Drone Regulations

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And that is unfortunately very true these days in the Canadian province of British Columbia, where a huge amount of fires have been raging. Now, Transport Canada has issued a statement reminding drone pilots to stay clear, and follow all the rules so as not to interfere with operations near wildfires.

Alas, yet another report has come down of a close call between a passenger plane and an illegally operated uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) – this time from Scotland. The near-miss incident involved a drone coming within 100 feet of a commercial airliner during its approach to Glasgow’s Paisley Airport – and at night to boot.

Friends don’t let friends fly a drone while drunk. You know it, we know it. But it appears this 56-year-old man in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture doesn’t know it. For he thought it would be OK to take a long-forgotten drone out for a spin after guzzling eight 350 ml cans of beer.

COVID air travel bans may continue to frustrate holidaymakers, but in India, the skies are finally opening up for business. Only four months after it was introduced, India has junked a contentious drone policy that made industry compliance virtually impossible. Taking its place is the new Draft Drone Rules 2021.

India has decided to free its drone industry from countless complexities and sluggish bureaucracy. The new draft drone rules proposed by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) – Drone Rules, 2021 – promise to bring in an era of trust, self-certification, and non-intrusive monitoring. Here are the 20 biggest takeaways…

In what can only be described as a win for the drone community in India, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has repealed the “UAS Rules” that came into force in March 2021. Based on the “valuable feedback from academia, industry, and other stakeholders,” a new set of draft drone rules are being introduced to regulate drone-related activities in a manner that they do not pose any risk to the safety or security of people and property.

With its purchase of a composite glider company DG Flugzeugbau, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) heavyweight Volocopter has done more than expanded through acquisition. It has also taken a major step forward toward its goal of obtaining air taxi operating authorization from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

The US Chamber of Commerce is leading a coalition of diverse organizations urging the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to move quickly to implement rules designed to protect critical infrastructure facilities from drone threats. As such, the initiative represents an emphatic and very public call by influential business groups for the FAA to get the lead out.

Operation Foreverwing, a new initiative launched to tackle irresponsible or illegal drone flying in the United Kingdom, is taking off. This month, a drone pilot accused of flying illegally over the headquarters of UK’s foreign intelligence service, MI6, in central London was slapped with a fine of £5,000 or $6,900.

Three European associations are linking up in their collective effort to speed development of urban air mobility (UAM). By coordinating their work, the trio hopes to usher in the era of routine drone operation in human transport, delivery, and emergency services across the European Union (EU).

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has taken an additional step toward the day when beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone operation will be routine. After last week’s announcement it had created a new committee to propose BVLOS regulations, on Monday the FAA tapped safety avionics technology company Iris Automation to participate in that rule-making process.

The Federal Aviation Committee (FAA) is creating a new committee to work up rules to allow routine beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone operations. The development was announced at the virtual FAA Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Symposium.

New York’s Syracuse hospital and its drone industry partners have successfully completed a year-long trial of unmanned aerial vehicle medical deliveries, yet doubts remain about when those operations may become reality.

The Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Orange County, California, is supposed to be a safe haven for nesting and breeding birds. But over the last two weeks, the 1,300-acre coastal estuary has turned into a mass burial ground for unborn elegant terns. And reckless drone pilots are to blame.

Drone pilots in Canada have a new tool at their disposal. NAV Canada, the country’s air navigation service provider, has released a new app that will allow pilots to quickly tell where they can and cannot fly, as well as offering a rapid approval process for flights in controlled airspace.

In February 2021, a drone pilot in Auckland was slapped with a $1,000 fine after he crashed his drone into a trainee paraglider. The conviction was the first of its kind in New Zealand. Now, that pilot is appealing the sentence, saying the conviction would gravely affect his future career prospects.

Aviation solutions startup Airspace Link knows that drone operations can often be confusing for both pilots and the communities they fly in. This is why it has developed a GIS-based digital mapping tool that fuses the needs of both federal and local governments to help drone pilots make informed decisions. And now, the Detroit-based company has raised a cool $10 million in Series A funding to advance its mission.

The rapid increase of drone use in a variety of enterprise activities has made upgrading their regulation both inevitable and anticipated. One such revamp is now in the works following a National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) decision to expand its criteria for examining accidents involving commercial drones.

Are you a drone pilot in the US, Canada, or one of the EU countries? If you haven’t yet registered your drone, now’s a great time to do so.

OK. We’ll admit that headline might not hook all of you. But with drone Fleet Management tools and autonomous deliveries, it’s a big issue for the industry – and it made for a fascinating panel discussion on the closing day of this year’s XPONENTIAL online conference.

One of the challenges regulators have is getting across their message. In this example, the folks from the comms department of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) have really nailed it.