Drones provide hours of flying fun but understanding the safety rules is essential before taking off.
With drones more popular than ever, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) is encouraging first-time users—especially children—to understand that ‘Rules apply when you fly’ and to ‘Fly responsibly’.
A new animation, released today, promotes the basic do’s and don’ts of drone flying.
CASA’s acting Director of Aviation Safety, Graeme Crawford, says the new drone safety animation is designed to make the drone safety rules clear to drone pilots of all ages. ‘Drone flyers are pilots and when they fly their aircraft they share the skies with a range of other aircraft including commercial airliners, helicopters, recreational aircraft and sport aircraft and there is a responsibility that goes along with having that access.’
‘It’s our role to make sure that drone flyers know there are safety rules that must be followed before they take off whether it is for the first time or subsequently. These rules exist to keep people and other aircraft in the skies safe and we hope that this animation is something that parents and teachers can use to educate future drone pilots about how to stay safe.’
When flying your drone:
- Always keep it within your line of sight
- Don’t fly your drone higher than 120 metres
- Keep your drone at least 30 metres away from people
- Don’t fly in built-up areas
- Land your drone immediately if you see an aircraft nearby
- Don’t fly at night, in fog or in cloud
- Don’t fly within 5.5 km of an airport
- Always respect people’s privacy.
