West Branch Delaware River near Walton, New York

This is a small part of the West Branch of the Delaware River. It was shot from a rest area along New York State Route 10, about half a mile upstream of the Village of Walton. You can find it here. It was a spur-of-the-moment shoot. I was actually on my way to take video of some railroad-related ruins in Hancock (which I never found, by the way).

Link to Pilot Institute Airspace and Charts for Drone Pilots course

Delaware County, New York is named for the Delaware River. The headwaters of both the East Branch and the West Branch of the river are in Delaware County.

The two branches meander through the county, eventually converging at the Village of Hancock (which is also in Delaware County) on the Pennsylvania border. The river then flows through Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware on its way to the Atlantic Ocean.

Portions of the Delaware River are basically off-limits to drones because the adjacent land is owned by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which is responsible for the New York City water supply. DEP doesn't allow drones to take off from, land in, nor be operated from their land. Hiking, fishing, and hunting are fine, but not drones. No one ever accused New York City government of being especially sensible.

Of course, you can fly over DEP lands if you want to. DEP doesn't control the airspace, even though they may think they do. But it's difficult or impossible to maintain VLOS if you're not actually operating from their land.

The little rest area I shot this video from, however, is not posted as being owned by DEC (nor anyone else), so it's probably county land. When I drove past it, I decided to turn around and get some scenic flying practice in.

This video was shot with an Autel EVO II Pro 6k drone, using a PNY Pro Elite Micro SD card, and edited using DaVinci Resolve Studio.

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