Flying a Drone for Fun or Recreational Purposes? Here’s What You Need to Know!

Want to fly an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or Remotely Piloted Aircraft for fun and recreation and not sure about the rules to be followed? Here are the rules for you to fly a UAV/RPA without the approval from Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA).

• Fly only in visual line-of-sight, in day visual meteorological conditions (VMC), which simply means no night flying
• No flying in or through cloud or fog
• The drone should be with your own eyes and not through FPV (First Person View, Binoculars and Telescopes)
• 30 metres distance should be kept from people, vehicles, boats or buildings
• No flying over populous area i.e. Beaches, parks or Sports ovals where a game is in progress
• No flying over controlled airspaces, which covers most Australian cities. Must not fly higher than 120 metres (400 feet) above the ground
• No creating hazard to other aircraft. 5.5 km distance should at least be maintained at other airfields, aerodromes and helicopter landing sites
• The UAV / RPA should not fly over prohibited/restricted area unless you have the permission of the authority controlling the area
• Illegal to fly for money or economic rewards unless you have an RPA operators certificate

The above-mentioned rules are for Hobbyist/Non-commercial Flight and for Very Small RPAs (under 2 kg). If you are planning to fly your drone for money, rules differ based on the size of the drone like flying commercially under 2kg, flying commercially over 2kg and flying in commercial-like operations over your own land.