Questions & Answers
There is a lot of misinformation around about what you can and cannot do with Drones. The reality is quite complex with different regulatory bodies across the world. For UK operations, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) treats any Drone over 250g as an aircraft with appropriate governance.
This is a changing picture, and we provide this page as guidance to help you to formulate the questions you may wish to ask of the CAA, the sole authority on Drone operations in the UK.
Drones under 250g and without any cameras fitted are lightly regulated, anything else may require formal registration and pilot competence testing.
Without special permission on a job-by-job basis, you must keep your Drone within Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) and it must not exceed 120m above closest point of the Earth’s surface.
Yes, there are lots of restrictions in where you can fly from Restricted Air Space (you should know how to check for this before you even buy a Drone), to within range of people and buildings (ranges depend on whether you have a camera fitted or not).
This is a big question that will depend upon the nature of the job, however, every job will require the following:Pre-flight assessment· Check on any air space restrictions· Inform interested parties of your intention to fly (authorities, ATC, local residents for example)Site Survey·On site review of the local area in order to have all information required to perform a risk assessmentComplete and File Risk AssessmentMission Planning·Plan the mission including waypoints and detailed flight plans.
A large percentage of a Drone’s cost will be in the sensors carried with some Hyper Spectral sensors and some specialised cinematic cameras costing many hundreds of £000s and as such the Drone needs to be able to fly with stability, safety and security whilst operating those sensors. The Drones themselves may cost as little as £500 for a small (< 250 grams) Drone up to £50,000 for a larger unit with 25kg payload capacity, extended flight time and improved stability in heavy weather.
Regulatory
& Compliance
Drone Laws & Regulations can be tricky to interpret and without effective preparation, it can be easy to end up contravening the rules. In the UK, commercial Drone operations are heavily legislated for by the Department of Transport and regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). For any aircraft over 250 grams you need certifications for the pilots and registration of the Drones and operating companies.
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