🇿🇦 East London, South Africa
East London is a mid-sized city in South Africa. Real-Earth coordinates -32.970°, 27.870°, population 338,627. Quiet airspace and open terrain a couple of minutes out — a forgiving place to learn the sticks before you take them somewhere tighter. Skydex flies the real Earth here — the elevation, coastline and city layout under the aircraft come from the same data the map does, and the sky is shared with everyone else flying it.
Airports near East London within 120 km, heard by the Skydex receiver network
- Ben Schoeman Airport (ELS) · 8 km · 81 flights in 30 days
Flights are airline flight numbers our receivers heard heading to or from the airport, once a day each — not runway movements. All airports
Activity in East London
Flying conditions in East London
Sunrise 05:01 · Sunset 18:44 · 13 h 43 m of daylight (local time)
Verdict weighs gusts, precipitation and cold — the things that actually decide whether a drone or a bird has a good time up there. Sunrise and sunset are computed from the city's coordinates, not forecast. Forecast issued 2026-11-11 03:03 UTC and refreshed live in your browser. Weather by Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0).
Flying weather in East London through the year
November in East London averages 19.7°C with winds around 20 km/h, and roughly 82% of days are good for flying — about 10 days see rain.
Fewest weather restrictions: June, March, May; February is the most restricted at 61% usable days. (That's about wind and rain, not comfort — check the temperatures below.)
| Month | Avg temp | Wind | Rain days | Good to fly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 22.8°C | 20 km/h | 13 | 68% |
| February | 22.8°C | 20 km/h | 14 | 61% |
| March | 22.3°C | 18 km/h | 6 | 87% |
| April | 19.7°C | 18 km/h | 9 | 72% |
| May | 17.7°C | 18 km/h | 4 | 85% |
| June | 15.9°C | 19 km/h | 5 | 88% |
| July | 15.1°C | 20 km/h | 5 | 78% |
| August | 16.3°C | 21 km/h | 3 | 81% |
| September | 16.7°C | 20 km/h | 9 | 75% |
| October | 18.2°C | 21 km/h | 6 | 76% |
| November | 19.7°C | 20 km/h | 10 | 82% |
| December | 21.5°C | 20 km/h | 11 | 69% |
Based on ERA5 reanalysis. “Good to fly” counts days without strong wind, real rain or hard frost — the conditions that actually ground a drone.
Recent activity in East London
- BraveBear18 visited Wings
🛩 Where to fly a drone in South Africa →
What you can do here
- Fly East London in an FPV drone or as a gull, from -32.970°, 27.870° — keyboard and mouse, a gamepad, or a real RC transmitter over USB.
- Check the weather first: live wind, gusts and cloud over the city, plus the month-by-month flyable-days table above.
- Watch real traffic — aircraft overhead and ships on the water come from live ADS-B and AIS feeds, not from a script.
- Meet other pilots in the same sky: city chat room, radio, and the walkie-talkie frequency for East London.