Navigating Legislation in Australia to Utilise Drones for your Spatial Company
This article is not advice. Fact check all information before making any decisions and do your own research.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) governs airspace in Australia. The Civil Aviation Safety Regulations (CASR) Part 101 is the primary legislation for drone operations.
With that out of the way, how big do you want your unmanned aircraft to be? I am assuming everyone is flying for commercial purposes.
Categories for weight are:
For a spatial company, we should be looking at the "very small" and "small" categories. If you are looking at the medium and large categories then it's likely you already know what you're doing.
So what exactly do the "very small" sub 2kg category and "small" sub 25kg category of drone look like?
A sub 2kg drone is your standard domestic, free range, drone. It costs between $2000 - $9000 and flies around nice and zippy with a 4k stabilized camera for photography purposes. Some models even come with thermal cameras and most have GNSS capability. You can use these for small photogrammetry missions, photography or larger recon/flight planning. Think your DJI Mavic or Phantom series drones.
The "small" category, again being 2kg-25kg, is starting to look at some really serious hardware. This is a drone that can handle cinema grade cameras, weed spraying and LiDAR payloads among anything else you can probably imagine. If you are thinking about a drone in this category then I recommend establishing a clear business strategy and program because this will be a much more complex setup. That being said this is the category where hobby turns professional and in my opinion any serious spatial company should dabbling in drones should aim to achieve services delivered by this category.
Now back to the legislation and how your drone selection impacts your obligations.
For the "very small" category (250g-2kg)
You need an Aviation Reference Number (ARN). These come in individual or corporate format. The ARN is a personal identification number that links you and/or your company with CASA.
Once you have an ARN, go get yourself and RPA Operator Accreditation. This is a short quiz that is free to take and confirms you understand the basic rules everyone must follow
The final piece is to register your drone with CASA. Every ship needs a captain and aircraft are no different. If it's your aircraft you are responsible.
For the "small" Category (2kg-25kg):
Things get tricky here, CASA pretend like the small category is the same as the very small category but there is a key line that differentiates the requirements for our purposes: "provided you do not accept any type of payment for the services"
If you're a surveyor reading this article you obviously don't like money which is why you chose this career so this shouldn't be a problem and we can treat "small" category the same as "very small" as per CASA's communication.
I kid, because we are operating the drone for "reward" we are going to need 2 things; a Remote Pilot's License (RePL) and your company will need a Remote Operator's Certificate (ReOC).
The RePL involves a fairly heavy set of coursework to be completed through a certified training provider as well as a fairly difficult exam. When I sat my exam the pass rate was about 40%. If you have your exam coming up and want to score some notes reach out to me and I will be happy to help you out. Once you have your RePL, you can obtain a myriad of additional qualifications to augment your license. Things like fixed wing aircraft, weight categories (<7kg, <25kg etc.), flight conditions such as beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) and a whole host more. The RePL is your gateway drug to aviation training.
Moving on to the ReOC, this is a beefed up version of the company ARN mentioned earlier. A ReOC is a license held by the company to employ pilots holding a RePL and undertake relevant duties. This is essentially CASA saying "alright guys' we've let you have some fun with very small drones in limited conditions but now you're asking to play in the big leagues". For your company to obtain a ReOC you are going to need to employ someone with the title: "Chief Pilot". And give them all of the responsibilities outlined in "Civil Aviation Order 82.0 Instrument 2014".
Your Chief Pilot will largely bear the responsibility for managing your drone equipment (What CASA calls your "fleet"), your pilot's and anything drone/aviation related. But before you can get your ReOC, CASA requires your Chief Pilot to pass a test. They will be quizzed on everything your organisation is intending to do.
Getting a ReOC is no joke, it requires policy development, a dedicated position in your company and the ongoing management of drone operations. All of this will be audited upon your application for a ReOC. If CASA find, that there is a breach of the Regulations then bye bye ReOC. This could happen if you fail to keep operation flight records, your staff aren't adequately trained, there is an incident that endangers people or property and isn't appropriately handled or any other breach of the regulation. Its up to CASA whether or not you maintain your license.
Flight Conditions
Okay so that covers the process to navigate weight selection. Now we can talk about flying in different conditions. Flying conditions encompass where and when you want to fly.
As per the drone rules which apply to all categories you cannot:
And a few more rules. So this may restrict how you were intending on using the drone. Let's say you wanted to fly over a construction site with workers present to capture the condition. You cannot do this because there are people within 30m of your flight. Or maybe you want to fly just at dusk for that amazing golden hour shot. Can't do this either, Day and Night are actually defined terms and they are dictated by the Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP). Even if you have a RePL and your organisation holds a ReOC, you're just flat out of luck.
But wait, there is hope.
So you can get permission to carry out missions in all of these scenarios provided you perform the adequate due diligence and training. You will need to be operating under a ReOC structure and your Chief Pilot will need to develop the relevant flight plans and safety measures to submit to CASA for approval.
There is Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) training and an exam to allow RePL holders to conduct missions BVLOS.
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and Specific Operational Risk Assessment (SORA) training which will train you in how to assess and mitigate the relevant risks in your mission so that you can prepare a submission to CASA for the flight conditions you have identified.
And that pretty much sums up what you should need to navigate the legislative framework for drone usage.
If you found this article helpful or would like to know more please reach out.
Postscript: Helpful Webpages
Here is a list of helpful websites I have come across that help me manage drone operations:
OpenSky WebPage
Weather
Weather
Download page for all AIPs
Glossary for terms
Map with flights
App for mobile device to show airspace designations and assist flight ops
Desktop webpage to check whether you can fly in an area
App for mobile device to show airspace designations and assist flight ops
Post-post script responsibility:
Keep in mind that these tools/toys have proven to be extremely dangerous in military settings with a U.S. base in Jordan being placed under threat by a single drone earlier this year, and their use in the war in Ukraine being all too effective. All im trying to say is that if you think the rules/laws are prohibitive, remember they are designed to keep everyone safe and prevent awful situations. I see these tools as wonderful and make being a surveyor just that much cooler. But there is considerable risk. They can fall out of the sky unexpectedly. They can be used to spy or harm. You must take your responsibility seriously when operating a drone.
Stay Safe!
Sales Development Manager
1 年thanks Huon Wilson this is very good, thanks for sharing
Product Owner for Simply.ai for AI/ML/RPA Integration
1 年Fantastic, thanks Huon. Practical and fun to read.
Creating value for clients with Geospatial Solutions at Woolpert Asia Pacific
1 年Great article Huon!