captain
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Post by captain on Jul 12, 2023 18:52:58 GMT 10
I assume there are a few people here who may fly drones over or around their respective places - for those people, have you bothered to get any form of licensing for you to fly your drones? just curious….
I’m thinking of getting mine and going for my BLOS - just so I can go up a few categories of drone…
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Post by Stealth on Jul 14, 2023 11:44:58 GMT 10
I guess it really depends on what you want to fly. In our area, so long as you're not flying above 120m, and you stay away from airports etc. you don't need a licence. The second you go above that you need to licence no matter how big or small you're going. We have a Mavic 3 Pro that can do surveillance loops, timed patrols etc. and has a really fantastic camera on it. We don't have any need for anything larger because even though it goes up to 6km high, that height it sort of redundant for spotting anything other than for example a bushfire or similar massive event.
We find that 500m is about the perfect height for both disguising the sound of the drone from your average punter and for not being so high that you can't tell what's going on.
If you want something that will take absolutely stunning panoramic or cinematic quality video you're probably going to need to look into licencing because you'll need to go for a larger drone for the onboard and battery life etc. but to be honest as long as you're not close to an airport you're generally good. We use ours mostly for funzies but definitely bought it with consideration for it's ability to do recon, so we bought a second battery to extend the time that we can use it for. So you really don't have to go for a larger drone for that reason alone. Not to mention the larger you go the more obvious it is to bystanders and that alone might make it less usable depending on your intentions for it.
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protoss
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Post by protoss on Jul 14, 2023 16:54:06 GMT 10
When I last looked into the drone laws properly a few years ago, it was a requirement that any drone over the weight of 250 grams required a licence to fly.
I ended up purchase the Dji mini 2 which has a weight of 249g. A great little drone if you are new to it all. Very easy to pick up the controls also.
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captain
Senior Member
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Post by captain on Jul 14, 2023 18:04:22 GMT 10
Maybe I should expand on what I am wanting. I am not looking in the <250g category, but in the Beyond Line of Site (BLOS) licensing and category. Does anyone have that?
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Post by Stealth on Jul 16, 2023 1:35:32 GMT 10
When I last looked into the drone laws properly a few years ago, it was a requirement that any drone over the weight of 250 grams required a licence to fly. I ended up purchase the Dji mini 2 which has a weight of 249g. A great little drone if you are new to it all. Very easy to pick up the controls also. I think you're thinking of the distance law which is based on weight. From the CASA website; "If your drone weighs more than 250 grams, you must fly at least 5.5 kilometres away from a controlled airport, which generally have a control tower at them." Ours is nearly 1kg in weight so we can't fly within 5.5km of an airport, but we strictly avoid that anyway because we know the havoc a rogue drone can cause near any airport. We're not interested in shutting down flights so that people can't get home to their loved ones as happened in Sydney a couple of years back! captain There are very specific instances where you require BLOS licencing but for the most part your average domestic 'flying for funzies' operator isn't going to run across those scenarios. Our drone is definitely capable of BLOS, however we don't operate it outside of line of site for safety purposes anyway. It's not really so much about the size of your drone as it is the conditions that you're flying under from what I can tell. That obviously all changes if you're wanting to use it for commercial purposes! In that case you do have to register the drone and get licencing. And I think that applies regardless of what type of drone it is but I could be wrong on that. Each state does change, but it seems like they mostly align in their lack of concern. I figure that if there's ever an instance of requiring surveillance for protective purposes, there's probably not going to be anyone free to chase us down to hand us a fine for flying in a manner that they don't like 🤣. I'm not saying you SHOULDN'T go for BLOS licencing if you feel like your usage would require it. I'd just investigate the situations that they require that you have it and work out whether or not you actually need it. It's a bit like having a HAM radio. You need a licence to operate but you don't need a licence to listen. Sure, you're only 'allowed' to use a part of the capability, but if you never plan to go within airspace of an airport or fly over people's private property, you don't really need a licence. I don't know for certain but I'd hazard a guess that for things like flying over private property, you'd probably have to have a justification to do so. For example, a business related to land sale, surveying, or that kind of thing. I don't know how much traction you'd get with "I just want to be able to fly anywhere I want". Hence where the requirement for licencing for any type of commercial purposes.
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malewithatail
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Location: Northern Rivers NSW
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Post by malewithatail on Jul 16, 2023 8:25:45 GMT 10
A drone is also a "game changer", but the endurance time may be an issue. Good for spotting though, sometimes wish I had one when trying to find the cows or pony's ! The nite vis gear works well, especially if the pony's are hiding in the scrub, they sand out like dogs b..ls !
Never let a crisis go to waste, especially when you've created it…
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