Unmanned Aerial Systems – A Beginners Guide
An Introduction To The UAS Industry – Training, News and Comment
Just a quick post and link to the latest CAA CAP 722 Unmanned Aerial Systems Operations in UK Airspace – Guidance
http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=33&pagetype=65&appid=11&mode=detail&id=415
Have a read and fly safe.
TU
I finally got my hands on the new DJI Inspire 1 this weekend. First off, WOW. Secondly, WOW.
I don’t want to go into detail about that now, but if you are currently thinking of buying an Inspire 1, in my opinion its money well spent. I will be writing about my new Inspire shortly.
What i do want to talk about is where and when you can actually fly you new investment, for fun, without falling foul of the law.
Before we begin, lets discuss the cold hard fact. A Pilot must remain in Visual Line Of Sight, of the aircraft at all times. It cannot go beyond 500 meters in distance from the Pilot (120 meters if you own a Phantom Vision 2 Plus) and no more than 400 feet vertically (120 meters).
In addition you must not fly within 50 meters of people, buildings and objects not under your supervision (except take off at 30 meters). 150 Meters away from Roads, Congested areas, towns etc. There are other stipulations which i will link to at the bottom. These are specifically covered in CAA Regulations 138, 166 and 167.
So where can you actually fly? If you have a house with a huge garden and no neighbours in any direction for 150 meters helps. If your not the Duke of Westminster, you could opt for a large public field or open face and hope people don’t turn up. Join a flying club. Or go into the Countryside?
I live on the outskirts of the countryside, in Yorkshire. Southerns would argue the entire ‘North’ is the countryside, so by that logic, you’d think us Northerns could fly our UAS anywhere…. think again.
On Sunday morning i ventured into Derbyshire with my Family. I’ve been going there since i was a child, so i knew a very scenic, but more importantly, remote spot where i could test my Inspire for the first time.
We left the car and headed up the side of a hill, overlooking fields etc. The video below shows how remote it was.
I took the Inspire for a short 5 minute flight, go a little too giddy, so used the Auto-land function and decided to have a sandwich.
Within an hour, two other RC hobbyists appeared on an a hill close by. One came over and asked what Frequency i was using. They weren’t flying multi-rotas, they had huge 12 feet fixed wing aircraft. They were huge!
I sat and watched them flying in the distance, and decided to have another short flight. I only had one battery charged, so after 10 minutes, i brought the Inspire down.
As i did a someone called over from afar. I couldn’t make out what he said. So walked over. He was not looking happy and he was walking over in the direction of the two fixed wing pilots.
He saw me coming and waited. He told me that although the field was open access land, it wasn’t common land and he was the landlord. He had allowed people to fly there until very recently when his remit for bird conservation had changed, and he could no longer allow people to fly there from March to July.
In short, although i was in the middle of no where, in what i thought was a National Park, and therefore land free to be used by the public, it is, with restrictions.
You can access some land across England and Wales without having to use paths – this land is known as ‘open access land’ or ‘access land’. Access land includes mountains, moors, heaths and downs that are privately owned. It also includes common land registered with the local council. Your right to access this land is called the right, or freedom, to roam.
You can use access land for walking, running, watching wildlife and climbing. There are certain activities you can’t usually do on access land, including:
- horse-riding
- cycling
- fishing
- camping
- water sports
- taking animals other than dogs on to the land
- driving a vehicle – Operating a UAS would come under here i presume?
https://www.gov.uk/right-of-way-open-access-land/use-your-right-to-roam
The fixed wing pilots had already been informed of this only the previous weekend, and had gone against the Farmers request not to fly. He was also not happy because twice last year, large 10 – 15 feet fixed wing RC aircraft had crashed in his field.
The debate raged for at least 40 minutes. The Pilots argument was fair, they are out in the middle of now where, there were no people around, no buildings or roads, and more importantly no signs indicating Birding Programs.
