A bit of Practical Wisdom needed in Drone flying rules

CASA, et al., are you listening?

So, flying a drone within 5.5 Km of Controlled Airspace is forbidden.

We all know why: Risks to Air Safety, &
I see the obvious Value in that.

OTOH, there are a few reasonable exceptions, worth considering:

Eg, an elderly person wants to check her/his gutters, to see if it's time to call-in their local handy-person, to clean those gutters.

If it's Not yet time for a gutter cleaning, it can be costly to ring someone to come, set up ladders & check, only to say: "All good. Call us in a month, love." …before packing it all away, & handing you a bill for the Fall-Out.

Most homes of some towns are almost entirely within a 5.5 Km circle around the local airport.

Since homes tend to be much "shorter" than the lowest altitude, than any plane should be flying, it seems reasonable to Allow a Gutter-inspection drone to fly, eg, up to 1m above their home's rooftop, to check gutters, roofs, etc. …without worrying about getting fined for it.

Perhaps drones can be programmed Not to fly above max. (roof-height + 1m), & possibly within the perimeter of the owner's block of land.

After all, it shouldn't take more than a few minutes to fly a drone to each of the roof's corners & observe gutters in (at least) 2 directions from each corner, on a sunny day.

Perhaps there are heights - below which - the owner of a house can be deemed to own
the space, for reasonable purposes.

Why not add tracking + identifying perpetrators of Break-Ins (going over one's 2m fences) to aid Police in finding & tracking the perp's?

If I can photograph someone, who's trying to break into my home, why shouldn't I be free to use a drone, at a safe altitude?

What'cha think?

Comments

  • +1

    Ok.

  • +2

    šŸ˜‘

    Btw, this is OzB…

  • +2

    IVI's off his meds again….

    • +3

      at least his
      formatting
      has
      improved
      OMG it is
      contagious
      Help

  • +1

    you could always fly it inside your house

    • To enchant the cat, maybe.
      But to check gutters…. Nope.

      • Camera on a stick
        .

        • I'm gonna say Tripod. lol

  • +2

    The only way such a thing could work is buying having licenced trusted drone pilots with registered tracked drones do it and then you're back to the call out fee and probably one bigger than the bloke with a ladder. Avg Joe couldn't be trusted. 99.9% of people would do the right thing but the other 0.01% would think, well, the drone's already up there, can't hurt if I go higher and have a look around.

    Want to check your gutters, either get up on a ladder or tape a gopro to the end of a broom.

  • +2

    I'm sure casa is monitoring ozbargain for a post from ivi about drone legislation.

  • So, flying a drone within 5.5 Km of Controlled Airspace is forbidden.
    Well, no, certainly for recreational users; but as a RePL (licenced) pilot it is indeed possible.

  • +4

    What'cha think?

    My cat's breath smells like cat food.

  • +3

    those Selfie Sticks are useful for something…

  • +3

    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…

    Source: CASA website.

    A: Has to be over 250grams. Buy a Mavic Mini or Mini 2 that has 4K
    B : ā€œControlledā€ airport. ie, large airport with some form of control tower
    C: CASA is not going to come around and fine you for flying around your own house to inspect your gutters (unless your gutters are more than 120m off the ground).
    D: Getting your drone license solves all of these issues that donā€™t even need solving in the first place.

    CASA, et al., are you listening?

    No, because they donā€™t give a shit if what you are doing is not illegal or grossly negligent. Oh, and I am sure they donā€™t hang about on OzBargain waiting for comments like yours to base legislation changes off.

    So, your whole post was pointless because you either didnā€™t read the rules surrounding drone use or heard it from some other equally uneducated old fart and just ran with what you heard and accepted it as fact.

    • Just got myself a drone (sub 250gm) and I'm finding the drone rules very unclear.

      The rules specifiy if your drone is MORE than 250gm, you cannot fly within 5.5km of controlled airport. It seems to imply lighter drones can happily fly in those spaces?

      The info sheet that came with my drone says if above 100gm, but I cannot find this rule anywhere aside from this info sheet.

      I'm erring on the side of caution and remaining far enough away for now, but I'd simply like to know with certainty whether I can fly within that distance or not…

      Can anyone point me in the direction of rules that address sub-250grams directly?

