New Drone Laws June 1, 2019

[tangy07]

Seems like Transport Canada has finalized the drone law. Biggest changes is that you will need to register and pass an online test before flying. below is the link

Flying your drone safely and legally (new rules) - Transport Canada

 

[verslen]

Looks like they have removed the rules about flying near vehicles and only flying in the day. Also states explicitly that you don't have to insure your drone.

 

[bobfa100]

Looks like they have removed the rules about flying near vehicles and only flying in the day. Also states explicitly that you don't have to insure your drone.

Not so. Here’s the rules for recreational flyers from Transport Canada website:

• within 90 m above the ground or lower
• at least 30 m away from vehicles, vessels, and the public
(if your drone weighs more than 250 g up to 1 kg)
• at least 76 m away from vehicles, vessels, and the public
(if your drone weighs more than 1 kg up to 35 kg)
• at least 5.6 km from aerodromes (any airport, seaplane
base, or areas where aircraft take-off and land)
• at least 1.9 km away from heliports or aerodromes used exclusively
by helicopters
• outside of controlled or restricted airspace
• at least 9 km away from a natural hazard or disaster area
• away from areas where it could interfere with police or first responders
• during the day and not in clouds
• within your sight at all times
• within 500 m of yourself or closer
• only if clearly marked with your name, address and telephone number

 

[tangy07]

Not so. Here’s the rules for recreational flyers from Transport Canada website:

• within 90 m above the ground or lower
• at least 30 m away from vehicles, vessels, and the public
(if your drone weighs more than 250 g up to 1 kg)
• at least 76 m away from vehicles, vessels, and the public
(if your drone weighs more than 1 kg up to 35 kg)
• at least 5.6 km from aerodromes (any airport, seaplane
base, or areas where aircraft take-off and land)
• at least 1.9 km away from heliports or aerodromes used exclusively
by helicopters
• outside of controlled or restricted airspace
• at least 9 km away from a natural hazard or disaster area
• away from areas where it could interfere with police or first responders
• during the day and not in clouds
• within your sight at all times
• within 500 m of yourself or closer
• only if clearly marked with your name, address and telephone number

that's the current rules. we are talking about the new ones starting June 1st, 2019. i posted a link above. you can read it.

 

[jwt873]

I see they've also raised the max altitude to 400 feet from 300. -- I live in the country in the middle of nowhere where I do most of my flying. So, apart from the registration and exam, much of it doesn't apply to me.

 

[verslen]

I haven't read everything thoroughly but it looks like other than the requirement to register your drone and get a drone pilot certificate, the rules have mostly been relaxed. In addition to what's been mentioned above there would also no longer be a requirement to have your name, address, and phone number written on the drone, just the registration number you get when you register the drone. The restrictions would be relaxed even more when you go from the basic pilots certificate to the advanced pilots certificate. Seems pretty reasonable to me so far.

 

[Tbredhed]

These rules are much better than the ones currently in place now. I noticed nothing about not flying at night which I have wanted to do, so I can look forward to that. I'm also happy about the increase to 400', at my camp where i do most of my flying it will be nice to be able to fly in every direction without exceeding the old 300' rule.

The biggest issue I had with the old(current) regs is having to put your name address and number on the drone, I never liked the idea of having that kind of identification on my drone.

Just went over the knowledge requirements, located here(Knowledge Requirements for Pilots of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems 250 g up to and including 25 kg, Operating within Visual Line-of-Sight (VLOS) (TP 15263) - Transport Canada) for the small basic and advanced operation seems like it's quite extensive, probably going to try my hand at the test shortly just to get a feel for it.
Cheers

 

[Incognito]

Has anyone taken the "exam" recently?

Some of the questions on there were so far fetched it was ridiculous.
Some common sense stuff..
Some stuff found on transport Canada.
But some stuff was really out there.

I got my mavic for Christmas and I've yet to fly yet..
Because I've been reading and watching all the tutorials I can, plus the weather sucks.

Needless to say, because of some of the questions I failed the exam.
Can try again in 24 hours.

 

[Tbredhed]

Has anyone taken the "exam" recently?

Some of the questions on there were so far fetched it was ridiculous.
Some common sense stuff..
Some stuff found on transport Canada.
But some stuff was really out there.

I got my mavic for Christmas and I've yet to fly yet..
Because I've been reading and watching all the tutorials I can, plus the weather sucks.

Needless to say, because of some of the questions I failed the exam.
Can try again in 24 hours.

I was wondering how the exam would be, I'll probably give it a try in the next couple of days. I kind of figured I would use one monitor to do the exam and the other to look up the answers. If it comes down to it I'll try to find somebody here that will be doing the course, hopefully the local college so the price isn't a total ripoff.

