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Queen Elizabeth Country Park added to Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in South East by AeroJ on 11/08/2024

The South Downs contains a good few spectacular locations along its length, and Butser gets a lot of attention for being among the tallest and most open of them.

But the neighbouring peak of Butser is a slightly lower, almost entirely tree-covered hill where we find QECP, Petersfield's main big out-of-town country park, which deserves a pin on the map because it will occur to many to try and fly here, but we should be aware of the challenges in advance...

Parking is expensive if you bring the car, but bikes (and EUCs) get in free if you are up to the 400 ft climb to the top of the hill with another mile or 2 to go to the fly site once you get there ! Toilets and cafe facilities open within normal park sort of hours (also expensive !). The Park does not have any 'no drones' signs (as of Aug 2024), and I believe it's fine as long as you don't hang around the busy picnic and pizza oven areas at peak times. These border the closest TOAL field right next to the car park and make that one the least preferable of the 3 or 4 available - the others don't generally have stationary groups of people in them !

There ARE spectacular views available here, just not as many as you'd think ! It is MAINLY about the trees and sheer amount of them ! And it's quite a challenging place to fly for number of reasons I will briefly mention below.

All 3 of the potential fly sites are right at the top of the hill and are variously sized fields that adjoin the main gravel track running all the way along the main ridge from the upper car park to Wardown, which is the highest point of and end of the hill. The best place to fly from is undoubtedly the largest field, furthest from the car park (about 1.5km walk), and just before the hill drops off into the Wardown viewpoint (which is almost entirely obscured from view by trees from the ground). THIS is the view we want though and is a stunning vista back towards the town, in which we have imposing Butser on the left, the chalk quarry and town in front, and the A3 carving between the 2 hills, and vast, lush tree canopy in the foreground. This looks AMAZING in Autumn.

But the Achilles heel, so to speak, of this site is the fact that each of these TOAL fields are surrounded by tall trees, seriously limiting the amount of horizontal travel we have, even at some height without losing VLOS. The ONE exception is if you get your UV to follow the main track all the way along the hill ridge, which will give a long continuous shot with clear views of craft all the way along if you follow it on foot and lovely wooded drop-offs on both sides once you get about 100 ft above the tree-line.

We do get some RAF traffic appearing low over those trees on occasions, so good to notify them of any flights you may be intending to make here in advance. We also have to watch out for excess wind, which may seem calm at ground level, but can become suddenly huge as soon as you emerge from the canopy, where you are subject to a powerful prevailing wind that gets channelled along the A3 between the 2 hills. Although updrafts from this do get diffused by the woodland to some extent, some skim above it and can catch you, making descent a bit sketchy if you try it in the wrong places or need it in a hurry, so this is actually quite a challenging place to fly because you don't have much chance to see things coming and winds are unpredictable and powerful ! My advice is 'don't run low on power here - land well early'. The main risk is being blown out of VLOS for craft that can't handle big wind. I will only fly my M4P here on the very calmest of days.

A valid question to ask might be why you would fly here, when there is even bigger hill Butser right next door, which is a relatively easy-fly, vastly wide open space, with amazing all-round visibility wherever you fly on it, and I would have to agree !

QECP is for specialists, who want tree-lined ridges in certain lights, (and ones tall enough to poke through clouds occasionally) and who want to actually fly IN the woods where there are helpfully widely spaced and nicely managed trees and a number of interesting things to film including assault courses, bike trails, epic drop-offs and several crafty type play areas with rope swings and bridges and what-not. Looks great in golden hour. FPVers would have a ball in the woods if the light was right...

View and discuss this location in more detail on Grey Arrows.

Co-ordinates: 50.97363, -0.967226 • what3words: ///logs.marching.relations

The originator declared that this location was not inside a Flight Restriction Zone at the time of being flown on 10/08/2024. It remains the responsibility of any pilot to check for any changes before flying at the same location. Landowner permission may be required before taking off.

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Bury Hill Camp, South Gloucestershire (By gasbag43)

Bury Hill is an Iron-Age hillfort delineated by bivallate defences (i.e. (2 walls) enclosing an ovoid area with three entrances situated at the western end of a low promontory overlooking the River Frome.