      • The way I see it is if the drone is under 250g then you can fly near an airport BUT there is also the rule saying you can't fly above people or populous areas and most airports are surrounded by houses and people so I think that would rule it out. The rules are going to be made more and more restrictive as a great number of people ignore them. All you need to do is look at social media and you'll find people posting drone shots in areas they shouldn't be flying.

      • Can anyone point me in the direction of rules that address sub-250grams directly?

        Start reading the legislation from CASA here. This deals with RPA and what is and isnt allowed, what you require and what you need to know. If you can understand that document, good luck, as it is a terrible reading experience. Sub 250g quads are referenced as "micro" RPA (Remotely Piloted Aircraft)

        The rules specifiy if your drone is MORE than 250gm, you cannot fly within 5.5km of controlled airport.

        This part is correct.Over 250g, keep clear of "controlled" airports.

        It seems to imply lighter drones can happily fly in those spaces?

        That depends. Where you cannot fly (regardless of size) is in restricted space. Something like Kingsford Smith airport in Sydney or around any RAAF base may be considered "restricted space" and therefore any drone activity is illegal. A smaller regional airport, say, like Dubbo, may not be classed as restricted. (Consult the CASA "Can I fly there" app to see if the space you want to fly in is restricted"). Also understand the saying; "just because you can, doesn't mean you should…"

        says if above 100gm

        Was it a CASA flyer? If not, it may be for another market that is not Australia. It's basically under 250g (micro), 250g to 2kg (very small), 2kg to 25kg (small), 25kg to 150kg (medium), 150kg to ???kg (large)

        I'm erring on the side of caution and remaining far enough away for now,

        Good. No real reason you should be getting that close to an airport anyway. If it's in your own back yard or at the local park and under 250g, you should be fine, providing you adhere to the other rules (30m away from people/dont go over 120m high, etc)

        • Thanks this is really helpful.

          I'll have to dig around the legislation a bit, but yeah I've started seeing a few references to anything above 100g, it's just a bit weird that the simplified version on CASA's site makes such implications (although likely incorrect).

          Cheers šŸ‘

          • @jetblack: Yeah, I don't know what the 100g class is other than the tiny indoor ones, such as the Eachine E010, that you get off Chinese sites like Aliexpress and Banggood. You wont be flying one of them anywhere outside, let alone near an airport.

            I wouldn't get too hung up over this "100g class", as it is not relevant to CASA regulations anyway, as the "micro" class now covers everything under 250g (micro class used to be 100g and under, but is now extended to cover up to 250g)

            If you find the legislation too hard to swallow or digest (as most legal documents are), you could always try reading the CASA Plain English Guide as that may put it in simpler terms than a dried out legal document.

  • Old person cleaning gutter. Oh okay. That's worth the risk of downing an aircraft with physical obstruction and/or crossed signals.

    • +5

      I'm wondering where all these old people are who own drones?! I have a hard enough time trying to teach my 70 year old in-laws how to send an SMS…

      • +1

        Iā€™m wondering how big are their gutter cleaning ladders if they cause physical obstruction to aircraft?…

  • +1

    Set up your own ladder?

  • Practical Wisdom

    Right…

  • I think you need to come up with some better reasoning, my parents are in their 70's and can barely turn on a PC let alone fly a drone lol.

    Checking gutters? Tracking perps? I'm literally trying not to burst out laughing over here…

    Who in the world would want to buy a drone that could only fly ~15ft in the air?

  • +1

    Get Mesh for your Gutters?
    Probl'm solv'd.

  • +1

    CASA, et al., are you listening?

    They'll probably read this tomorrow. Google alerts aren't that hard to set up.

  • Yeah nah.

    What you have to understand is that most of the rules are for the lowest denominator.

    Example, 70yo flying a drone to check the gutters, doesn't understand the whole drone thing properly and flies it right up in the path of a helicopter/plane, etc. It only takes 1.

  • flying drone to check gutter, the lamest excuse I've ever heard, probably from someone never seen a drone footage before. Let me tell you, all the drone have wide angle camera and to be able to spot something out of your gutter you'll probably need to fly withing 1m of the gutter and a newbie will probably struggle to get that done without crashing a few, or if you're equiped with an advanced drone with all sort of sensor you'll probably won't be able to get close to that distance.

  • It would cost a $1000 for a suitable drone and another $1000 or so for a decent phone to do the job and $250,000 to train a typical 70 year old. It just isn't feasible.

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