Scratch that one then...
It's for a promotional video that would be hosted on the website and would be pushed to potential clients.
I don't get where the £400 fee comes from for the CAA - the schedule looked pretty clear to me.
Insurance = understandable. Perhaps a day of familiarisation with a controller and a drone at a push. £15-£20 per hour.
Typical CAA bollocks. A 14 year old can attach whatever he wants (toffee bomb?) to a heavy 6ft balsa wood model flown with a scorching hot 16000rpm glow engine with 500ml of nitro-laced methanol behind it, all less gps, autopilot, any gyros, sensors or any fail-safe whatsoever and flying at up to 200mph with a 12 inch prop chopping away at any location, with nothing but a BMFA membership and a deep pocket and nobody would ever bat an eyelid...
Yet a little 1kg drone, geo-fenced from airports or from going above 400ft, flown pretty much autonomously at 5mph, less than 50m from the operator, once every couple of months for a quick video of buildings from the right perspective isn't allowed without paying through the nose for nonsensical training that no non-commercial user (who let's face it, there are more of at the moment, I wonder why) needs to do the same thing?
OH MY WORD.
Deep breath.
Rant over. Thanks for the replies, by the way. Much appreciated. Hopefully a decade from now, if and when I fly the real 'uns again, most of the red tape will have been challenged and some common sense will prevail.