The first and most common misconception is anybody will be able to use a drone commercially without any form of CAA permissions or licence. While the CAA do not stipulate that you need any qualification (such as the PfCO) to get paid for any work with your drone, they do stipulate that you must have EC 785/2004 compliant insurance, however all insurers insist that a drone operator must hold at least a PfCO, A2 CofC or GVC drone qualification before they will issue the correct insurance.

Many people also think that the rules do not apply to sub 250 gram dones, such as the DJI Mavic mini, which is incorrect. Any drone equipped with a camera regardless of weight will be subject to the new rules

The new rules are relevant to the risk of the flight – this is where you fly, proximity to other people and the size and weight of your drone.

If your drone flight conforms to the criteria above, you will be using the new ‘Open Category’ of rules, which are intended for low-risk drone flights (For example because you are flying a lightweight drone or in the countryside).

There is also a ‘Specific Category’ for higher risk flights, such as, flying a drone over an urban area.

To fly in the ‘Specific Category’ you will need approval from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The same rules will also apply for night flying.

Open category

Open category explained –

Most drone enthusiasts or people flying for fun with a drone under 25kg will be in the Open category. You need to follow the drone and model aircraft code. Some of the key rules are:

• Never fly higher than 120m / 400ft
• Always keep the drone in sight and within 500m
• Keep clear of any airspace restrictions, including around airfields, unless you have permission to fly within them

These rules will also apply to night flying.

Also there are three ‘sub categories’ based on the weight of the drone:

A1 (C0 or C1 marked drones): You may fly over people with your drone
if it is less than 250g, as long as it is not a crowd (over 1,000 people). Some slightly heavier drones (up to 900g) can also be used, but only if they have been ‘classed’ as being suitable.

A2: You must keep some distance from people, normally 30m but less for sub 500 gram drones. But this depends, among other things, on the drone you are flying (weight or label). To fly in the A2 category as well as passing the normal flyer ID online test you must also pass the A2 CofC theory exam. You must also declare that you have gained some practical knowledge with your drone, but you do not have to take a practical test.

A3: You must stay at least 150 metres horizontally away from parks, industrial and built-up areas and 50 metres horizontally away from people.

Drone classification

From 1 January 2023 new drones will have to meet a set of product standards. These will be classed from C0 to C4, based on the weight and capability of the drone, and will determine how and where you can fly.

Drones classed C0 or C1 can be flown in the open A1 sub category. For C2 it’s open sub category A2 or A3 and for classes C3 and C4 you can only fly in the A3 sub category.

If your drone doesn’t have a class marking and is under 250g you can fly in the A1 sub category (there are also some exceptions for drones up to 500g too until January 2023). Drones less than 2kg can be flown in sub category A2, but you must keep at least 50 metres away from people and pass the A2 theory exam. Drones of 2kg or greater may only be flown in the A3 subcategory.

After 1 January 2023 for drones below 250g you can continue to use A1 sub category. All other current (un-classified) drones must only be used in the A3 sub category.

Home-built drones weighing less than 250g and with a maximum speed of less than 42mph (68Km/h, 19m/s) can be flown in the A1 sub category. All other drones fit in the A3 sub category.

First Person View (FPV)

If you are flying using FPV then you must have an observer next to you who can aid you with avoiding collisions, but you are still responsible for the safety of your flight.DRONE AND MODEL AIRCRAFT CODE

Flying as a hobby and at a club

Members of a recognised UK model flying Association (BMFA, SAA, LMA & FPVUK) will be operating under the terms of a specific authorisation and should confirm details with their Association.

Registration and flyer ID

If your drone has a camera, such as the DJI Mavic Mini (unless it is a toy) or weighs 250g or more, you will need to register it with the CAA. This is something you will need to renew every year.

Anyone registering a drone that has a camera or weighs 250g or more will need to pass a test and get a flyer ID from the CAA.

If you already have a flyer ID that is still valid, you don’t need to re-do the test until it expires, however, you are still required to keep up to date with the new regulations.

Minimum age to fly

In most cases you must be at least 12 years old to fly a drone on your own. You are still able to fly if you are under 12, but this requires the supervision of someone aged 16 or over and both of you must have passed the flyer ID test.

To ensure the safety when sharing airspace, the CAA have set out some simple laws that drone users need to follow.

Can I use my drone for work

With the new rules and regulations there will no longer be a distinction between flying commercially and flying for pleasure or recreation, although to operate commercially, the drone operator must hold EC 785/2004 compliant insurance. All insurance companies insist that the drone operator holds an A2 CofC, GVC or PfCO qualification before they will issue EC785/2004 insurance.

This means that an approval just to operate commercially currently still required. If you are flying as part of a business then you should carefully read www.caa.co.uk/CAP722.

Due to the rules on proximity to people and overflight of congested areas in most cases, if you have an existing operator authorisation from the CAA, you will still require one under the new regulations.

Hovershotz, hold EC 785/2004 drone insurance and the following Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Permissions –

Permission for Commercial Operations PfCO – This allows Hovershotz to fly large and legacy drones.

General Visual Line of Site Certificate GVC – This is the new EU wide qualification that allows Hovershotz to operate commercially across Europe within any EU state. Also, this allows us to bolt on additional permissions such as BVLOS and EVLOS – Beyond Visual Line of Sight and Extended Visual Line of Sight.

A2 Certificate of Competency A2 CofC – this allows Hovershotz to operate a sub 500g drone with little or no separation from uninvolved people or structures, which is ideal for roof and property inspections.

Once you read through articles online, you will see a lot of use of specialist terminology and acronyms and also mention of forthcoming changes in the law that can leave you wondering whether a UAV is the right (and legal) solution for you. So, here are the guidelines on drone usage that will keep you safe and legal.

