A location scout should not need a permit cycle.
Film crews fly close to people, in busy places, on short notice. That combination gives regulators a lot to ask and gives producers little time to answer it.
Why it needs an authorisation
Urban locations mean high population density, and flying close to or over uninvolved people quickly goes beyond the open category. A set often lets you establish a controlled ground area, which changes the ground risk considerably. STS-01 covers VLOS flight over a controlled ground area in populated environments with a C5-marked drone. FPV builds and non-class-marked aircraft usually need another route.
What drives your risk
- Ground riskA closed set is the most powerful tool you have. Managing the ground area well moves you to a far lower row in the iGRC table, if you can demonstrate it.
- Air riskCity centres often sit near control zones. Coordinate early if your location is close to an aerodrome.
- FPVHigh speed and agile flight affect the speed column of the iGRC table and the containment case. Our co-founder flies commercial FPV, so we take this seriously.
How Hespoire helps
Hespoire keeps your standing organisation and procedures ready, so a new kind of shoot becomes an update to an existing file, and you know early whether a location is realistic.