Drone Rules Every New Owner Needs

Mashable covered a self-flying camera drone. Small camera drones have become genuinely easy to fly, which has quietly created a large group of owners who have no idea they are operating aircraft subject to aviation law.

The rules vary by country, but the framework is now broadly similar across the UK, the EU and the US, and the principles are consistent everywhere.

Registration

Most jurisdictions require registration once the drone exceeds a weight threshold, or whenever it has a camera, whichever is stricter.

Two separate things are often involved: registering yourself as an operator, and passing a short online competency test as a pilot. They are not the same, and a household may need one operator registration but a test for each person flying.

The weight thresholds are low enough that a great many toy-sized camera drones are caught. Check your specific model’s take-off mass rather than assuming small means exempt.

The rules that apply almost everywhere

• Keep it in sight. Direct visual line of sight, unaided by anything except corrective lenses. Watching the camera feed does not count.
• Height limit. Typically 120 metres or 400 feet above the surface.
• Away from airports. Flight restriction zones extend several kilometres and are legally enforced with serious penalties.
• Distance from uninvolved people. The required separation depends on the drone class and weight.
• Never over crowds. Assemblies of people are prohibited for consumer categories without specific authorisation.
• Daylight and good visibility, unless specifically equipped and permitted otherwise.
• You are responsible for the flight, including when an automatic mode is doing the flying.

Follow-me modes do not transfer liability

Self-flying and subject-tracking modes are the selling point of this category, and they create a specific misunderstanding.

Automation does not make you a passenger. You remain the remote pilot, responsible for separation, airspace and everything the aircraft does. If a follow-me mode flies into someone, that is your incident.

It also does not suspend the line-of-sight rule. A drone that has followed you around a corner is being flown illegally in most jurisdictions, however capable its tracking is.

Where you take off from matters

Aviation authorities regulate the airspace. They do not grant permission to launch from the ground beneath it, and that is a separate question of land ownership.

Many parks, beaches, National Trust and heritage sites, nature reserves and local authorities prohibit take-off and landing on their land. So a flight can be perfectly legal in airspace terms and still be a trespass or a byelaw offence.

Nature reserves deserve particular care in breeding season, where disturbing wildlife carries its own penalties.

Filming other people

A camera drone is a data-processing device the moment it records identifiable people, and data protection law applies.

Purely personal recreational footage is generally exempt under the GDPR. Publishing it, monetising it, or filming with any organisational purpose is not, and hovering outside a neighbour’s window creates a harassment and privacy problem regardless of aviation rules.

The practical test is the same one that applies to smart glasses: not whether you are permitted, but whether the people in shot would object if they knew.

Before the first flight

1. Register, and take the competency test if required.
2. Install the app and check for a drone-specific airspace map for your country.
3. Update firmware before flying, not on the day.
4. Check insurance. Third-party liability cover is required for some categories and is sensible for all of them.
5. Learn the return-to-home behaviour and the failsafe on signal loss, because that is what the aircraft will do when something goes wrong.