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Australian drone pilot fined AUD$7750 for flying illegally

Play stupid games get stupid prizes :)
 
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I'd like to see this hit the mainstream Australian media.

Most people (hobbyists) flying way outside the rules like that (multiple indiscretions, times and deliberately) just don't hang around forum like this to be educated, or read drone website news, or look at CASA info online.

Once this starts to happen a bit more and gets in the main news sources, people might start to think twice about blatant ignorance of air safety rules.

This is why we need rules, but will it get to the right people ?
How will CASA educate the masses so they know about changes upcoming ?
Mainstream media is the only way to have a chance at this.
 
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The headline is a bit misleading. The fine was only $1,050, but the idiot refused to pay, and so the court slapped him silly with three extra charges and court costs.

Push and major pushback! Easier to fly legally.

Cheaper too.
 
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I think this is a good thing, especially as CASA will shortly require all Australian drones to be registered and they start to toughen laws, and hopefully their enforcement. 99.99% of people who invest in a drone want to be 100% responsible with their flying and observance of the rules. For the other 0.01% who think it is funny, or their God-given right to flaunt the law and fly illegally or unsafely, then 'bring it on', charge the bast***s! These people are the ones responsible for discrediting all of us who are trying to do the right thing and have some safe, responsible drone flying and photography. I have NO sympathy for this person in Woolongong. Do the 'crime', do the 'time'!
 
I agree 100% that it would be great if this story promotes safer flying from the drone community in Australia, I am a member of several drone groups on facebook and often see people posting images and videos and wonder to myself if they have any understanding of the rules, e.g. posting photos from directly above an ANZAC day march.

Part of me though is still happy that this was kept out of the mainstream media simply due to how uneducated the general non drone flying public are regarding drones and the fact that a large number of people do not like the idea of drones and may think that this ruling provides them with a reason to go reporting every drone they see.

In Australia drones are still quite rare, I think I've only ever seen 1 being used out in public that wasn't my own in my entire life, so the general population is still very unfamiliar with them.

Now most people that are unfamiliar with drones are just inquisitive and curious about them when they see them in public, however a significant amount of people for whatever reason despise them instantly, and I'd hate to see them finding drone pilots and dusting off their tape measures, walking up near the pilot and then refusing to leave and reporting them for flying within 30m of them etc. because they know they will receive a hefty fine... Believe me, people will do this.

As much as drone flyers need to be aware of their responsibilities to fly safely, the general public needs to be aware that flying a drone is perfectly legal and operators should be left to their own devices when flying legally.
 
Some very good points in the posts above.
It's a catch 22 between costly enforcement, educating the unknowing flyer, penalising the blatant rule breakers, and leaving the public (sort of) a little in the dark on specific rules like that.
It's true, usually drones stories in the media is in a negative way, often a total hysteria aspect to privacy breaching etc, when it rarely actually happens.

I think that is right regarding the small size of the drone market here still.
I've visited many places around Australia in recent years (before and after drone ownership) and seen no more than 3 or 4 other drones flying (singularly) in that time.
It's not surprising I suppose, with people generally flying for 15 - 20 mins to get some pics or vid, and that's it.
 
There's definitely some groundwork that needs to be done on both sides of the fence in regards to the drone operator's awareness and the general public's awareness in regards to drone safety, legalities and exactly what constitutes unsafe flying.

I would like to see departments like CASA produce more media campaigns highlighting drones as a fun hobby when conducted responsibly, showing the public that it is a fun and most importantly legal, as long as the correct procedures and laws are adhered to.

I think the general "unawareness" from both parties is what will lead to drones being reported in the future, and it's never fun having to defend yourself to a member of the public when you know you are doing nothing wrong.

There's not much you can do either to convince somebody that you are doing nothing wrong when they are intent that they don't want you flying your drone in public, unless you carried around cards with all the laws outlined to hand to people or something similar, I'm not sure what else you can do.

The laws also need further clarification IMO, especially the 30m rule, it's not always black & white with these things.

For example, what would be the outcome if a drone operator began a flight in an area with nobody around, was flying for 20 minutes and then was bringing their drone back to land and a person who was against the hobby approached him... His drone is nearly out of battery and there are no other viable landing locations in the immediate area, the person is now standing beside him, what can the drone operator do to avoid flying within 30m of this person? It is public property so he cannot ask them to leave and this person can report him as soon as his drone gets within that 30m radius.

There definitely needs to be some clarifications about these type of scenarios.

I think a good option would be for responsible drone operators who know they are doing nothing wrong to perhaps leave a go-pro or osmo pocket device clipped on their chest and recording during their flights, just in-case they encounter a scenario like this, so they can prove their intentions were not to break the law.

Interesting times ahead in the drone world it seems.
 
For example, what would be the outcome if a drone operator began a flight in an area with nobody around, was flying for 20 minutes and then was bringing their drone back to land and a person who was against the hobby approached him... His drone is nearly out of battery and there are no other viable landing locations in the immediate area, the person is now standing beside him, what can the drone operator do to avoid flying within 30m of this person?

I haven't ever found this on CASA site, or the FAA, but it's commonly seen around this forum that you should place yourself between the drone landing and the person, and request they stay there until landed.
That is, if an initial reasonable / polite request to move back for a moment "while I land please ?" is ignored by them, which would be strange behaviour.

The operator is in a sticky spot if it is a difficult person, but if argued about attempts to get compliance were put forward it should not be something punishable.
Of course it might be some vindictive person and their word against yours, so let's hope that doesn't happen to responsible UAV operators.
It would be rare.

Why I like remote places, even if that is early morning in semi urban places.
 
