as the current case.

Tony