Australia - Drone Licensing from July 1st 2019

[Remote Pilots Australia]

As Meta4 and anzacjack say, your Aviation Reference Number is the registration with C.A.S.A. to which your pilots licences and radio and other certifications is registered against. usually your A.R.N. is they same "number" as your licence numbers. You give your A.R.N. and they check and see what certifications are registered to it.

Regards
Ari

 

[AnzacJack]

As Meta4 and anzacjack say, your Aviation Reference Number is the registration with C.A.S.A. to which your pilots licences and radio and other certifications is registered against. usually your A.R.N. is they same "number" as your licence numbers. You give your A.R.N. and they check and see what certifications are registered to it.

Regards
Ari

you can also setup an online account and you can keep a track of all your lecenses and endorsements. Pretty handy

 

[Remote Pilots Australia]

you can also setup an online account and you can keep a track of all your lecenses and endorsements. Pretty handy

Yes, usually your certifications appear on your online account before you get a notification from C.A.S.A. that you've passed!

 

[OzoneVibe]

How will the new rules impact tourists to Australia, when they are in force?

 

[Remote Pilots Australia]

How will the new rules impact tourists to Australia, when they are in force?

Note 1: An RPA or model aircraft that is registered in another country must not be registered in Australia but may receive permission (a Foreign RPA Permission) to operate in Australia. This requirement does not apply for foreign registered RPA that weigh 250g or less, that would be flown exclusively for recreational purposes.

Note 2: A visitor to Australia that obtains a Foreign RPA Permission will also need to obtain an accreditation. If the visitor to Australia has not registered the RPA in another country, they must register the RPA in Australia if the RPA is above 250 grams (see Instruction 29).

RPA (visitor to Australia) permission to operate without being registered in Australia

29.A regulation that enables CASA to permit (a Foreign RPA Permission) an RPA or model aircraft that is brought to Australia by a person (not the manufacturer/importer) who is a visitor to Australia to be operated in Australian territory:
a.Foreign RPA Permission may be cancelled:
i.by CASA without providing a reason or
ii.at request of applicant.

b.A foreign RPA weighing over 250g, that is not registered in its foreign jurisdiction, must be registered in Australia.

c.An RPA weighing 250g or under, that has a Foreign RPA Permission may be used for a recreational purpose without CASA permissiond.

d.An RPA of any weight, that has a Foreign RPA Permission may be used for a commercial purpose under a ReOC permission providing:
i.CASA has given permission to do so; and
ii.the commercial fee has been paid.

e.An RPA that has a Foreign RPA Permission may be used for a commercial excluded category purpose providing the commercial fee has been paid, the RPA is registered, and the operator is accredited.

f.CASA may charge a different fee for Foreign RPA Permissions depending on the commercial or recreational purpose.

Note to reader:
•International obligations in the Chicago Convention to which Australia is a signatory are enshrined in the Air Navigation Act 1920 AIR NAVIGATION ACT 1920 - SCHEDULE 1 Convention on International Civil Aviation

•Air Navigation Act specifies in Article 18 of Schedule 1 that “an aircraft cannot be validly registered in more than one State, but its registration may be changed from one State to another”

•Australia would by the time our system is active not be the only State that is a signatory to the Chicago Convention that has a drone registration system (the USA already has one)

•Therefore, it is necessary that we not create a RPAS registration system that requiresregistration in Australia of a drone that is already registered in another state

•The following is a system that has been devised to manage this issue
oA very early question by the registration system of someone seeking to register a drone is “Is the drone registered in another country?”
oIf the answer is “Yes” the following would happen The system would continue to gather the information as if it were being registered
oThe fee would be levied (see note on CASA (Fees) Regulations)
oPermission would be granted to operate the drone in Australia that does not feature the word “registered”
oThe drone should be flown in Australia as if it were registered
oThe system that records registered drones will be configured with one extra field that differentiates that the drone is “permitted to fly in Australian territory” but that it is NOT “registered”



OK, that's the proposal in C.A.S.A.'s own words. What it amounts to is this. If you are visiting Australia as a tourist then you will need to provide all the information required on your aircraft as if you were registering it but it will be marked as "permitted to fly in Australia" not "registered". It is expected at this point that you will be able to do this inr eal time online and that it will most liklely be the same $20 for as many aircraft as you like for a year.

If you are comming here to fly commercially you will need to do at least the Excluded class R.P.A. test or a RePL (it would want to be a long holiday!) E.R.P.A. is free, RePL is around $1500 and a course, 40 hours of study and a minimum 5 hour practical flight proficiency demonstration. "Permission to fly" of any aircraft used commercially will be the $160 per aircraft that we are going to be gouged ourselves.

Hope that answers the question and wasn't too confusing.

Regards
Ari


You will need to do the same R.P.A. basic licence exam as an Australian citizen. 10 minutes to watch the video and do the multi choice exam at no cost

 

[Izzomagizzo]

What if you are a child under 18? Can you still take the test?

