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C-DRONE GUIDE · 14 OCTOBER 2026
Drones in the Loiret (45): Bricy, Dampierre, forest, logistics
Within about fifty kilometres of Orléans, the Loiret gathers almost every situation a professional remote pilot can face: a military transport air base, a nuclear plant ringed by a prohibited area, the largest state forest in mainland France, the start of the UNESCO-listed Loire Valley and one of the country's biggest warehouse clusters. This departmental guide explains where you can fly, who to talk to beforehand, and what the most requested business missions cost.
Published on 14 October 2026 — regulations in force as of September 2026.
Bricy and Dampierre: the two sites that are not negotiable
The Loiret has 691,268 inhabitants (INSEE, 2023) over 6,775 km², making it the most populous department in Centre-Val de Loire. About fifteen kilometres north-west of Orléans, Air Base 123 Orléans-Bricy hosts the French fleet of A400M Atlas transport aircraft. It is an active military platform, with heavy aircraft approaching at low height and controlled airspace extending well beyond the fenced site: business parks and farms to the west and north-west of Orléans are affected. Flying over the base itself is out of the question, and near it the permitted height is read at the address on the official restriction map — the value changes from one municipality to the next and is not something to remember.
To the east, on the Loire, the Dampierre-en-Burly nuclear plant is protected by the LF-P 24 prohibited area, created by an order of 3 March 2010 and in force since 8 April 2010: a circle with a five-kilometre radius centred on the site, from the surface up to 3,700 feet above mean sea level, active at all times. This circle takes in entire municipalities of the Giennois and the valley, with their farms and business parks: a manufacturer or farmer a few kilometres from the plant needs to know they are inside it. The regime of these zones, the penalties and the absence of waivers for an ordinary mission are detailed in our guide on drones and nuclear power plants.
Around both sites, the question of data capture also arises: a military site or sensitive installation may fall within a zone where aerial data capture is prohibited (ZICAD), which applies even when the flight itself stays outside any prohibited area. The ZICAD layer is checked on Géoportail at the quote stage.
The Orléans forest: the largest state forest and its ospreys
North of the Loire, over some sixty kilometres between Orléans and Gien, lies the Orléans forest: a massif of about 50,000 hectares, 35,000 of them state forest, the largest in mainland France. It is organised in three blocks — Orléans, Ingrannes and Lorris — managed by the National Forests Office (ONF) and designated a Natura 2000 site. Its oak stands and Scots pines shelter a species that matters for anyone flying a drone: the osprey, a protected raptor that nests at the top of tall trees near the ponds.
For a forestry mission — inventory, health monitoring, the condition of roads and ponds, volume estimates before felling — two more parties therefore come on top of civil aviation: the ONF, which manages the estate, and, within the Natura 2000 perimeter, the impact assessment when the activity is subject to one. Our guide on drones in Natura 2000 areas explains what this means for a professional. During the nesting season, common sense becomes professional practice: keep away from known nests, avoid repeated passes over the same tree and schedule flights outside the sensitive period whenever the mission allows.
Research provides useful benchmarks here. A French team — Elisabeth Vas, Amélie Lescroël, Olivier Duriez, Guillaume Boguszewski and David Grémillet — published in Biology Letters in 2015 the first series of controlled experiments approaching birds with a drone: over 204 approaches, birds could be approached to within 4 metres without visible reaction in 80% of flights, with the drone's speed and colour having no measurable effect, but vertical approaches triggered markedly more reactions (see the study). The authors recommend taking off more than 100 metres from the birds and adapting the distance to each species. Applied to the Orléans forest, this gives a simple protocol: take off far from nests, approach laterally rather than descending vertically, and take extra care with a large nesting raptor, which the species tested do not represent.
