Police are reminding all drone owners that new legislation from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority is now in force.
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From September 29, if you are flying for any form of economic gain, you need to have an RPA (remotely piloted aircraft) operator’s certificate, or if you're flying an drone weighing less than two kilograms, simply notify CASA.
If you are flying for fun and not commercially, then the regulations are less restrictive and allow you to fly an RPA without needing to be certified, providing you follow some simple safety rules.
These include only flying by day, keeping the drone within line of sight, not flying higher than 120 metres, keeping the drone 30 metres away from any people, staying 5.5km away from any aerodrome and not flying drones over populous areas including parks or beaches where people are present. More information at www.casa.gov.au
While licenced drone operators including Ian Edwards of South Coast Drones have welcomed the regulations, they also hold concerns the new regulations “opened the floodgates” and could result in more drones above us and less safe skies.
The new regulations are the same ones that govern licenced operators such as himself and as such were good guidance, however he said with smaller drones less than 2kg costing as little as $1000, he could see a lot more being purchased and flown.
He said education was vital for all drone operators and there was even a push by the aviation industry and some politicians to overturn the new regulations, replacing them with more rigorous requirements.
“It’s up to everyone to familiarise themselves and make sure they are doing the right thing otherwise it will reflect badly on us licensed operators,” Mr Edwards said.
He also reminded all drone pilots that the CASA safety legislation was just one set of regulations covering the unmanned aerial vehicles, and that there were also privacy regulations and even wildlife regulations.
For instance, a Bermagui based drone pilot got some great footage of southern right whales off Tilba beach but after posting it online, he got comments from authorities reminding him of the National Parks regulation that stipulated drones most not fly within 300 metres of whales.
More information at www.southcoastdrones.com.au