A lot of people often ask about the legalities surrounding aerial filming and the UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), or Drone flying course and people who are or aren’t licensed, so here’s our take on it, along with a few thoughts.

I have passed the BNUC-S courses as a competent UAV pilot. I’ve had to go through a ground exam (safety, legal, technical), write an operations manual (procedures, safety, UAV specifics), and a flight exam (manoeuvres, procedures, handling). This gets me a EuroUSC qualification which, on it’s own, doesn’t permit me to do anything more than any hobbiest who hasn’t taken it. However, it makes participants aware of safety and legal issues and potential problems, and offers advice on best practice. Above all, it also allows me to get UK CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) approval to fly the UAV for the company and for clients’ films.

And there’s the difference. At present aerial filming and photography hobbyists are allowed to fly a UAV as much as they wish as long as they don’t make any money for it. The moment you make money, you have to pass the BNUC-S and get CAA approval. Sure, there are a lot of other rules (maximum / minimum distances, heights, no fly zones etc), but these apply to everyone, hobbyists or professional.

This is where, I believe, you often get a lot of negative reporting in the media regarding UAVs. One of the big points of the BNUC-S course is regarding where you can fly. The rules are that you cannot fly within 50m of any person or property, unless that person/building is under the pilot’s control – i.e. they’ve had a safety talk, they understand what the drone will do etc. The rules also state you cannot fly over a congested area without (additional) prior approval from the CAA, and you must stay 150m away from any gathering of 1000+. Your UAV must also be in Visual Line of Sight at all times.

These rules are exactly the same for hobbyists. The problem, I think, is that they just don’t know them. Or they don’t understand what they all mean (there are quite a few grey areas). The media do a decent job each time there is an ‘incident’, but a lot of the time I think it’s pointless to lay down lots of rules and expect people to know them. If there were a simple set of rules for hobbyists, this would go a long way towards everyone knowing where the line is drawn. At the moment the only line is whether money (or some other form of compensation) is transferred. Quite fairly, hobbyists would imagine that the rules for those passing the test are different to theirs. And they’re not.

For more info about the legalities or the an enquiry into our aerial filming or aerial photography services, please get in touch with us via the contact form.

Iain