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Regulating the UAV Industry: Current Status and Future Trends
“Regulation” is the latest buzzword to emerge out of the UAV industry, with concerns
over safety, privacy, data protection and liability all calling existing regulation into question. Recent increases in potentially dangerous UAV activity, including illegal flights over
football pitches and narrowly avoided collisions with traditional manned aircraft, have
also served to bolster concerns over the adequacy of existing UAV regulation. Whilst
such debates are dominating the UAV industry at present, is UAV regulation really a
cause for concern?
Current UAV regulation requires the following from UAV pilots. Pilots must maintain
visual line of sight of their UAV at all times, with regulations limiting UAVs to flying no
further than 500m horizontally from their operator’s position. UAVs cannot be flown
above 400ft altitude in order to avoid collisions with manned aircraft. It is also illegal
to fly a UAV over a congested area; regulations require that UAVs are not flown within
50m of any person or structure. Aside from following these rules hobbyist UAV users do
not need to seek specific permissions for UAVs weighing up to 20kg. If you are looking
to use a UAV for business or commercial activity, or you are flying a UAV fitted with a
camera within congested areas or closer than 50 metres of any person or structure, you
must obtain an aerial works permission from the CAA. In order to obtain an aerial works
permission you need to gain a remote pilot qualification; pilot qualification courses are
currently offered by two organisations, EuroUSC and Resource Group.
There have been increased calls in recent months for more comprehensive regulations
than these to be implemented across the UAV sector. However, Joseph Dalby, Director
of Flightpath Consulting and a Barrister at 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square has commented that it
is not a question of whether a more comprehensive system of UAV regulation is needed,
but whether existing regulation is fit-for-purpose. Joseph has noted that ‘UAV Regulation is, like the UAV sector, at an early stage of development, and the main motivation is
safety, as it should be…The approach is cautious and the intention is, largely, to restrict
not enable activity whilst thinking, technology, and user demand evolves. Current regulations have also been relatively effective in the area of air safety. It has been based on
segregation of UAV operations from controlled airspace’. He also went on to comment
that ‘the basic principles are derived from commercial aviation and air space law. They
are likely to remain unchanged. To that extent it [UAV regulation] is fit for current purpose, but a more comprehensive system is needed to facilitate commercial UAV growth.
That will come through the issue of individual permissions for dedicated purposes’.
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