ok so this just happend last week and im still kind of annoyed about it. was in barcelona, found a spot on the beach that looked pretty clear, not many people around, early morning maybe 7am. got like 15 minutes of footage and then two local police officers just walked straight over and asked for my papers

i had my eu drone registration printed out and my a1/a3 cert on my phone but one of the guys was just convinced i needed some additional local permit for barcelona specifically and honestly i dont think thats true?? they didnt fine me or take anything but they made me pack up and leave. did ruin the morning a bit. anyone know if theres actually a barcelona city rule on top of the normal enaire stuff because i cant find anything definitive

yeah this is such a common thing in spain, the local police often dont actually know the rules and just assume anything flying needs special permission. the national rules through enaire are what apply, theres no legal basis for a city-specific permit on top of that as far as i know. beaches can be complicated though because some municipalities do have their own noise or privacy bylaws that could technically cover drones, its a grey area

frustrating situation but honestly you probably did the right thing just packing up rather than arguing with them, never ends well

ugh similar thing happened to me in portugal, cop had no idea what the actual rules were and was just making stuff up. i showed him the nav portugal app with the green zone and he still wasnt having it. some battles just arent worth fighting on holiday