Rising Ground Under a Fixed Base

The controlled airspace base is published in AMSL, but your limit is in AGL, so the ground elevation beneath the aircraft has to be added at every point. 120 m ≈ 394 ft. The 2,500 ft step to the south is irrelevant - it is further away, and the lower of the two levels is the one that contains you.

Western end (launch point, 850 ft AMSL): 850 + 394 = 1,244 ft AMSL. Base 1,500 ft. Clearance ≈ 256 ft. Fine.

Eastern end (1,150 ft AMSL): 1,150 + 394 = 1,544 ft AMSL. Base 1,500 ft. That is 44 ft above the base - an infringement.

The 44 ft margin is smaller than your altitude-hold error in any case. A barometric hold drifting 10 m (33 ft) plus a GPS height error puts you through the base with no indication on the screen, and the pilot of an inbound aircraft would have no reason to be looking for you there.

So the flight as planned is not lawful along the eastern section, even though the launch point is comfortably clear and the western half is fine.

Work backwards from the base:

• Base: 1,500 ft AMSL.
• Ground: 1,150 ft AMSL.
• Desired buffer below the base: 100 ft.
• Available height: 1,500 − 1,150 − 100 = 250 ft AGL, which is about 76 m.

So 76 m AGL is the ceiling at the eastern end, and that is before allowing anything for altitude-hold error - a more workable figure would be 60–65 m.

Is that usable? For riverbank photography, dropping from 120 m to 60 m roughly quadruples the ground area covered per frame and changes the whole look of the imagery; at that height you are closer to vegetation and to any people or vessels on the bank, and the 30 m separation requirement becomes the next constraint. Realistically the eastern section is not worth flying at 60 m for the client's purpose.

The better plan is to fly the western two-thirds at full height, then either:

• shoot the eastern section from a launch point moved east so the ground under the aircraft stays low, or
• accept a lower altitude for the eastern section and adjust the shot list accordingly,

and brief the client that the eastern imagery will look different because of airspace, not because of a technical failure.

Two kilometres of lateral separation sounds generous and is not a separation at all in the vertical sense.

Drop zone. Parachute operations involve an aircraft climbing and descending repeatedly to 10,000 ft, plus jumpers under canopy who manoeuvre. Your aircraft is sitting around 1,200–1,500 ft AMSL, which is exactly the band the drop aircraft passes through on climb-out and descent, and often the band where the drop aircraft's own circuit sits. The NOTAM's real value is that it tells you when that traffic exists - 0900–1700 - so a 0700 flight avoids it entirely. If you must fly during the window, monitor the local frequency, expect multiple aircraft, keep the aircraft low and directly over your own track, and be ready to land on short notice.

Danger area. A danger area is not automatically prohibited; whether it applies to you depends on its activation status and its published conditions, which the NOTAM now settles for today. If the activation covers your times, you do not enter it, and you route around it - check the lateral boundary against your planned track rather than assuming 'south' is far enough away.

Judgement: the strongest answer is to fly early, before 0900, which removes the drop zone conflict, and to confirm the danger area's activated boundary and times before launch. Flying at 1000 into both hazards and relying on see-and-avoid from a ground station is not a plan.