What this sort of change means is say someone like a builder or real estate agent who wants an aerial photograph of a property can now do it themselves rather than have to pay a RPV commercial operator to take the photos for them. So they can buy a $1500 phantom and throw it in the boot of the car and take their own photos.
Exactly -- if they had all done some sort of basic training and were insured, I'd have much less of a problem with that.
But how many real estate guys do you know who are able to look up a chart to determine controlled airspace, military zones, restricted airspace and helipads? The most likely outcome is they'll all just fly wherever they like, at best steering clear of being "close" to the main airports, which for the general public means a few hundred meters at best from our experience (we get inquiries almost daily to fly jobs near airports and people are always surprised when we can't).
The sub-2kg amendment is putting a lot of trust in people who don't have any knowledge of aviation to do the right thing while aviating.
AUAV's full thoughts here, if anyone is interested:
Press Release 2016_04_08 - Comments on CASA?s Proposed Sub-2kg Drone Amendments - AUAV
I guess we'll just have to sit back and see! Until we see the first collisions, it's all just hypothetical.
AC.