Today, I noticed this post on Facebook, in which Stephen Timewell explains that his(?) English Drone User Magazine (like many magazines) is going through tough times. Since reporting on drone news is limited already, I would hate to see this UK publication go away. Just now I opened an account and am waiting for their email, so that I can subscribe to their online version for £34.99. Which, btw, also gives me access to their entire back catalogue! Drone User Magazine comes out every month and features many great articles.
A new project announced on Wednesday by the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) will explore how current laws and regulations can be developed to allow search and rescue drones to be used to in coastline rescues. The drones will reach incidents first and relay critical information back to the MCA headquarters.
Police in the United Kingdom will soon be able to police drones in a similar fashion to how cars are policed today. UK Police will be able to force people to land drones, which they are then able to inspect and seize if necessary.
In the UK, the police have warned criminals, “You won’t be able to hide from our new drone,” which can track suspects fleeing crimes such as burglary and robbery. As part of a new drone team at the Nottinghamshire Police, 15 officers are being trained as drone pilots. Once the officers arrive at the scene of a crime, a drone can be deployed within eight minutes.
Wing Aviation, Google‘s take on drone delivery, is now venturing into the UK by starting a new holding company to possibly launch delivery drones. Formerly known as Google Wing, Wing Aviation made it out of Google X and took on drone delivery in east Australia and is currently in operation.
A report by UK‘s Air Accidents Investigation Branch found that DJI Matrice 200 drones used by police were falling out of the sky in the rain due to a technical fault. The drone pilots lost full control and power of the drone causing it to fall straight down to the ground while in use by police.
Today we have the pleasure of introducing you to Maritime Filming UK and one of their employees, Alex Anderson, who also happens to be one of Britain’s youngest commercial drone pilots at 18 years old. As the name suggests, Maritime Filming UK focuses on aerial photography and videography of boats, ships, and marine life in general, and they are the second entry in our brand-new DroneDJ Spotlight Series.
Slowly but surely, routing drone deliveries as once predicted by Jeff Bezos from Amazon are becoming a reality. Making beyond visual line of sight drone operations commonplace is a big step in that direction and in the UK, the Civil Aviation Authority just made a big announcement. See below for details.
Along the south coast of England, drones will monitor for migrant boats trying to bring people into the country illegally. The unmanned aerial systems (UAS) will cover a large area of the Channel, from Eastbourne to Margate.
On their website today, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announces new drone and model aircraft registration and education service that will come into effect and law on November 30, 2019, in the UK. Any drone pilot or operator flying a drone between 250 grams (0.55 lbs) and 20 kilograms (88 lbs) will need to register as an operator. The registration will need to be renewed every year for a cost of £9 or almost $12 USD.
It took a bit of a workaround to hide my ass before I was able to watch the BBC Two documentary Britain’s Next Air Disaster? Drones. The hourlong documentary is presented by former Royal Marine commando, sniper, and now self-proclaimed high-risk adviser Aldo Kane. The term documentary is a bit of a misnomer in this case, as the short film tries to instill a fear of drones among its viewers. Rather than looking at all the ways in which drones can benefit our society, it focuses almost exclusively on how drones can disrupt air traffic at airports, severely damage airplanes in a collision, how terrorists might use drones to attack innocent civilians, and how little we can do to protect ourselves from these unmanned aircraft. Not much time is spent on how drones have saved people’s lives during search-and-rescue missions, aided firefighters (Notre Dame), restored communication networks, helped assess damage after natural disasters and wildfires, and delivered life-saving medication and in the future possibly organs to people in need. Instead, the documentary, produced by Horizon, paints a very negative and one-sided story about drones and how they might impact our society.
UK database capturing information of drone pilots would cost an eye-watering £4m. The government database would collect the personal information of around 150.000 UK drone pilots. Apart from its very high initial price, the database would cost another £2.9m per year to maintain. The new database would be significantly more expensive than other previously used and comparable databases in the UK. The cost per drone pilot would come down to approximately £16.50 per pilot per year. In comparison, the FAA charges ‘only $5 USD once to register as a hobbyist drone pilot in the US.