The Farmers argument was sound. As the landowner, he makes the rules. He was happy to accommodate the Sheffield Model Flying Club (whom both pilots were members of) but it must be done in line with ‘his’ rules set by the some farming governing body (cant remember what he called it)
I listened to the discussion for sometime. I asked the Farmer, who turned out to be a throughly decent and fair chap called Hayden, if there was anywhere in the region we could fly. He said pretty much NO, unless you have the permisson from the Landowner, and almost all of the land in Derbyshire is owned privately!!!!!
He said that if people would approach him directly, he would also be willing to discuss flying on his land, when it doesnt effect his responsibilities.
That said. Is it easy to find the land owner, when the land he owns covers tens of square miles. No, and if you just want to fly your Phantom for 5 minutes and get some scenic shots, are you going to spend your afternoon knocking on Farm doors?
Lets be honest, the Fixed Wing Pilots are the ones we want flying RC craft. Yes, they might be interrupting the nesting of a Lark, but at least they drove into the countryside, and found a safe and secluded spot to fly their aircraft. If everyone who owned a UAS was a safety conscientiously as they were, we would have a lot less incidents.
From a safety point of view, my Inspire cannot be categorised with one of those huge fixed wing. They don’t have the safety technology installed that something like the Inspire has. I can bring my UAS down, vertically immediately. I watched for 10 minutes after the Farmer told the Pilots to land, before they were actually able to bring the craft to a stop.
I walked back to my family with Hayden, he showed me where he lived, and told me the next time i want to fly, come back in July and he will arrange an area, designated for UAS flying. He also said he would be interested in learning about the Practical and Business applications a UAS like the Inspire could have for his Farm. As i said, throughly nice chap.
So, the next time, you decide you want to go for a safe flight, away from people, and you think the countryside is the best place to go, make sure your in the right spot!
TU
The House of Lords EU Committee is suggesting recommendations for a UAS owners register.
This has been on the horizon for the past year now, and i am fully behind most the recommendations. I appreciate the comments, that those wishing to use a UAV for illegal or terrorist activities, are not likely to register their name and home address! But it is a step in the right direction.
The database will initially include business and professional organisations. However i was under the impression that this information was already stored in the CAA database, which is available to the public. I blogged about on the 15th Feb, there were 483, this figure is grown to 536!
Click to access 26Feb15%20RptUAVcurrentDates.pdf
I wonder who the House of Lords wants to add to this list? Individual UAS Pilots name, business, CAA number and approval date? Or will this be the start of more Big Brother excuses from the Powers that Be, and every individual who buys a UAS has to register…..then how long is it before everyone who registers needs to pay an annual fee or ensure everyone has UAS insurance or even make every user pass a competency exam?
I think this is a fantastic opportunity for Britain and the CAA to lead the world in Commercial UAS regulations AND use. There is no point having all these rules but restricting their future application (AmazonPrime Air in looking at you guys). We are just scratching the surface for UAS application. For an industry set to worth Billions, employing Thousands across Europe, we need to get it right, right from the start.
This is all my wild speculation, and may not happen, but here are some recommendations that will….
All wise suggestions and i think these will be appreciated by the law abiding recreational and commercial UAS community in the UK….
What won’t help though, are frankly, stupid, comments made by those is power or authority. Professor David Dunn, who has written about this for the Royal Institute for International Affairs, was quoted saying…
“The technologies have the capacity to crash into people and kill them, as they have done in the States….”
WHAT!?!?!?!? Not one single person has EVER, been killed by a commercial UAS, in America or anywhere in the World. Yes, Military Drones kill people everyday, but no one has ever lost their life because of a rogue DJI Phantom! Comments like this, taken out of context do our Industry, no favours what so ever.
You can find more information of the story, from my source BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31735662
I will be keeping an eye on UAS forums over the next few days to gauge the response from those of us it will affect the most.
Safe flying
TU
Unmanned Aerial Systems - A Beginners Guide 