The Iron Age fort was built about 700 BC. The double earth ramparts are well preserved except on the western side. One side of the fort is along a steep hill edge above the River Frome, the other 3 sides are flat. The flat sides have been destroyed by quarrying. There is a central ditch, with ramparts built on both the inner and outer sides of the ditches.

Occupation of the site began much earlier than the building of the fort in the palaeolithic period (between 3.3m and 11650 years ago) evidenced by a general spread of flint chippings and an edged blade, while a polished stone mace-head attests to activity during the Mesolithic (10000 to 4000 years BC).

The next confirmed occupation being during the Iron-Age when the visible defences were constructed. After a period of inactivity, the site was seemingly reoccupied during the latter part of Roman rule in Britain, as evidenced by a number of pottery finds recovered from within the defended area dating to the 3rd and 4th centuries AD

View and discuss this location on Grey Arrows.

Co-ordinates: 51.50982, -2.502286 • what3words: ///dunes.universally.villa

Streatham Common, Lambeth (By grandad1950)

Streatham common is a very large public open space in the centre of Streatham south London with lots of space to fly.

View and discuss this location on Grey Arrows.

Co-ordinates: 51.42184, -0.12674 • what3words: ///magic.rides.stow

Cublington Spinney and Airport Monument, Aylesbury Vale (By BituWilliams)

This a secluded little spinney that no one really knows about. I never see anyone there. There is seating and lots of trees along with some wires.

This is a great location to go if you want to train your FPV drone and only really worry about hitting trees and not other people or buildings. There are three parts to the spinney where you can train by dodging benches, trees, small wooden huts etc..

You can bring the family. The kids can run around =, whilst you fly and someone else watches as your spotter.

View and discuss this location on Grey Arrows.

Co-ordinates: 51.9113, -0.777093 • what3words: ///exulted.swatting.masterpiece

Waddesdon Manor, Aylesbury Vale (By BituWilliams)

This is a public footpath that leads to the boundary of the National Trust land where Waddesdon Manor is located. On a sunny morning before anyone arrives at the Manor, you can take off and get some very good views of the manor without disturbing anyone.

View and discuss this location on Grey Arrows.

Co-ordinates: 51.84218, -0.937449 • what3words: ///churn.weeknight.sediment

Bury Wood Camp, North Wiltshire (By gasbag43)

Bury Wood Camp hillfort is a well-preserved Iron Age hillfort located on a promontory of Colerne Down in Wiltshire.

The enclosed area is large as you can see from the photo - approximately 9.2ha and surrounded by a ditch 4m wide and up to 1m deep, with an outer rampart up to 1.5m high on the east and northwestern sides and up to 2m high on the southwestern side, across the neck of the promontory.

The contours of the land provide excellent natural defences to the north and east sides. On the southwestern side, where there are no natural defences, there is a further ditch 4m wide and 1m deep and an outer rampart up to 2m high and 3m wide

The building of the hill fort can be dated to about 350 BC, but various Neolithic and Mesolithic flint tools were found, indicating a much earlier use.

As well as its historical significance, it’s a lovely location for woodland exploration (by foot and drone)

View and discuss this location on Grey Arrows.

Co-ordinates: 51.46454, -2.262797 • what3words: ///collapsed.irritable.hosts

St James the Great, North Wiltshire (By gasbag43)

North Wraxall is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire. The village is about 6 miles (10 km) west of Chippenham, just north of the A420 road between Chippenham and Bristol. The parish includes the village of Ford and the hamlets of Upper Wraxall, Mountain Bower and The Shoe. The population of the entire parish at the 2021 census was only 372

In North Wraxall itself, the parish church is St James the Great, a small, but beautiful Grade1 listed 800 year old church, built of Cotswold stone, set in the heart of an unspoiled village

The oldest parts are 13th-century. The baptismal font and south porch are 14th-century. The north aisle was rebuilt in the 18th century.

View and discuss this location on Grey Arrows.

