As I have reported (and about to review), DJI has released the Mini 5 Pro drone in Australia. Now the ‘Mini’ series has one claim, that it weighs under 250g.
So what does this mean and why is 250g such a big deal?
The drone rules in Australia are set and governed by CASA, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, and the 250g weight is the distinction given between a “Micro RPA” – or Micro Remotely Piloted Aircraft – which is designed primarily for recreational purposes, and larger aircraft where different rules may apply.
I have a full video on the rules at https://youtu.be/IPoVHOmBKro but in short, if your drone is equal to or less than 250g:
- You do not need to register the drone with CASA.
- You do not need a Remote Pilot Licence (RePL) just for recreational use
Safety Rules
But you must follow the general drone safety rules:
-
- Fly no higher than 120 metres above ground level.
- Keep your drone at least 30 m away from people (who are not part of the flight).
- Never fly directly over people.
- Only fly during daylight and stay within visual line of sight
- Don’t fly over or near “populous areas” (e.g. crowded parks, sporting events) or in restricted zones/emergency areas.
- For controlled airports (with a control tower): for drones heavier than 250 g, you must stay 5.5 km away. For ≤ 250 g, there is a slight concession: you can fly within 5.5 km but must stay below 45 m and outside the airport boundary and not enter approach/departure paths.
But, once your drone is more than 250 g, or if you use it for work or business, the rules are stricter:
- You must register the drone with CASA.
- You may need to hold a Remote Pilot Licence (RePL) or have other certifications / approvals depending on the operation. (This bit can get complicated but covers making money from your drone, flying at night or flying beyond visual line of sight and other considerations).
- You’ll be more constrained in terms of where you can fly (especially near airports, restricted airspace) and what operations you can do (e.g. over people, beyond visual line of sight) without further approvals.
The drama is that CASA, as well as other regulatory bodies around the world, has decided the DJI Mini 5 Pro exceeds the 250g limit by a few grams, anecdotally apparently caused by the addition of a tiny on-board speaker. This of course means it is therefore out of the range of “recreational flying” department with its less strict rules, and into the commercial space.
Some people who have purchased the Mini 5 Pro are understandably a bit pissed off, thinking they were led to believe the Mini 5 Pro WAS under the 250g limit.
Just Stop For A Moment
But let’s just think about this for a bit; in the real world, what difference is it going to make to you? Sure, you need to register your drone with CASA, but is that such a big deal? It doesn’t cost anything, and on the upside, if you happen to lose your drone and someone finds it, it means you might get it back which otherwise probably wouldn’t happen.
Where and when you fly are not really affected either. If you want to fly near an airport, personally I think it is not a good idea anyway, and at worst, if you must, the process to get the drone unlocked, as I discovered on Cocos Island, is painless and again, free.
If you want to make money from your drone, whether it be from say, real estate usage, roof inspection or whatever, generally speaking you need to get an RePL whether it is over or under 250g, so that too is a moot point.
But the majority of arguments I have seen are either snarky at DJI for allowing it to happen or cursing the implication that Big Brother is stepping in and spoiling the fun potentially.
Those complaining that seem to think shaving a few grams off the weight is probably a trivial thing, I’d suggest a company with the engineering prowess of DJI would probably have thought of that and there is very good reason not to, but you’ll need to ask them that.
As for Big Brother, my take is that if you drive a car, motor bike or boat, you need to be licenced and so drone flyers should equally be responsible. A drone can do as much damage, if not more, as a renegade boat, badly driven car or runaway bike.
So, to simply just having to register is not that terrible when full on licencing is only needed when you have a commercial interest – and all industries have that situation. Think builders, mechanics, painters, electricians and so on.
Regulatory Thing
I don’t doubt that at some stage full licencing will be brought in for all drone flyers and the industry will be regulated. But as people thought might happen during the with the CB craze a few decades back, and didn’t, I don’t think we’ll have drone inspectors patrolling the streets, or other equally ridiculous policing.
It will just be a regulatory process like – well, a car, boat or even gun licence.
So no, not a big deal unless, as per usual, you have something to hide or are up to some nefarious activity.
One Comment
RePL holder here for drones up to 25kg, currently undertaking BVLOS and ReOC.
Some suburbs around Australia fall within 5km of an airport, for anyone doing drone work for real estate, this is a problem.
You can apply for an instrument of approval through CASA to get around this – but this is a lot of paperwork/time covering the area of operation, strict rules, requires a RePL, ReOC and $5K+ training.
The EU has allowed sub-250g drones the ability to fly incidentally over people, and operate with less restrictions. CASA is still very restrictive under 250g, but they may update this in the future.
You can operate a drone under 2kg commercially if registered with CASA under the excluded sub 2-kg category for a small fee. A number of professional drone operators have dropped the annual ReOC license fee and are operating DJI Mavic 3/4s under this category. Yes, you can get insurance and operate commercially with a few small caveats – similar to the rules for recreational use. For larger drones, BVLOS, high altitudes, night flying etc, you will need a ReOC and a full operations manual.
I’ve seen a number of posts similar to this. It might not have much of an impact on most people/hobbyists, but the sub 250g category exists for a good reason, including for commercial use.