 

[Jolly Dodger]

I suppose I license will help when the anti drone Nazis come and whinge to you that your causeing Armageddon but I hate how everyone has their hand out for their pound of flesh when someone wants to have fun. Watch for a price rise in the future .

 

[kmdc2]

A lot of excluded users will be likely to give that up.
Eg, I just got it because I could, perhaps using it some day or working to one day get my RePL.
If you have an ARN would you keep it and just say you aren’t doing anything commercial sub 2kg, or would you still keep that as a point of contact reference with CASA, or perhaps you just cancel it ?
I guess people here from Oz won’t know that yet for sure, probably one to ask CASA.

Best to keep your ARN if you have one. It makes dealing with CASA much easier. No need to do the ID challenge each time etc. KMDC.

 

[Remote Pilots Australia]

What if you are a child under 18? Can you still take the test?

You may hold a certification down to the age of 16. Below that age you must fly under the direction of someone who holds one of the three classes of licence.

I and others are lobbying to have that reduced as I know of at least one 12 year old who has passed the full house RePL. but for the now that's where it's at.

Regards
Ari

 

[Remote Pilots Australia]

I suppose I license will help when the anti drone Nazis come and whinge to you that your causeing Armageddon but I hate how everyone has their hand out for their pound of flesh when someone wants to have fun. Watch for a price rise in the future .

I hear you. I didn't mind paying the money and doing the RePL because I always intended to operate commercially in controlled airspace with large aircraft so that was fair enough.

I can grudgingly accept that in this litigatious age that even recreational flyers should prove they know the rules and as the licencing itself here (except for RePL) is at no cost you could be mistaken for believing it was about safety .... then you get to the registration costs and it becomes obvious that yet again it is another stealth tax.

Welcome to Australia

If it's sits still we paint it
If it moves we shoot it
If it's fun we tax it and
If it grows we cut it down

Regards
Ari

 

[Victorian Aerial Vision]

Well we all guessed it was coming sooner or later.I think this will stop me looking at going commercial, the costs are too high to justify. I'll register my over 250g drones, ($20 seems reasonable) & do the online course. However, it's the sensible pilots that will do this, there will always be "cowboys" that don't give a **** about anyone else. These are the ones that won't register or do the course & these are the ones most likely to do something stupid.

Victorian Aerial Vision Videos

 

[Jorgeo65]

will registering our drones make it easier to get insurance? at the moment insurance company's don't want anything to do with drones.

 

[AnzacJack]

QBE will insure commercial operators

 

[Remote Pilots Australia]

will registering our drones make it easier to get insurance?

Commercial operators could always get insurance but needed top be a member of aaus or similar (which is stupidly expensive for what you get sadly) and you needed to have a RePL and preferably a ReOC. Whether recreational pilots can get cover under the new scheme will be a good question and I guess time will tell.

I went through a broker so it's not exactly my area of expertise.

Regards
Ari

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Best to keep your ARN if you have one. It makes dealing with CASA much easier. No need to do the ID challenge each time etc. KMDC.

Yes, Decado mentioned in a post after mine that everyone will need to get one anyway, even as a hobbiest, to deal with CASA.
Makes sense as it is the first reference point you mention / log in etc when dealing with them.

 

[OzoneVibe]

…..

Hope that answers the question and wasn't too confusing.

Regards
Ari


You will need to do the same R.P.A. basic licence exam as an Australian citizen. 10 minutes to watch the video and do the multi choice exam at no cost

Thanks for that.

 

[Oglo]

"We'll have a starting point to know who flies drones in that area, ...... " quote from CASA employee.

Whoa!! So if a Mavic is reported to CASA as flying dangerously somewhere in your area, they look up there database of everyone that owns one within a set radius. We should then expect visits from CASA-officers/police with warrants to enter our home/seize our Mavics and take us in for questioning.......
I know this is hypothetical but basically this is what this law will allow. Scary stuff.

 

[Remote Pilots Australia]

Whoa!! So if a Mavic is reported to CASA as flying dangerously somewhere in your area, they look up there database of everyone that owns one within a set radius.

You find this surprising? Well, let's look at the infamous Gatwick incident in the U.K. Initially the police announced that there were 61 persons of interests. That was the 61 people who held a PFCO (permission for commercial operations) who lived in that area which they just pulled from the C.A.S. register. Sterling work Plod. Yup, that's what they had. As we are still to see an arrest or even a hard confirmation that there actually was a R.P.A. operating in the area we can see how well that worked for them.

Regards
Ari

 

[Meta4]

Whoa!! So if a Mavic is reported to CASA as flying dangerously somewhere in your area, they look up there database of everyone that owns one within a set radius. We should then expect visits from CASA-officers/police with warrants to enter our home/seize our Mavics and take us in for questioning.......
I know this is hypothetical but basically this is what this law will allow. Scary stuff.

Understand that's just a CASA person trying to come up with something to explain to a journalist what this will achieve .. or how useful it will be.
... when in fact it won't achieve much at all, but they are trying to put a positive spin on it.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

we are still to see an arrest or even a hard confirmation that there actually was a R.P.A. operating in the area

Remember . . .