Good to know! I should just start applying for them, and work my way up to 10 so that finally I can have a little more drone freedom.
In the mean time, someone else has posted about this as well but everyone should sign up for Node (
NODE - Dedicated to ensuring fair and responsible drone regulations). You probably all saw the email from DJI about this already, but this is a new organization they helped to create in order to try to fight these very regulations. So far there isn't much on the website - I guess it's brand new.. but sign up and hopefully they'll have enough people there to make a difference.
Also, I encourage you all to send an email to Transport Minister Marc Garneau. After all, our representatives are supposed to listen to what we have to say. His email is
[email protected]. I sent him one, I hope you'll all do the same and express your opinion. This is the kind of thing that may actually make a difference if he hears from enough people. Remember - try to write out your views in a structured positive way. We want him to like the drone community - so don't just write and say you're upset, or badmouth his decisions. Give him something to work with and a reason to want to change the law again. In my email I suggested that drones should be able to be used as creative photography tools, and I suggested that in order to make it safer to use a drone closer to an airport, instead of saying it's a complete no fly zone from the airport to 9km where suddenly drone pilots are allowed to fly up to 90m, why not allow closer flight in a graduated altitude allowance. Something like 5km away a drone could be allowed to fly up to 15 meters in altitude, 6km away 30 meters, 7km - 45m, 8km - 60m, and finally 9 km the full altitude allowance of 90m. Those numbers are just made up and would need to be more carefully thought out... but you get the idea. DJI's drones can be useful for making great creative videos and photos without having to be at such a high altitude that they'd be a danger to an aircraft. I suggested that DJI could implement those restrictions in to the app in order to make the government feel safer about pilots following the rules. Whatever it takes to get us more freedom right? And there could always be an override if you have an SFOC.
One more thing to add to this post, if you haven't seen it you might want to check out this statement from the Drone Manufacturers Alliance on Twitter:
DJI on Twitter