If you fly drones, you will know there are certain places where you simply are not allowed to send your drone into the air. Areas such as around airports and military bases are obvious, but there are other locations where they may be restrictions at certain times, or where airspace is permanently closed for any number of reasons.
If you want to see all thr drone rules as laid by CASA, here is a 5 minute video (1/2 way down the 5 Minute Tutorial list)
So, how can you know where and when you can fly at any point in time?
CASA, the regulatory body in Australia covering drone flying, has verified a number of apps that show you where can and cannot fly and one of the most popular is OK2Fly by AVSOFT.
There are versions available for both iOS and Android, plus a web-based version is also available.
Here’s how it works.
There are two versions of OK2Fly – the freebie and a paid one. Ignore the paid one unless you are a commercially flying drone pilot as there may be stuff in there you need such as locations and flight paths of aeroplanes in the air near you.
The free version is more than you’ll need as a recreational drone pilot.
Once you have signed in, the map opens and to navigate to your area just drag the map around as you would with say, Google Maps.
I’m using the web version in this image. As you see it here, this is the southwest of Western Australian where I live, and to zoom in, I simply use the centre mouse wheel. One place I use to test drones is in a park next to the Leschenault Inlet as often there are kite surfers there, and if not, it’s nice scenery anyway.
I’ll zoom into that spot and where I fly from is around the top 260 sign. To see the relevant details for that location, all I need to do is click on it and the panel at the left will open.
Immediately I can see by the green banner that it is currently OK to fly here. Underneath that is all of the data I might need regarding this location such as the exact position, weather, local landmarks, roads, what communications infrastructure there is and more.
The numbers in coloured rings relate to their corresponding counterparts on the map.
At the bottom right of the map you can see some icons. When clicked, these allow you to do such things as turn on or off different map overlays, see CASA notifications, open a list of links useful to drone flyers, and enter the settings window.
An important and useful one is the clock icon as this lets you enter a future date and time of flying to find out what conditions might be prevailing at that time: eg will the airspace be closed for any reason.
The area around me is available to fly in most of the time – we get the occasional light plane or helicopter, and if there is a local bush fire the inlet is used to fill up the water bombers. But in a more congested area, I’d suggest OK2Fly is almost an essential tool for any drone flyer.
You can see the difference between my location and this one, which is around Broome in the northwest of Western Australia where there are many commercial flights on a daily basis and much of the town area and surrounds is out of bounds for drones greater than the magic 250g in weight.
Of course at the extreme end of the scale, you get a major capital city; this is Perth (top image), and OK2Fly IS essential!
OK2Fly is very easy to configure and use and I highly recommend it. You can get it from Google Play (Android), the Apple Store (iOS) or go to the web version at https://ok2fly.com.au/