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Looking to capture drone footage of ship arrival/unloading

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Moderator comment - post moved from shipping movements thread

I believe my M3P is on Hyperion Ray arriving into Southampton on Thursday morning, thought it might be fun to pop down there with my brothers drone and film a few shots of unloading. I’m sure there will be quite a few Red Performances so I’m not expecting to be able to identify my car specifically but a bit of fun and could post up the video afterwards.

My questions are:

Will we will get a precise ETA and berth ahead of time so we can find a good spot?

Could we end up waiting around for ages until they start unloading?

Does anyone recommend a good spot to fly from (range is 3km I think), enquired with a company about chartering a rib and he suggested Marchwood after he had finished laughing about my request :-D

Too short notice for Rib hire unfortunately so beach it is.

Feel free to let me know if this is a terrible idea also :-D

We would of course be sensible and not breach any airspace restrictions etc.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I believe my M3P is on Hyperion Ray arriving into Southampton on Thursday morning, thought it might be fun to pop down there with my brothers drone and film a few shots of unloading. I’m sure there will be quite a few Red Performances so I’m not expecting to be able to identify my car specifically but a bit of fun and could post up the video afterwards.

My questions are:

Will we will get a precise ETA and berth ahead of time so we can find a good spot?

Could we end up waiting around for ages until they start unloading?

Does anyone recommend a good spot to fly from (range is 3km I think), enquired with a company about chartering a rib and he suggested Marchwood after he had finished laughing about my request :-D

Too short notice for Rib hire unfortunately so beach it is.

Feel free to let me know if this is a terrible idea also :-D

We would of course be sensible and not breach any airspace restrictions etc.
Oooo look out for my Black with white performance too👍
 
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Moderator comment - post moved from shipping movements thread

I believe my M3P is on Hyperion Ray arriving into Southampton on Thursday morning, thought it might be fun to pop down there with my brothers drone and film a few shots of unloading. I’m sure there will be quite a few Red Performances so I’m not expecting to be able to identify my car specifically but a bit of fun and could post up the video afterwards.

My questions are:

Will we will get a precise ETA and berth ahead of time so we can find a good spot?

Could we end up waiting around for ages until they start unloading?

Does anyone recommend a good spot to fly from (range is 3km I think), enquired with a company about chartering a rib and he suggested Marchwood after he had finished laughing about my request :-D

Too short notice for Rib hire unfortunately so beach it is.

Feel free to let me know if this is a terrible idea also :-D

We would of course be sensible and not breach any airspace restrictions etc.
ABP - See rules 17 and 18
 
Don't want to be that guy. But Southampton Docks have their own rules on Drone Piloting, in addition to regular security patrols and gated access to the port. In addition most of Soton is covered by No-Drone Fly Rules/Limited due to the proximity of Southampton Airport. Unless your drone is unregistered/un-tagged I wouldn't risk it anywhere near the actual port.

Your best bet for a good view however, would be Mayflower Park. You can stand on the water's-edge and see the cargo ships come by. Alternatively Calshot Spit is decent too!
 
Boat arrival time will get updated on Planned Movements - Southampton VTS - ABP Southampton

Boats don’t usually birth and stay longer than necessary. For both the ship and the port, time is money. So you can expect unloading pretty quickly. Day or night.

Never flown a drone but I’m sure you know the rules. TBH If you’re just flying over water I don’t know where you stand. You could ask the port authority/harbour master/port security officer. YMMV.

No idea what restricted areas are at Southampton: The Port Security Regulations 2009
 
Thanks for the advice all.

My brother is pretty good on the rules & regs and I know that being under 250g gives a lot more freedom and there are apps with airspace restrictions etc. however rules from ABP are noted on photography etc, hoping over water adjacent to the port would be ok if we fly from the other side of the water and not actually over the port.

the 1am arrival may kill the idea anyway though tbh, especially if it all happens pretty quick, if I was more local it would be easier to take a punt :-D
 
It’s not due to leave until 2pm on the 11th and will be unloading for a fair chunk of that time possibly depending on the number of cars coming off.

Depending where they park the cars as they are offloaded, some of the parking areas are right next to areas accessible to the public outside the port boundary. It’s a bit pot luck but there’s always a chance to get a reasonable view of the cars being parked as they’re driven off the ship.

Can be quite interesting watching the process for a bit, as the cars are brought off and parked with the drivers then waiting to be taken back on board by minibus to start again. And again. And again…
 
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It’s not due to leave until 2pm on the 11th and will be unloading for a fair chunk of that time possibly depending on the number of cars coming off.

Depending where they park the cars as they are offloaded, some of the parking areas are right next to areas accessible to the public outside the port boundary. It’s a bit pot luck but there’s always a chance to get a reasonable view of the cars being parked as they’re driven off the ship.

Can be quite interesting watching the process for a bit, as the cars are brought off and parked with the drivers then waiting to be taken back on board by minibus to start again. And again. And again…
Thanks that’s useful intel. May just pop down with the camera in that case.
 
Rather than fly the drone, perhaps try to borrow one of these ("putting the cannon into Canon") :D
5200mm.jpg