Don’t be a dickhead and fly responsibly. A drone tale of stupidity.

In Western Australia over the last few of days we have had some pretty nasty bushfires. One in particular was a bit close to home – the actual fire was only 3Km or so away and 24 hours later the main highway in and out of the area is still closed. At the height of the blaze, we got caught in a traffic jam as a consequence of the fire, for over an hour.

Much worse were fires north of the capital Perth, in Lancelin, 300Km to the north of me, where over 1000 homes had to be evacuated and some were lost.

Nasty.

It has been reported today that at a critical time of the blaze, for over an hour, all the water bombers and other aircraft had to be grounded as some clown decided to send his or her drone up to supposedly get some video footage of the fire.

Under Australian law, they could get a fine of at least $9,000 and a possible maximum $50,000 under emergency services laws, if / when caught. Police are saying they have the tech to down the drone and catch the perpetrator, but not confirming, as yet, that they have done so.

I hope they do.

Sadly, some of the comments in various Facebook groups that concentrate on drone flying are at best, misinformed and uneducated, and at worst, downright stupid. For example:

“You know, back in the war, they used to fly aircraft while being shot at with all kinds or artillery. Now they scared of a drone in the same space?”

And.

“All sorts of aircraft from big passenger planes, military, hang gliders and paragliders, microlights, crop dusters, single engine, helicopters and more all manage their airspace but a $2000- drone grounds everything?”

10 seconds thought would reveal the water bombers, helicopters and so on drop down very low to release their payloads, and if a drone was sucked into an engine, it could bring that aircraft down with catastrophic results.

Not to mention the time and potentially, properties and even lives lost because of it.

And all for the sake of a hero snap or video to show how clever you are and can call yourself a “pilot”?

People like this are a very good reason why drone operators should be officially licenced as they are the ones, thankfully in the minority, that can screw it up for everyone else.

You can’t drive on the road or skipper a boat without a licence, so why should you be able to fly without one is a perfectly reasonable question many may ask.

(If you have a drone – or get one for Christmas – and are not familiar with the relevant rules and regulations as laid down by CASA, the governing body of Australia’s airspace, you can find them here. There are plenty of other tips there too including how to get footage, editing and much more).