“I would expect that UK pilots generally keep to 500 feet above ground as it’s not always easy to ensure that there are no people within 500 feet.”
This airspace is almost all over the sea.
“or can’t tell from the disposition of sheep in a field whether there is a person nearby,”
I’d avoid low flight near the sheep, or any domestic livestock, especially if no human near.
I’d avoid low flight near the sheep, or any domestic livestock, especially if no human near.
Then I’m guessing you’re not a sheep farmer or country sportsman. Wild and domestic animals are largely oblivious to light aircraft which they rightly perceive as no threat. I have observed that even a Typhoon passing overhead at 200 feet causes no discernible reaction from deer or sheep.
Various references quoted here by Scottish Natural Heritage lead to similar conclusions in respect of Harriers and Ospreys. Indeed, of all anthropogenic activities, powered flight seems to be among the least disturbing to birds and animals.
Young cattle sometimes react to a light airplane the first couple of times, but after that they don’t give a toss.
To clear sheep or deer from our local runways (where the grass is, of course, shorter and sweeter than elsewhere), one usually has to do a low pass at 10 to 20 ft. Then they shuffle off to the side for long enough for a quick teardrop pattern.
There’s an equestrian centre near Andreas, if the wind’s in the right direction, our departure path takes us quite close, and we’re only about 200ft when towing a glider. The horses don’t seem to give a damn, and they are the most highly strung of any of the animals we’ll fly near.
There’s a good article in Flyer – which you can read here (warning: weird PDF magazine viewer) from page 26.
It looks like the commercial drone operator has pulled the wool over the CAA’s eyes (claiming to have consulted where they haven’t) and persuaded them to have a very short consultation. It looks like an attempt to ram this through before too many people can notice, using (as the Flyer article says) the Trojan horse of COVID. They want to do things like shut GA out the airspace for an entire day just for one or two drone movements, and not provide a danger area crossing service (because they’d clearly have to spend money to do that).
They over-egged the justification for this trial, but I believe the use of drones had great potential for the Scottish Health Services.
Update on 22 January from Skyports, the drone company. Available to anyone who contacted them as the CAA site suggested.
1. Glenforsa Airfield:
o We have rerouted and redesigned the TDA away from Glenforsa so as not to undermine access to the airfield.
o We propose only operating on the route past Glenforsa during the first two weeks.
2. Activations:
o We have tried to provide better visibility of what TDAs will be activated together and which will as a consequence will be deactivated.
o We have also provided details of likely length of activations and tried to provide reassurance of deactivation of TDAs outside of notified hours.
o We have removed the Oban-Easdale route which has a TDA Upper Limit that was a little high.
o We can commit to not operating on Saturdays, Sundays or any Bank Holidays that take place during the proposed period of operations.
o We have reduced the duration of operations to 3 weeks and 1 day (8 April – 30 April 2021).
o We are exploring a means of sharing our indicative schedule of operations with stakeholders to provide as much advance notice of what is expected to be happening and when.
3. TDA Upper Limits:
o All Upper Limits are expressed in AMSL, which is why they look high, but the unmanned aircraft will
not be operating in excess of 400ft AGL – and will be operating lower than that.
o We have reduced the Upper Limits on the TDAs that were higher because of the terrain.
4. Communicating with Skyports:
o We will provide a phone number of the flight team on the NOTAM, which will be continually staffed, and can be used for requesting entry into an active TDA.
o We will explore with Oban Information and Scottish Information the provision of a DAAIS so that messages and requests submitted to the FISO can be relayed by phone to Skyports.
o We can confirm that the unmanned aircraft is fitted with ADS-B IN and OUT.
5. Procedures to cooperate with air traffic services:
o Further to the point above, we will explore with Oban Information and Scottish Information about sharing our up and down times so that the FISO can communicate with nearby aircraft whether our
unmanned aircraft are airborne or not.
6. Aircraft Avoidance:
o We can provide confirmation that the unmanned aircraft is fitted with an automatic collision avoidance system in case aircraft were to enter the TDA by accident or emergency.
They want to do things like shut GA out the airspace for an entire day just for one or two drone movements, and not provide a danger area crossing service (because they’d clearly have to spend money to do that).
Outrageous but not unexpected.
BTW Flyer used to instantly delete any mention of EuroGA, and I’ve been banned from there because I used to mention it 
Many posts on there would be deleted here, due to being offensive. Nowadays almost nobody there dares to mention EuroGA, out of fear of excommunication
We can confirm that the unmanned aircraft is fitted with ADS-B IN and OUT.
Interesting.
A big issue with a (temporary) danger area in the UK, is that the CAA view these are a quazi restricted area. You can end up on one for their courses for entering (infringing) an active one.
But many of us will be able to see these drones on our GPS because they are squawking ADSB Out. Could the CAA really get away with punishing you for entering a danger area, when you knew the purpose of the area was drone activity, and you could see the drone’s location on your moving map (or could see that there was no ADSB squawk in the area and therefore no drone)? How would you be putting the aircraft in any danger? You can see and easily mitigate the risk….exactly what a danger area is for!
Indeed; you get sentenced to the Gasco “course” for flying through a DA or TDA, but the CAA man who runs their pilot busting scheme couldn’t care less whether there is any justice in it.
Peter wrote:
BTW Flyer used to instantly delete any mention of EuroGA, and I’ve been banned from there because I used to mention it Many posts on there would be deleted here, due to being offensive. Nowadays almost nobody there dares to mention EuroGA, out of fear of excommunication
I know you have had the odd run in with people over there (to say it politely!!), its definitely a different clientele & posting climate to here, but I still post both here and there…And I do mention and post links to your site if there is info here that pilots should know about – and I havent been banned yet !!
Regards, SD..
They’re trying to fit in.
Repeat from my post above, copied from their update :
“4. Communicating with Skyports:
o We will provide a phone number of the flight team on the NOTAM, which will be continually staffed, and can be used for requesting entry into an active TDA.
o We will explore with Oban Information and Scottish Information the provision of a DAAIS so that messages and requests submitted to the FISO can be relayed by phone to Skyports.”