Lots of good info on flying here on this forum pay particular attention to the fly away and crash threads you'll find out what not to do. Good luck and safe flying.
Cheers

 

[Incognito]

It was the questions about who issues you call signs that got me.
Along with where do you go for information, I guessed transport Canada but was wrong.
The basic rules such as height and si on were easy and easy to find information on.
As a new user how am I to have any understanding of a NOTAM and frequency in the CFS ?

I wouldn't even know where to search for such information.
We need a Coles notes version of this stuff.
I'll gladly learn it, if I could find it.

 

[Tbredhed]

It was the questions about who issues you call signs that got me.
Along with where do you go for information, I guessed transport Canada but was wrong.
The basic rules such as height and si on were easy and easy to find information on.
As a new user how am I to have any understanding of a NOTAM and frequency in the CFS ?

I wouldn't even know where to search for such information.
We need a Coles notes version of this stuff.
I'll gladly learn it, if I could find it.

If you go to post 7 in this thread I linked to the knowledge requirements, it's downloadable and also has a study guide. Hope this helps if I can help any other way let me know.
Cheers

 

[lanfeust9]

If you go to post 7 in this thread I linked to the knowledge requirements, it's downloadable and also has a study guide. Hope this helps if I can help any other way let me know.
Cheers

The knowledge requirements page actually does not provide answers to the various topics a drone pilot is asked to be knowledgeable about to pass the basic or advanced exam, instead it is a list of topic and questions that the pilot needs to be able to answer.

Example "State where to obtain NOTAMs", but actually nowhere does it provides an answer, nor does it actually spells acronyms in general. I just took NOTAM as an example but basically it's the same for each topics in the knowledge requirement page. The PDF at the end is not a study guide either.

It would be interesting if additional people try to pass the basic exam without additional guide or going through a flight school as TC suggest.

 

[tangy07]

just did the test and passed....didn't read anything, just search and google as i was doing. some questions were pretty straight forward and some are pretty hard. took me about an hour to do.

 

[Tbredhed]

The knowledge requirements page actually does not provide answers to the various topics a drone pilot is asked to be knowledgeable about to pass the basic or advanced exam, instead it is a list of topic and questions that the pilot needs to be able to answer.

Example "State where to obtain NOTAMs", but actually nowhere does it provides an answer, nor does it actually spells acronyms in general. I just took NOTAM as an example but basically it's the same for each topics in the knowledge requirement page. The PDF at the end is not a study guide either.

It would be interesting if additional people try to pass the basic exam without additional guide or going through a flight school as TC suggest.

If you look just above the PDF download link there is a list of material to study, and most but not all of the knowledge section give the section and paragraph you will find the regulation in.

 

[Tbredhed]

just did the test and passed....didn't read anything, just search and google as i was doing. some questions were pretty straight forward and some are pretty hard. took me about an hour to do.

I just got off of a night shift so i'll probably do it tomorrow so i'm not quite as groggy. Congrats on the pass.

 

[lanfeust9]

If you go to post 7 in this thread I linked to the knowledge requirements, it's downloadable and also has a study guide. Hope this helps if I can help any other way let me know.
Cheers

I am not sure if you actually even looked at those links or work for the government but be my guest if you wan to study a 35 questions exam (for the basic drone operation) by brushing on thousands of pages of aviation regulation.

The original question was 'is there a study guide for this exam', the answer is a plain no - as least not yet maybe. TC has a list of aviation related links and materials copy pasted at the end of the drone page totaling multi 1000s of pages, as it should when it comes to becoming an actual pilot, but nothing aimed at the knowledge required for becoming a basic or advanced drone pilot.

 

[Incognito]

I googled NOTAM, who gives you a call sign, and many others...
Arms I found absolutely nothing..

 

[tangy07]

I googled NOTAM, who gives you a call sign, and many others...
Arms I found absolutely nothing..

i never got that question. Just like the air current someone else posted i didn't get that.

 

[Tbredhed]

I am not sure if you actually even looked at those links or work for the government but be my guest if you wan to study a 35 questions exam (for the basic drone operation) by brushing on thousands of pages of aviation regulation.

The original question was 'is there a study guide for this exam', the answer is a plain no - as least not yet maybe. TC has a list of aviation related links and materials copy pasted at the end of the drone page totaling multi 1000s of pages, as it should when it comes to becoming an actual pilot, but nothing aimed at the knowledge required for becoming a basic or advanced drone pilot.

I did look at the links, from the questions you can find the relevant section and paragraphs in the knowledge requirements and then Google that or download the entire document and search it. Not sure how much more help I can give you.
Cheers

 

[jwt873]

It would be nice if they made up a question pool with all the possible questions on the exam. That would make preparation a lot easier.

For instance, for the Canadian amateur radio exam, the government provides online practice exams consisting of 100 questions from the pool. Exam Generator - Practice Exam | Amateur and Professional Radio Operator Certificates

They let you know whether or not your answers are correct or not and provide an overall score when you're finished. Whatever you get wrong, you can study up on. It would be a nice touch for the drone pilot exam.