The Loire Valley and its levees: heritage, river and flood prevention
The World Heritage-listed Loire Valley begins in the Loiret, at Sully-sur-Loire, and runs through Orléans, Meung-sur-Loire and Beaugency before entering the Loir-et-Cher. As with any cultural landscape, the listing does not itself create a flight rule: what applies is the status of each monument, the consent of its owner or manager and the populated-area rules. The Château de Sully, the basilica of Cléry-Saint-André or the historic centre of Orléans are handled like any protected building in town: manager's consent, prior notification to the prefecture at least 10 working days before the flight, management of passers-by. The châteaux and the Beauce are covered in our regional guide on Centre-Val de Loire, which we do not repeat.
The mission most specific to the department lies elsewhere: the Loire levees. These embankments, which protect the inhabited valley floors of the Orléans conurbation and the valley, are regularly monitored by their managers. The drone provides a continuous survey over kilometres of embankment: orthophoto and terrain model to spot subsidence, burrows of digging animals, woody vegetation on the slope or damage to stone facing, with a repeatability that allows two campaigns to be compared. As the riverbed itself is a Natura 2000 site heavily used by birds, flights there are prepared with the same precautions as in the forest, especially in spring on islands and sandbanks.
Finally, the river imposes a practical constraint: the Loire promenades and Orléans quays are very busy in fine weather. A mission in town is scheduled early in the morning or with ground marshalling, so as never to fly over uninvolved people.
Two million m² of warehouses, cosmetics and pharma: business missions
At the junction of the A10, A19 and A71 motorways, the Orléans conurbation lines up more than two million square metres of logistics warehouses, concentrated in Saran, Ingré and east of Orléans, where e-commerce, retail and contract logistics operators have settled. On these buildings the roof is an asset in its own right: waterproofing, rooflights and smoke vents, rooftop solar plants, fall-arrest lines. Drone inspection avoids tying up an aerial work platform and sending staff to work at height over several hectares, and thermography spots insulation defects or faulty panel connections.
The department also hosts a high-value industrial base: perfume and cosmetics (Christian Dior Parfums, Shiseido), pharmaceuticals (Sanofi), agricultural machinery (John Deere). These sites often combine requirements: process confidentiality, explosion-risk zones in some workshops, strict access control. The mission is then prepared like an intervention by an outside contractor — written consent, prevention plan, approved take-off point — and the deliverable is framed to show only what the client wants documented.
For a company scheduling missions on several sites in the region, our Centre-Val de Loire edition of the regulation guide brings together the zones, formalities and contacts for the six departments, including the four nuclear plants and the Bricy base.
| Service in the Loiret | Typical range (excl. VAT, 2026) |
| Warehouse roof inspection, up to 2 ha | €900 to €2,000 |
| Roof or solar plant thermography option | + €600 to €1,200 |
| Levee or riverbank survey, per kilometre (orthophoto and terrain model) | €400 to €900, minimum €1,200 |
| Multispectral forest monitoring, up to 50 ha | €1,000 to €2,400 |
| Bricy sector surcharge (preparation and coordination) | €250 to €700 |
These ranges assume a site outside the P24 zone and military land, a declared operator and the owner's consent; they exclude postponements due to nesting and days lost to weather. Request a quote stating the municipality, the area and the preferred period: checks on the Dampierre zone, the Bricy sector and the ZICAD layer are done before any proposal.
Frequently asked questions
How far does the prohibited area around the Dampierre plant extend?
The LF-P 24 zone is a circle with a 5 km radius centred on the plant, from the surface up to 3,700 feet above mean sea level, active 24 hours a day since 2010. Any drone flight is prohibited there, whatever the aircraft's weight or the pilot's status.
Can I fly a drone in the Orléans forest?
A professional mission is possible outside restricted airspace, with the consent of the ONF, which manages the state forest, and taking the Natura 2000 site into account. During the nesting season, keep away from osprey nests and avoid vertical approaches, which disturb birds more.
Are the Saran warehouses in restricted airspace?
It depends on the exact address: the west and north-west of Orléans lie in the sector of Air Base 123 Orléans-Bricy, where the permitted height may be reduced. It is checked on the official restriction map at the quote stage, before a flight plan is proposed.