Monitoring various Facebook groups for drone flyers as I do, there is a lot of misinfomation that gets floated around, not the least being the so-called 250g rule, along with the locations where you can and cannot fly.
So to clear these up once and for all:
ALL Drones unless under relevant commercial licence
Keep the drone in visual line of sight, stay below 120 m, keep 30 m from people, and avoid emergency operations and restricted airspace.
If you fly for fun, you don’t need to register your drone, hold a licence, or hold an operator accreditation. That applies even to micro drones under 250 g. BUT if you gain any monetary reward, you DO need to be registered with CASA.
Drones Over 250g
If your drone weighs over 250 g, you must stay at least 5.5 km away from a controlled aerodrome (one with a control tower).
Drones Under 250g
A micro drone (250 g or less) can fly within 5.5 km at up to 45 m, according to CASA’s drone safety rules video BUT it must stay outside the airport boundary and clear of approach and departure paths.
Where Can You Fly?
For DJI drone owners, this has changed in the last few months. Previously, if you were in a location that DJI deemed was not a place you could fly without authorization, your drone was geolocked and you needed to go through a process to remove that locking. For an example, see my story on flying on Cocos / Keeling Islands. This has since changed; now the onus is on you within the DJI Fly app by opening up the locked section yourself, but acknowledging any issues are your responsibility.
Personally, if I was in the same situation as I was at Cocos now, I think I would still give the relevant airport staff and management the courtesy of a phone call or visit to advise them so they can get back to you immediately if something does require you not to fly eg an emergency or whatever.
Conclusion
I do have a video on my CC-TV YouTube Channel that covers all the rules and regs re: flying. It is to be updated with these new rules as soon as I can, but all the other information is still relevant.
If you want to take this one step further, I can heavily recommend Global Drone Solutions for weekend drone flying lessons for beginners (Perth and surrounds based at this stage), or if you wish to go the whole hog and get the RePL licence, Global Drone Solutions has both online and in-house courses throughout Australia.
Their details and more information can be obtaiuned by clicking the button below.
