Flying in French ski resorts

Joe_Scot · Jan 6, 2020

Hi - does anyone have any direct experience of drone flying in French ski resorts - especially if you tried to get permission, if needed.

I'm interested specifically in Les Arcs and La Plagne.

Having consulted the map at:

Géoportail

Accédez à l'information géographique de référence : cartes, photographies aériennes, données géographiques

www.geoportail.gouv.fr

... I can see the specific restrictions applicable to the area, but I assume there are likely to be rules set by the owners of the ski areas, however I can't find any concrete info on this.

Also I believe that as the Anafi weighs less than 800g there is no need to register it/me. (please correct me if I'm wrong)

I'm NOT intending to do any 'follow-me' while skiing (too complicated and I don't want to spend a ski holiday trying to recover a drone from a pine tree!).

I'm more interested in the possibility of getting some 360 panos from a bit of altitude.

Please share your experiences!

Fmaxii · Jan 20, 2020

I don't have any experience with drone in mountain, but instead of looking at géoportail, I use an Android app to see where flying is allowed: Drone Spot.
Install it, and then you'll see what is possible, depending of the locations and not only in France.

Webvan · Jan 20, 2020

A good one for France is the Mach 7 drone app too Mach7 Drone – Applications sur Google Play
In my experience they have more accurate info than anyone else out there, including the Geoportail.
One thing you have to keep in mind when flying in the mountains is that you can have rescue helicopters flying out of nowhere at any point in time so be ready to "cross the sticks" !
As for local rules by sky resorts, they really don't have any jurisdiction over "Air Space"...so I suppose you shouldn't fly next to a "no drone" sign out of courtesy but they can't hold you accountable to that.

Joe_Scot · Jan 22, 2020

Thanks @Fmaxii and @Webvan for your replies.

@Fmaxii - there seems to be 2 apps with similar names ... Drone Spot and Drone-Spot - was it the first one (without hyphen) that you use?

@Webvan - unfortunately when I click the link to the Mach7 Drone app it says in Google Play "This item is not available in your country".

But in fact, looking at the screenshots, I suspect it may not show restrictions in place due to private/managed areas such as ski resorts. (do let me know if in fact the app does show something for e.g. Les Arcs that is in addition to the restrictions shown on geoportail)

I'm just back from Les Arcs and I did not fly at all. Decided to ask a pisteur (ski patrol) and he didn't know the rules, but kindly offered to phone a mate (I think in the "Service des Pistes") and asked him. The reply was a very definite "forbidden" anywhere in the ski area. However he did add that "so long as it was far away from pistes, it would probably be OK". There was no definition of "far away" so I didn't risk it. Also, the skiing/weather last week were so amazing I didn't want to spend time going for a long walk ....

By chance one evening, just after the sun had gone down but it was still just light, someone flew a drone pretty close to our apartment balcony, above Arc 1950 / Arc 2000) - couldn't see what type exactly but about the size of a Mavic. Really stupid as that is exactly where we saw a yellow helicopter flying about 10 times a day - based at the "Mont Blanc Helicopteres" hangar just up the road. (and also breaking the law as flying over the town itself).

Webvan · Jan 22, 2020

Yes I suppose you wouldn't want to be flying next to a lift as that's asking for trouble ! Again though I'm not aware of any "private restrictions" anywhere in France, no one "owns" the air space so they would simply be illegal. The first thing is to follow the DGAC rules that are displayed on the Geoportail and the Mach7 Drone App and then use common sense.

Glad you had a good time in Les Arcs with great weather, I've skied there a few times and have generally liked it although it's a bit hard to get away from the crowds for very long. The run I like best is "Robert Blanc" (founder of the resort) halfway down from the Aiguille Rouge. It's very steep and when you can ski down with 30cm of powder snow it's an absolute treat !

Joe_Scot · Jan 22, 2020

Webvan said:
Glad you had a good time in Les Arcs with great weather, I've skied there a few times and have generally liked it although it's a bit hard to get away from the crowds for very long. The run I like best is "Robert Blanc" (founder of the resort) halfway down from the Aiguille Rouge. It's very steep and when you can ski down with 30cm of powder snow it's an absolute treat !

We'll definitely go back to Les Arcs - very impressed with the ski area and the modern lifts. Fortunately being mid-January it was really quiet and I think the longest lift queue was 2 mins the whole week. The Aiguille Rouge was certainly worth going up on a clear day and again the queue was a couple of minutes, though friends have said they've waited an hour at busy times! Looks like they are going to build a cafe, solarium and zip wire at the bottom of the cable car, ready for next winter, according to some info posted there. We didn't take the "Robert Blanc" I'm afraid, but did a couple of other blacks nearby. Think my overall favourite run was probably Grand Col.

Webvan · Jan 22, 2020

Yeah, I'm looking forward to be able to go skiing outside of the French holiday periods at some point ! Grand Col is a nice run too and if you go to the right towards the end I remember some really steep sections slightly off the run with zero moguls that I find really good fun...provided you don't lose a ski ;-) Grand Col was a bit of a pain the last time I went though due to the slow chairlift but maybe it's been replaced now. I know they replaced Comborcière last year, now that's a really mean black run over there !

I'll try to take the little Spark on the runs in Chamonix next month, I wish I'd pulled it out last year when we had some great sunny powder days ! It's always a bit of a hassle though and my fingers get cold quickly though so it's easy to give the drone a miss...

Joe_Scot · Jan 22, 2020

Agreed - Comborcière is great, and was our favourite way to get over to the Arc 1800 side. Grand Col chairlift is still old and slow, but nice views on the way up!

Enjoy Chamonix!

Jurassi · Feb 19, 2020

I please you not to fly in red zone (in Geoportail). French law forbids fly in town (delimited by city entrance signs, or cluster of houses). In a technical way the risks are : the drone falls down on someone, and/or you take pictures from other private life. In my opinion you can fly in red areas taking care not to exceed the highest near obstacle (a tree located near, the top of the roof). For private life protection you just need common sense. I recommend to ask permission to or ask neighbors every time.

In France big red areas (50x50km wide...) or expanded limited altitude restrictions can be due to military flight zone. You should be aware military aircrafts may operate lower than 150m limit in these areas specially in mountainous areas.
Plus, I note that hospital airports are no more included in Geoportail map. Be very careful under these environments. You should also lower your altitude every time you ear an aircraft, and check Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map | Flightradar24 before you fly.
Plus, avoid road passing-by. Not because it's forbidden (it's not), but it may lead to dramatic conclusion in case of any failure specially highways. Just common sense.

Here is a 360° in Deux Alpes station (there are heliports, even a lot of helicopter flights and sometimes skiers with kite-wing !) : Contributions by Benoit Carrot

The sky is crowdy !