Co-ordinates: 51.47419, -2.263377 • what3words: ///escapes.doctors.durations

Membury Camp, Kennet (By gasbag43)

Membury Camp, or Membury Fort, is the site of an Iron Age hill fort located in England on the borders of Wiltshire and Berkshire counties, (the majority of the site lies within Wiltshire).

The site encompasses 14 hectares, and is situated in the south-western corner of a small plateau. The circular earthworks are completely shrouded in trees and inside the walls it is mostly arable farmland. To the northeast, in the Berkshire segment, the camp is totally wooded by a small copse, Walls Copse, which covers a quarter of the site

The east side of the earthwork has been partly destroyed by the construction of a wartime airfield, RAF Membury. The site has not been excavated but a number of prehistoric finds have been found in the vicinity.

There is a public footpath that runs through the site and bridleways to the east and south of the site. A busy motorway lies to the immediate north and northeast. The motorway services station Membury services, and the wartime airfield, RAF Membury, also lie to the immediate north east

It is a scheduled ancient monument. Significant finds have included flint artefacts from the Mesolithic era, and flint tools from the Neolithic era, prior to the Iron Age.

View and discuss this location on Grey Arrows.

Co-ordinates: 51.47526, -1.566582 • what3words: ///creeps.mallets.land

Tooting Bec, Wandsworth (By grandad1950)

A large 158 acre public open space with lakes, a lido, athletics tracks and lots of space to fly

View and discuss this location on Grey Arrows.

Co-ordinates: 51.43359, -0.143359 • what3words: ///refuse.dozed.upset

Grittleton House, North Wiltshire (By gasbag43)

Grittleton House is a country house in the village of Grittleton, Wiltshire, about 6 miles (9 km) northwest of the town of Chippenham. It is a building of historical significance and is Grade II listed on the English Heritage Register.

On this site stood a three-bay Jacobean manor house, dating from 1660. The estate was bought in 1828 by Joseph Neeld, a London lawyer who had inherited a substantial sum, and Grittleton became his country seat.

In 1988 the house was designated as a Grade II listed building.

Many notable people have been residents of the house, but between 1951 and 2016, it was for a time an independent school. It was non-denominational and non-selective, so that classes were made up of pupils with a wide range of abilities. It offered pupils small classes and claimed to teach traditional family values, courtesy, consideration for others, and responsibility - in 2008, the average class size was 15, and the school fees for day pupils were between £4,620 and £7,455

In its time, it had a number of notable pupils –
• Jamie Cullum (born 1979), jazz-pop singer-songwriter
• Emma Pierson (born 1981), actress
• Angelica Mandy (born 1992), actress, best known for her role as Gabrielle Delacour in the film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The school closed in July 2016, when it had around 150 children, aged between two and sixteen

Today it is a venue for events, particularly weddings.

View and discuss this location on Grey Arrows.

Co-ordinates: 51.51864, -2.201804 • what3words: ///reprints.sprinkler.excavate

Grovely Castle, Salisbury (By gasbag43)

Grovely Castle is the site of an Iron Age hill fort in the parish of Steeple Langford, in Wiltshire. It was once defended by a triple line of ramparts – a single rampart survives.

The remaining rampart stands approximately 3.2 m (10 ft) high, with 1.5 m (4.9 ft) deep ditches, although ploughing has damaged the earthworks in some parts of the site.

Excavations have uncovered the remains of five human skeletons within the ramparts.

A circular enclosure of 35 to 40 m (115 to 131 ft) is evident in the hillfort interior when viewed by drone. There is also a later bank and ditch which runs through the hill-fort from south-west to north-east, and is probably part of an extensive surrounding Celtic field system.

Not much remains of the castle visible at ground level, but its outline is clear from the air. The location is recommended not just for it's historical context, but the valley in which it sits is worth a flying visit all on its own - pretty small Wiltshire villages, rolling hillsides, and Langford Lake nature reserve is just a few minutes from the castle site

View and discuss this location on Grey Arrows.

Co-ordinates: 51.12066, -1.932478 • what3words: ///countries.fidget.ribs


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