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I haven't ever found this on CASA site, or the FAA, but it's commonly seen around this forum that you should place yourself between the drone landing and the person, and request they stay there until landed.
That is, if an initial reasonable / polite request to move back for a moment "while I land please ?" is ignored by them, which would be strange behaviour.

The operator is in a sticky spot if it is a difficult person, but if argued about attempts to get compliance were put forward it should not be something punishable.
Of course if might be some vindictive person and their word against yours, so let's hope that doesn't happen to responsible UAV operators.
It would be rare.

Why I like remote places, even if that is early morning in semi urban places.

That strategy would definitely be the best option in this circumstance I would imagine, there really isn't much else you can do but try to be as polite as possible and request they give you space.

I think scenarios like this that fall into a "grey" area of the 30m rule and do need to be further addressed by CASA though, to help drone operators operate safely and to give them some degree of "lee-way" in regards to breaking the law, because there are some conceivable circumstances in a public space where it would not be possible to land the drone safely without breaching the 30m radius of another person.

Thankfully these scenarios should be extremely rare, but as I'm sure you know there are always some people out there who make it their business to be difficult and if they know the law specifies that a 30m radius must be maintained they could make it impossible for you just to try and get you in trouble.
 
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That strategy would definitely be the best option in this circumstance I would imagine, there really isn't much else you can do but try to be as polite as possible and request they give you space.

I think scenarios like this that fall into a "grey" area of the 30m rule and do need to be further addressed by CASA though, to help drone operators operate safely and to give them some degree of "lee-way" in regards to breaking the law, because there are some conceivable circumstances in a public space where it would not be possible to land the drone safely without breaching the 30m radius of another person.

Thankfully these scenarios should be extremely rare, but as I'm sure you know there are always some people out there who make it their business to be difficult and if they know the law specifies that a 30m radius must be maintained they could make it impossible for you just to try and get you in trouble.
Bizarrely, wearing a high vis vest nearly always seems to keep people away. One that says “Please keep clear” on the back is even more effective.

It’s a pity Transport Canada didn’t charge the idiot who flew at night, over a crowd, in downtown Toronto (within the CZ of the City Centre airport)...
 
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I haven't ever found this on CASA site, or the FAA, but it's commonly seen around this forum that you should place yourself between the drone landing and the person, and request they stay there until landed.
That is, if an initial reasonable / polite request to move back for a moment "while I land please ?" is ignored by them, which would be strange behaviour.

The operator is in a sticky spot if it is a difficult person, but if argued about attempts to get compliance were put forward it should not be something punishable.
Of course it might be some vindictive person and their word against yours, so let's hope that doesn't happen to responsible UAV operators.
It would be rare.

Why I like remote places, even if that is early morning in semi urban places.
This has happened. I saw a YouTube video where a guy in the States was approached and accosted by an irate lady. She called the cops. He kept the drone videoing the encounter, had turned props off. She, I believe, was fined for assault.
 
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This has happened. I saw a YouTube video where a guy in the States was approached and accosted by an irate lady. She called the cops. He kept the drone videoing the encounter, had turned props off. She, I believe, was fined for assault.

There are quite a few interesting vids like this on YT, most seem to be the US, where probably things might get recorded more.

One part 107 doing a RE shoot had police called on him, only for the complainant to be told nothing illegal here . . . another where a lady picked up a guys drone and actually stole it on landing some distance from the pilot (under her clothing), she denied, although he had it all on camera.

I don't think I've seen much outside of the US like that, in the UK or Oz for example.

Who knows though, people Worldwide seem to be changing in recent years with more people getting offended by the slightest things, and various forms of 'rage' happening a lot more anywhere (road, shops, footy !!).

It's very handy your drone can keep filming / recording at least vision, but with such a possibility of an encounter some day, it might be a good idea in some places to record sound on the device cache.
I have mine turned off since I started flying, not sure I'd turn it on just yet, have some faith left in most of the population.
 
I'd like to see this hit the mainstream Australian media.

Most people (hobbyists) flying way outside the rules like that (multiple indiscretions, times and deliberately) just don't hang around forum like this to be educated, or read drone website news, or look at CASA info online.

Once this starts to happen a bit more and gets in the main news sources, people might start to think twice about blatant ignorance of air safety rules.

This is why we need rules, but will it get to the right people ?
How will CASA educate the masses so they know about changes upcoming ?
Mainstream media is the only way to have a chance at this.
This was widely reported in mainstream Australian media. I've seen/heard it reported over a couple of weeks at the time.
 
I think this is a good thing, especially as CASA will shortly require all Australian drones to be registered and they start to toughen laws, and hopefully their enforcement. 99.99% of people who invest in a drone want to be 100% responsible with their flying and observance of the rules. For the other 0.01% who think it is funny, or their God-given right to flaunt the law and fly illegally or unsafely, then 'bring it on', charge the bast***s! These people are the ones responsible for discrediting all of us who are trying to do the right thing and have some safe, responsible drone flying and photography. I have NO sympathy for this person in Woolongong. Do the 'crime', do the 'time'!
I've heard that 73.6% of statistics are made up on the spot! ;P
 
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This was widely reported in mainstream Australian media. I've seen/heard it reported over a couple of weeks at the time.

Good to know, just have to hope it was enough to be seen by the right section of the hobbiest flyers to take notice.
I'm not into mainstream myself (TV, radio), but do get loads of news online.
Can't recall seeing it.

I did just find a report googling news (casa drone pilot fined 7750) on this . . .

Maybe it was local news reports ?
I see you're on the east coast (GC ?)
 
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