Drones: Are you flying yours safely?

If you are one of those lucky people to have received a drone/quadcopter over Christmas or have plans to add one to your birthday wish list this year, you should make sure you know how to operate it both safely and in accordance with the rules set in place by The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (‘CASA’) before taking it on its maiden voyage.

Reports are that one Townsville man found out the hard way that there are rules about how you operate your drone, when he received a fine from CASA in January this year. This fine was for $850.00 and came about after the man posted footage taken by his drone on Youtube. The documents accompanying the fine indicated that the drone was flown “within the Townsville Control Zone (CTR) above 400’, within 3 nautical miles of Townsville Airport above 400’, at night, over populous areas and within 30 metres of people not directly associated with the operation of the model aircraft”.

It is not suggested that CASA trawls through social media sites checking each video posted to ensure the drone is being flown in accordance with the rules, however, if incidents are brought to their attention, they will investigate.

To help you safely enjoy your new gadget, here are 6 simple rules to abide by:-

1. Operate the drone only within your line of site in daylight and good weather.
2. Do not fly closer than 30 metres to vehicles, boats, buildings or people.
3. Do not fly over any populous areas including beaches, other people’s backyards, heavily populated parks or sports oval when there is a game on.
4. If you are in a controlled airspace (which is most Australian cities) do not fly higher than 120 metres.
5. Do not fly within 5.5km of an airfield, airport or site where helicopters may be landing or taking off (such as a hospital).
6. You cannot fly for money or economic reward unless you have an Unmanned Operator’s Certificate issued by CASA. There is a possibility that this rule may be relaxed exempting some drones from licensing, however, these new rules are not yet in place.

As CASA are currently reviewing their regulations on drone use, if you own a drone, you should keep checking the CASA website to make sure new rules have not been put in place and that you are still operating your drone safely.