According to safety experts, UK drone incidents rose more than a third in 2018. The UK Airprox board recorded 125 dangerously close encounters or drone incidents in 2018. This number is more a third higher than in 2017 when only 93 drone incidents were recorded. 71 incidents were recorded in 2016. It should come as no surprise that 39 of the 125 drone incidents occurred at the UK’s busiest airport Heathrow.
UK farmers could face hefty fines for breaking drone rules. According to a rural insurer, NFU many farmers are not aware of the drone rules and regulations that apply to flying their unmanned aircraft in the United Kingdom. Breaking these rule,s unintentionally or not, may expose the farmers to thousands of pounds in fines.
In England, a judge orders the Severn bridge climbers drone to be destroyed. Alexandru Scutaru, 30 had climbed the M48 Severn bridge that connects England and Wales, in an attempt to fly his drone and capture footage for Instagram. The factory worker scaled the bridge despite his fear of heights after his GoPro Karma drone failed to take off from land. The incident took place on December 31st, 2018 and was covered here on DroneDJ
In the wake of the ‘drone sightings’ at Gatwick and Heathrow Airports, the rules for flying unmanned aircraft in the UK are about to become quite a bit more strict in the near future. For instance, as of March 13th when the new rules will come into effect, no drones or model aircraft will be allowed to fly within 5km or 3 miles of an airfield perimeter. DJI recently welcomed the new UK rules, that includes the drone ‘no-fly zone’ around UK airports.
British racecourses want to ban drones during horse races, but not out of fear for the safety of the horses and their riders. No, the tracks want to ban drones because they might be used by in-running punters, who would use the real-time photos or video to get an advantage over fellow gamblers. One of the leading racecourse operators in the country said drone operators selling the images to gamblers would be regarded as theft. What was not said is that these drones are a threat to the lucrative business performed by the racetracks that rent out spots along the track for a hefty price to gamblers to get an edge. Expand Expanding Close
Three weeks after the Gatwick fiasco, now Heathrow Airport halted departures and closed a runway after a possible drone sighting late Tuesday evening. About an hour later, the departures had resumed at Europe’s busiest airport. On Tuesday night, Britain’s transport secretary, Chris Grayling said that the military was ready to deploy the same military-grade counter-drone equipment that was used at Gatwick, “should it prove necessary.”
The Severn Bridge that connects England to Wales was shut down earlier today after a man had climbed the bridge to fly a drone from the top. The drone incident follows the Gatwick Airport drone fiasco that took place right before the Holidays.
Drones have caused chaos for many thousands of holiday travelers at London’s second-busiest airport. Officials of London’s Gatwick airport have said that 110,000 passengers and 760 flights are scheduled today. However, because of the multiple drone inferences currently, none of these flights can take off or land. The first delays caused by the drones happened late last night. Normal flight operations resumed around 3 am, only to be halted again an hour later when a drone was seen again.
Check out these two videos of steam locomotives riding through the British countryside. The first one shows the Dartmouth Steam Railway in the English Riviera and was captured with the Inspire 2 and Olympus 12mm lens. The second one shows the Black Prince at North Norfolk Railway in Sheringham. Check ’em out if you can spare a minute. Expand Expanding Close
New research from the BBC shows that the number of new-misses in the UK skies has increased by 60% in the last five years. The most serious incidents, classed as Category A airproxes, more than doubles between 2013 and 2017. Half of these Category A near-misses, unfortunately, involved drones.
Drone incidents have been on the rise for the last three years in the UK, ultimately resulting in new drone rules coming into effect today. The new UK laws will prohibit drone from being flown over 400 feet and within one kilometer (0.62 miles) of official airport boundaries. Other new rules, that would prohibit kids from flying drones weighing more than 250 grams without an adult, are still being worked on and may come into effect later. The new rules aim to improve aviation safety in the UK.
A couple of days ago, drone enthusiast David Eighteen took his Yuneec Typhoon H (not the Plus) to the waterfront of the River Medway and sort of stumbled upon this almost 100-year-old U-boat while flying his drone. David’s hi-res aerial photos and some additional research into this shipwreck make for a very interesting story and it is a great example of how drones can open up a new world that otherwise may go unnoticed.
