Drone licensing coming to you soon

[kaz3g]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-27/drone-licences-to-be-issued-ahead-of-canberra-delivery-service/10943284

[KRviator]

Hopefully everyone's details will be published in a publicly-accessible database for anyone to search, the same as any other aircraft owner...:}

[Runaway Gun]

Fair enough. It might be enough to discourage the small amount of drone operators to simply "Send it" regardless of the laws.

[mostlytossas]

I can't see how CASA will ever control this or have any chance of keeping track of who owns/operates which drone,who has a license and who hasn't etc. Sure new purchases can be tracked by the store being forced to report who bought what and so forth. But drones are so cheap these days they will be sold on ebay , second hand markets,trash and treasure,etc CASA will have no hope. I was laughing at Gibson on the TV telling us how CASA will be able know who and where drone pilots live etc and keep control of these errant drones.
Sure and CASA has the staff to have 1000's of inspectors driving around keeping tabs on them all. The reason bicycles aren't registered is because the cops have no chance of controlling them either.
Fun times ahead. Hopefully they will be so busy going around in circles they will leave GA alone.

[Squawk7700]

​​​​It’s going to need one heck of a marketing campaign to get off the ground. It will cost a fortune to implement... would like to see the budget figures and weigh that against the safety argument. Things have been very quiet in the news around errant drones of late... seems like a hard sell.

[Double_Clutch]

How is this going to make things safer?
How is CASA going to regulating people registering their drone....

it will fall flat on its face and will be finished in 2yrs

[tail wheel]

Good luck with that!

My Phantom IV drone weighs 1.350 kg. I suspect the 250 g weight limit starts around $60 at a Hobby Shop! R/C model aircraft will be sucked into the same license category.

This will be about as successful as the law many years ago (early 1970s??) that CB radio (27 Mhz - before VHF CB) operators must obtain an operator's license. It was legal to own a CB radio without a license, but the fine was $10,000 to operate one on HF without a License.

One of our own PPRuNe users of note was importing shipping containers of the things!

What a stunning failure that was, whilst licensed amateur radio operators were being hammered for compliance with regulations.

[FullOppositeRudder]

Quote: "For the first time we'll have an overall picture of the drone sector … probably there are tens of thousands, possibly even 100,000, but at this point we don't know," Mr Gibson said.

Good luck rounding them all up ...

Of course they're only ever going to be flying at the address of those who might register?

Yes, the CB license fiasco is a valid recollection. I registered ours at the time; lots of other people didn't. Eventually the guvment realised that it was it costing more to administer than the revenue it was bringing in. CASA can learn from that if they are wise.

[Sunfish]

I think CASA is well on the way to shooting itself in both feet with this one.

1. Drone users are too numerous to cop the BS we have to put up with once they get a whiff of it -“strict liability “ and all.

2. No way in hell its possible to police let alone enforce.

That leaves “us” GA folk to ask the question, when the debacle of 1 & 2 becomes obvious; exactly why we continue to have to put up with over regulation when the drone sector is a free for all. CASA won’t have an answer to that one.

[mostlytossas]

I agree. In fact if anything will display the sheer stupidity of CASA it will be this. A 250gram drone is palm of your hand stuff. Can you imagine the police reaction being asked to monitor school kids toys? Can only imagine what the media will do with this once it becomes common knowledge. Parents complaining to their local MP's about harrasment....great. Just may be they will start listening to what the industry has been saying for years.
But CASA are not the only morons in town. I had a chart out the other day (VNC) which was a one sided chart. On the blank side was written in 25mm lettering acoss it....." see other side for chart". Who would have thought?
My missus is still laughing about that one.

[tail wheel]

Next door neighbor bought a $19.99 toy drone on line for his 8 year old grand son. Out of curiosity I weighed it - 450 grams. When Grand Pa and I gave it a test flight it easily exceeded 500 foot AGL and has a 15 minute duration.

I don't have a solution to the potential problem of drones, but I anticipate CASA FOI's hounding the suburbs in mufti stalking miscreant unlicensed 8 year olds may end up being part of the problem, but most certainly will not part of the solution.

[Andy_RR]

You'll get to pay twenty bucks too for the privilege of CASA storing your personal information in a wobbly database. I guess we shouldn't worry because the CCP has all the names and addresses already of those that will be up against the wall...

[Desert Flower]

Good luck with that!

