£43 billion to include the broken drones littering the Welsh countryside?
Drones Bill said to be ready for world+dog's crayons 'this summer'
The UK's long-awaited Drones Bill will be out for public consultation "this summer" - though sources tell The Register that it has been stripped down in order to guarantee a smooth passage through Parliament. The summer pledge, while not new, came from a Department for Transport delegate during a panel session at this week's …
COMMENTS
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Sunday 17th June 2018 18:29 GMT John Brown (no body)
"£43 billion... Even if you're buying completely blinged out top of the range consumer drones, that's a couple of full beehives worth."
I suspect they mean a little more than just the consumer market. They are probably adding in large chunks of revenue already in existence but which will move into the "drone market". All sorts of inspection jobs, aerial photography, etc., ie revenue that already exists but may, possibly, be generated more efficiently at lower cost and more than likely higher profits rather than savings for the end users.
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Friday 15th June 2018 12:52 GMT Dodgy Geezer
Does anyone else worry about this?
...We understand that industry bodies expect the bill to be skeletal, in policy terms, with the precise details filled in at a later date by secondary legislation and binding guidance from regulators....
'Secondary legislation' means Orders in Council, which means directives from Ministers, which actually means whatever their department wants to do.
Binding Guidance from Regulators is similar.
This means that suddenly a new hobbyist area can be closed down on the whim of a few uneected officials. Haven't we had enough with sugar being banned?
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Friday 15th June 2018 15:56 GMT Anonymous Coward
Has to be in line of sight...
Under 7Kg has no upper weight limit but it has to be in visual range.
I can only just see the Phantom at 400ft anyway, and I lose visual sight of the spark before that so dont fly it that far away from me..
Of course the people breaking current rules and currently flying out of visual range will continue to do so regardless.
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Friday 15th June 2018 14:32 GMT Anonymous Coward
£42 Billion worth of business?
That last bit in the article - PwC's Elaine Whyte said that the £42bn
'... is not necessarily limited to the drones themselves but how you analyse the data that comes out, the data analytics, AI.'
So are they seeing a future where drones are freely able to gather data for analytics purposes, and indeed that this would be the primary purpose of much of the use of drones?
Can't they just settle for spying on us on-line and leave is to fuck alone in real life?
Or have I misunderstood?
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Saturday 16th June 2018 08:39 GMT Johndoe888
Exemption from Article 94A (the 400 foot rule)
The latest meeting between the Department for Transport (DfT), Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and representatives from the UK Model Flying Associations took place yesterday afternoon at the DfT offices in London.
The most urgent matter to address was the recent change to the Air Navigation Order (ANO) which introduced (in Article 94A) a 400ft height limit on the operation of all Small Unmanned Aircraft (SUA) which will come into effect on the 30th July 2018. Whilst the changes to the ANO are largely aimed at regulating 'drones', the 400ft restriction will also apply to model aircraft below 7Kg.
However, we are pleased to report that agreement was reached that the Model Flying Associations will collectively apply for an exemption from Article 94A to allow their members to continue operating model aircraft below 7Kg above 400ft as they do under the current ANO. The DfT and CAA were supportive of this course of action and did not foresee any reason why the exemption would not be in place in time for the 30th July.
Negotiations on the other changes introduced in the ANO, namely operator registration and online testing of pilots remain ongoing, but for now it is business as usual for members of the BMFA, LMA, SAA & FPVUK.
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Monday 18th June 2018 09:02 GMT Dodgy Geezer
Re: Exemption from Article 94A (the 400 foot rule)
...the Model Flying Associations will collectively apply for an exemption from Article 94A to allow their members to continue operating model aircraft below 7Kg above 400ft as they do under the current ANO....
So.... only club members? If you aren't a member of a club your flying is limited?
This is very like people claiming that hitting golf balls is dangerous, so people wil only be allowed to drive a golf ball 400ft - but golf club members can drive further.
The average amateur can drive a ball about 600ft. 400 ft is a good height for small models, but it will be regularly exceeded by thermal soarers. or slope soarers on a good day...
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Sunday 17th June 2018 03:27 GMT MachDiamond
Make it easy
Canada initially came out with some very rational regulations that the USA should have adopted straight away, but himmed and hawed for a couple of more years before finally mostly Xeroxing what Canada did under an FAA seal.
The UK could make life easy on themselves and just make a xerox of a xerox and get on with it. The US system has a mechanism for getting a waiver to go higher or exceeding other regulations on a case by case basis since there will always be outlying applications that are useful. More complex regulations and licensing is under consideration for larger craft and for applications such as crop dusting where the UAS will be out of sight. Simple qualifications for 7kg and under will cover a huge majority of commercial applications and define a clear set of flight rules so idiots will have their toys taken away for doing what idiots always do.