CASA (Civil Aviation Safety Authority) Drone use rules and guidelines

[Jaded62]

My son has recently purchased a DJI Mavic Mini which is an amazing (to me) piece of kit. The tech in terms of aeronautics, battery, range and electronics, camera and gimble are fantastic for a device this size.

I've read the rules and they all seem reasonable to me except the line of sight bit. The Mini is so small that it is easily lost in the background sky at say 30-40 metres. This on a device that has a range of kilometers.

I have a Mavic Pro and there are only 5 rules I need to bother with here in Mandurah WA.
Stay 5kms from an airport with a tower, no restrictions without just don't fly if a plane comes in
Maximum altitude is 120m
Stay 30m away from other people
Stay line of site with your drone, physically, not what you see on your screen
And last of all don't fly at night

I don't find this at all restrictive and really enjoy my drone flying experience.

[flashc]

I now take my handheld radio scanner with me around non controlled airports so I can hear the pilots talking to traffic control in Brisbane and other planes in the local area...
Water bombing planes are using our airport as a base at present and make for interesting plane photos when they're landing and taking off (photos I take from the ground of course)

[Mark L]

I now take my handheld radio scanner with me around non controlled airports so I can hear the pilots talking to traffic control in Brisbane and other planes in the local area...
Water bombing planes are using our airport as a base at present and make for interesting plane photos when they're landing and taking off (photos I take from the ground of course)

mmmm, planes in non-controlled air space will not be talking to controlled airspace in Brisbane? Do you hear a reply to the pilots calls when taking off or landing?? If you do then that will probably be from a local Incident Management Team looking after a fireground and indicate controlled air space. Maybe they do things a bit different in QLD. Surprise
Basically if they are aircraft dealing with a fire then drones are out of order and photography from the ground is go for it. Fire-grounds not using aircraft are probably okay but be aware that above any of them icon in the QFS link you posted is controlled air space and even if there's no planes around you can't go there with drone.

[flashc]

Planes communicating with Brisbane are commercial flights and they also have to announce on the local frequency what they're doing locally

[markdphotography]

My son has recently purchased a DJI Mavic Mini which is an amazing (to me) piece of kit. The tech in terms of aeronautics, battery, range and electronics, camera and gimble are fantastic for a device this size.

I've read the rules and they all seem reasonable to me except the line of sight bit. The Mini is so small that it is easily lost in the background sky at say 30-40 metres. This on a device that has a range of kilometers.

The line of sight is the most important my REPL Assessor told me. You loose spatial depth when you focus on the screen only. The field of view is narrow as is your focus when you look at the screen only. A small drone is just as dangerous to other aircraft as a larger one. All countries have differing sight/distance requirments as they are made for an international market and it is a bit like a car speed. Most new cars can do over 110klms per hour easily but that is the speed limit in Australia. The same applies to a drone (large or small), even though they can fly further, the regs say not out of sight. You can get lights, and other skins to make them more visible to the pilot and other aircraft.

[enseth]

The line of sight is the most important my REPL Assessor told me

You would think if this was the case all countries would make this a mandatory regulation, which is far from the case. Just saying.

[flashc]

Pizza and parcel deliveries won't be line of sight as companies lobby to get what they want for their commercial operations
Their drones would have multiple backup systems

[Jaded62]

The line of sight is the most important my REPL Assessor told me. You loose spatial depth when you focus on the screen only. The field of view is narrow as is your focus when you look at the screen only. A small drone is just as dangerous to other aircraft as a larger one. All countries have differing sight/distance requirments as they are made for an international market and it is a bit like a car speed. Most new cars can do over 110klms per hour easily but that is the speed limit in Australia. The same applies to a drone (large or small), even though they can fly further, the regs say not out of sight. You can get lights, and other skins to make them more visible to the pilot and other aircraft.

I'll see if I can find a flouro skin for it. Might scare the birds away too. Was attacked the other day by something.

[flashc]

I have a rechargeable bright flashing white light that attaches to a drone
Thought it may be useful if it ever crashes into some long grass or bush
I also have a small flashing white led that I was intending to Velcro on top with a 3 volt button battery for power