Greetings to the community from Spain!

[GordoZorro]

Good day All,

A happy Spark pilot reporting from Spain, a country with insane fines and restrictions for flying drones! Wishing you all pleasant flights.

Regards,
Simo

 

[LuvMyTJ]

Hello,
It is a pleasure to welcome you to the SparkPilots forum.
I hope that you will be able to use the forum to further your safety knowledge and for the exchange
of innovative ideas and as a resource for current developments in DJI Spark quadcopter’s.
Enjoy!
*DJI Spark Manual: https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/Spark/20170727/Spark+User+Manual+V1.4.pdf

 

[msinger]

Welcome to Spark Pilots!

 

[Oleksii Oleksiienko]

Hi GordoZorro,
Welcome to the forum. It's great that you created this topic because I am going to visit Spain, Lloret de Mar at the end of September for my vacation and I am going to bring my Spark with me. Is there any chance that I will be able to do some footage with my Spark in the beach area, e.g. beach dronie with the flight path over the sea? What would you advise to avoid any issues with regulation?

 

[Advexure]

Hola and welcome to SparkPilots, thanks for joining in our community discussion. Safe flying with your Spark!

 

[GordoZorro]

Hi GordoZorro,
Welcome to the forum. It's great that you created this topic because I am going to visit Spain, Lloret de Mar at the end of September for my vacation and I am going to bring my Spark with me. Is there any chance that I will be able to do some footage with my Spark in the beach area, e.g. beach dronie with the flight path over the sea? What would you advise to avoid any issues with regulation?

Hi GordoZorro,
Welcome to the forum. It's great that you created this topic because I am going to visit Spain, Lloret de Mar at the end of September for my vacation and I am going to bring my Spark with me. Is there any chance that I will be able to do some footage with my Spark in the beach area, e.g. beach dronie with the flight path over the sea? What would you advise to avoid any issues with regulation?

Hi Oleksii,

I haven't been flying much yet myself in this country nor I have heard any real life stories of any conflicts with the local authorities when it comes to the regulation of flying drones around here, but I've been researching as best as I could on some specific locations preferable to me (beaches & parks quite close to Barcelona) as in where I can fly and where not, so please do not rely entirely on my word on this.

Now, as I mentioned in the beginning the fines, according to the law here if you really mess up by flying over building/people/animals/private & public property/at night possibly putting someone in danger, you can get a fat fine of up to 225 000€, not kidding. As said, I do not know if anyone has actually gotten slapped that hard nor I know how much someone has been fined and how much, but this is the current law that I do not recommend to risk breaking at any cost if you're not sure whether you can fly or not.

The key points here are that if you will fly for a hobby, you should:

- Not lose the sight of the drone
- Not go higher than 120m
- Avoid flying in urban areas
- Not fly too close to airports
- Not fly at night (dark)
- Not fly over of groups of people

When I asked AESA (Agencia Estatal de Seguridad Aérea) if I can fly on certain beaches that are actually quite close to an airport around here if there are no people / 3rd parties around, they replied that if I fly for a hobby, that's completely OK, emphasizing the fact that at the end of they day it is my responsibility to make the judgement call whether it's safe or not. So it all breaks down to common sense, but be careful as someone might not agree with your common sense.

IcarusRPA - SKYDRONEX - DRONEX ® shows plenty of information on Restricted / No DJI Fly zones and a bunch other areas where you might want to take some precaution.

Attached a general check-list (it's in Spanish but more or less covers what I said) for flying drones in Spain in general, please note that on top of this there might be some local restrictions.

Hopefully you'll find this information helpful, and have a great time when visiting the neighborhood!

Regards,
Simo

 

[Oleksii Oleksiienko]

Hi Oleksii,

I haven't been flying much yet myself in this country nor I have heard any real life stories of any conflicts with the local authorities when it comes to the regulation of flying drones around here, but I've been researching as best as I could on some specific locations preferable to me (beaches & parks quite close to Barcelona) as in where I can fly and where not, so please do not rely entirely on my word on this.

Now, as I mentioned in the beginning the fines, according to the law here if you really mess up by flying over building/people/animals/private & public property/at night possibly putting someone in danger, you can get a fat fine of up to 225 000€, not kidding. As said, I do not know if anyone has actually gotten slapped that hard nor I know how much someone has been fined and how much, but this is the current law that I do not recommend to risk breaking at any cost if you're not sure whether you can fly or not.

The key points here are that if you will fly for a hobby, you should:

- Not lose the sight of the drone
- Not go higher than 120m
- Avoid flying in urban areas
- Not fly too close to airports
- Not fly at night (dark)
- Not fly over of groups of people

When I asked AESA (Agencia Estatal de Seguridad Aérea) if I can fly on certain beaches that are actually quite close to an airport around here if there are no people / 3rd parties around, they replied that if I fly for a hobby, that's completely OK, emphasizing the fact that at the end of they day it is my responsibility to make the judgement call whether it's safe or not. So it all breaks down to common sense, but be careful as someone might not agree with your common sense.

IcarusRPA - SKYDRONEX - DRONEX ® shows plenty of information on Restricted / No DJI Fly zones and a bunch other areas where you might want to take some precaution.

Attached a general check-list (it's in Spanish but more or less covers what I said) for flying drones in Spain in general, please note that on top of this there might be some local restrictions.

Hopefully you'll find this information helpful, and have a great time when visiting the neighborhood!

Regards,
Simo

Hi Simo,

Thank you for this detailed response. I am going to follow all recommendations you described and the main goal of taking the Spark with me is just to do some selfies of my family and to do some footage of landscapes.
In Ukraine I use 5Ghz Wifi, do I need to switch to 2.4Ghz when I'll be in Spain?

 

[Lancelot]

I know a guy that got a 6000 € fine for flying in Teide National Park.

So be careful.

 

[GordoZorro]

Hi Simo,

Thank you for this detailed response. I am going to follow all recommendations you described and the main goal of taking the Spark with me is just to do some selfies of my family and to do some footage of landscapes.
In Ukraine I use 5Ghz Wifi, do I need to switch to 2.4Ghz when I'll be in Spain?

Hi Oleksii,
I'm not aware of you having to switch to 2.4GHz, I suppose you can choose according to your preferences. I've just bought an OTG cable and it switches to 5 anyway, and flies fine.

Regards,
Simo

 

[GordoZorro]

I know a guy that got a 6000 € fine for flying in Teide National Park.

So be careful.

I've actually watched all the videos related to this specific incident on his youtube channel, as far as I know there has been some correspondence between this guy and the AESA, and he still hasn't paid after the fine was decreased to 600€. Who knows how that'll end...

 

[Lancelot]

Yes there were a lot of follow up videos after that, indeed the last time he still said he dont want to pay it. But 6000 or 600, pay or not, it doesnt worth the risk!

 

[GordoZorro]

Lol that's a heavy fine though.. But apparently El Teide is a protected national park + a no-drone-zone, that's why the severity of the incident. I'd have an opinion on the whole show but that's another story haha!