My Phantom IV drone weighs 1.350 kg. I suspect the 250 g weight limit starts around $60 at a Hobby Shop! R/C model aircraft will be sucked into the same license category.

This will be about as successful as the law many years ago (early 1970s??) that CB radio (27 Mhz - before VHF CB) operators must obtain an operator's license. It was legal to own a CB radio without a license, but the fine was $10,000 to operate one on HF without a License.

One of our own PPRuNe users of note was importing shipping containers of the things!

What a stunning failure that was, whilst licensed amateur radio operators were being hammered for compliance with regulations.

Never heard of VHF CB. I think you mean UHF. And when I first started out with 27Mhz CB's in the early 70's it was necessary to have a license.

DF.

[YPJT]

Never heard of VHF CB. I think you mean UHF. And when I first started out with 27Mhz CB's in the early 70's it was necessary to have a license.DF.

I attended one of the public forums on CB licensing which would have been about 1978. The argument from the CB fraternity was that they wanted a licence for the individual rather than each transceiver.
Tailwheel is correct, it was a dismal unenforceable failure and everyone including the government lost interest in licences after about 2 years and it died a quiet, peaceful death.

[tail wheel]

Yes Desert Flower, you are correct. I meant UHF CB but was thinking of the VHF marine band. 27 Mhz band was originally the Amateur 11 meter band.

Having held an amateur radio license and a marine license for 48 years I guess I should know the difference? I'm not even sure there is a marine license any longer?

....when I first started out with 27Mhz CB's in the early 70's it was necessary to have a license.

Yes, but how many held licenses? Certainly very few or any of the Highway Heros! And some 27 Mhz home operators had linear amplifiers and high gain Yagi antennas. It's heyday was in the 70s when skip distances were good and they were getting into New Zealand and the USA, then atmospherics changed, the maximum useable frequency dropped and 27 Mhz died out.

[Squawk7700]

A child under 10 is not capable of committing a crime in this country, so they will not be able to charge your young child for using their overweight drone.

As for supplying your child with said drone, is that an offence? Lol.. the Police will just laugh about it and drive onto the next “real” job on their list.

[Ultralights]

How is this going to make things safer?
How is CASA going to regulating people registering their drone....

it will fall flat on its face and will be finished in 2yrs
no, it wont, its another career path, will lead to retirement.

[mcoates]

no, it wont, its another career path, will lead to retirement.

Why not save time and just get the CASA staff to retire NOW ??

[michigan j]

Two things of note from the article

It estimated it would cost $20 annually per person for recreational drones and for some model aircraft operators.
CASA is still developing a full real-time network that can track drones like it does aircraft.

And April 1st isn't until tomorrow...

[gerry111]

...I'm not even sure there is a marine license any longer?...

One now needs a signed Marine Radio Operator's VHF Certificate of Proficiency (MROVCP). These are issued by the Australian Maritime College delegated by ACMA. I obtained mine from Marine Rescue NSW as part of a boat licence course in 2014. ("AMC is a specialist institute of the University of Tasmania" according to my MROVCP.)

[Sunfish]

gerry, you’ve been conned. It’s a certificate of Proficiency not a license and it’s ignored. Anyone can buy, install and use a marine VHF ($229 at Whitworths). Nobody ever checks certificates, except some yacht club race officials. Any summer weekend you can unfortunately hear the results. An HF installation is a different matter.

I happen to have an operators licence - cardboard, issued in 1968, for HF and VHF. it’s only been inspected once - in Croatia when I chartered a yacht a few years ago.

[gerry111]

gerry, you’ve been conned. It’s a certificate of Proficiency not a license and it’s ignored. Anyone can buy, install and use a marine VHF ($229 at Whitworths). Nobody ever checks certificates, except some yacht club race officials. Any summer weekend you can unfortunately hear the results. An HF installation is a different matter.

I happen to have an operators licence - cardboard, issued in 1968, for HF and VHF. it’s only been inspected once - in Croatia when I chartered a yacht a few years ago.



I reckon you're right, Sunfish. On the back of my MROVCP there's item 3. "This certificate, issued under Section 121 of the Radiocommunications Act 1992, is equivalent to the ITU Short Range qualification and allows the holder to operate VHF marine radios only." Item 4 states: "Use of this certificate for identification purposes other than in relation to the Radiocommunications Act 1992 is not intended or authorised." So I probably can't legally use it to buy a slab of beer, next time I fly into Ceduna.