Drone pilots can generally be divided into two categories

1. Commercial Drone Operators
2. Amateur Hobby Drone Flyers

If you are looking to hire a drone company to carry out work on your behalf, you need to use a commercial operator by law.  Your friend who likes to fly drones as a hobby flyer isn’t legally allowed to use their drone for what is called ‘commercial gain’ so they can’t fly for money or other reward. To do so, would be breaking the law for them and you are potentially facing the safety risk of someone flying without the proper training. This also applies if you decide to buy a cheap drone and do the job yourself.

How do I know who is a Legal Pilot?

Commercial UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle or drone) operators have to pass a series of theoretical and practical exams, complete a detailed Operations Manual laying out all of their procedures for safe working.  They then apply to the CAA who inspect all this material and if they find it satisfactory then they will be granted a Permission for Commercial Operation (PfCO) which needs to be renewed annually (particularly important as the legislation surrounding drones is changing rapidly).

So a commercial operator will be able to show you their PfCO and insurance certificates but if you want to check that they are valid, you can visit the CAA website to check for yourself.  You will need to know the name that they are registered under as it could be their name or business name.  It’s not rude to check, in fact we recommend it and it is an essential part of your due diligence! Hovershotz hold a current PfCO and £5M public liability drone insurance, we have been independently audited by the Drone Safe Register and our credentials can be verified on their website https://dronesaferegister.org.uk/company/Hovershotz-Aerial-Drone-Photography-Filming-and-Inspections

Where can Drones Legally Fly?

Once you’ve found a local drone operator who has experience in the kind of work you need, there’s the question of are they able to safely and legally complete the work.  Of course, your pilot will be able to advise you, as that is part of their job but here’s some general information for you.

Drone operators (even once they’ve received their PfCO) are obligated to follow certain laws when they are flying: –

• They cannot fly higher than 400ft or 120 metres
• They must remain 50 metres away from persons, property, vessels and structures that are not under their control. Being under the control of the pilot means that you are aware of the flight, have been briefed on safety procedures and can be reasonably expected to follow them.  During the take-off and landing phase, this distance is reduced to 30 metres.
• When there is a gathering of more than 1000 people, this safe distance increases to 150 metres away (or 50 metres during takeoff and landing)
• A drone pilot must have permission from the landowner at the take-off and landing zone.
• It is legal to fly over property at a height of a more than 50 metres, as things currently stand, no one owns the airspace as such. However, privacy and nuisance laws mean it is not legal to film a private property without the owner’s permission or disturb them from the ‘quiet enjoyment of their property’.

Drones and Flights Near Airports

Following recent legal changes to the law in January 2019, drones are not allowed to fly within 5km of an airport or airfield without first having permission to do so. This doesn’t mean that you are unable to hire a drone pilot to fly within this zone.  It simply means that extra time will be needed whilst the necessary permissions are put into place.

Also, in the Lake District it is imperative that any drone operator liaises closely with the Ministry of Defence to ensure any drone activity does not interfere with any RAF flights taking place.

Of course, this is a simplified explanation of how the legal framework stands as it relates to drones.  It is always best to discuss what you would like to achieve with your local, legal drone pilot as each job needs careful desk research in order to examine all the details and to give you an accurate quote.  This is the reason that we can’t talk more about guideline pricing on this blog, as each job does need to be costed on its own specific requirements.  Each job will require the drone operator to review the legal requirements, research the specific location down to metres, assess the risk and document it carefully, choice of equipment to use, number of staff to deploy and of course the operators experience and expertise. All this must be considered carefully before an operator can quote an accurate price.

In saying that, it is still important to take a moment to reassure you that drone photography and videography can be extremely affordable option in many areas and Hovershotz are able to help guide you through the process from start to finish.

Hovershotz are happy to carry out any legal drone work in the North West of England for jobs further afield, we would recommend you hiring your local commercial operator from the Drone Safe Register https://dronesaferegister.org.uk/

We offer multiple drone solutions in up to 8K (Pro Res or CineDNG).

Hovershotz – the choice of professional film crews in the Lake District

https://youtu.be/TXEse0X91P4

The UK government and the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) have today (20 February 2019) announced a new partnership with the drone retailer Jessops, as part of a national campaign to increase public awareness of the new rules around flying & piloting drones. Working with the CAA, the government is dialling up a campaign to help educate the public about responsible drone use, including issuing a digital toolkit to airports to help them raise awareness of the new rules.

Following on from new laws in 2018 restricting the use of drones and bringing forward a new drone-users register, today, the government also announced new legislation to extend the ‘no-fly’ zone around airports, banning drones from flying within 5km of runways that will be implemented in 2019.

The new exclusion zone will be increased by several kilometres, including banning drone flight within 5km of runway ends. The enlarged zone will better protect the UK’s airports from those misusing drones, and will come into force on 13 March 2019.

Work to progress a new Drones Bill is also underway and will be introduced in due course. It will give the police powers to stop and search people suspected of using drones irresponsibly above 400ft or within 5km of an airport — helping them to tackle disruption such as that seen at Gatwick & Heathrow airports in December. It will also give additional new powers to the police to clamp down on those misusing drones and other small unmanned model aircraft — including the power to access electronic data stored on a drone with a warrant.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said:

The law is clear that flying a drone near an airport is a serious criminal act. We’re now going even further and extending the no-fly zone to help keep our airports secure and our skies safe.

We are also working to raise awareness of the rules in place. Anyone flying their drone within the vicinity of an airport should know they are not only acting irresponsibly, but criminally, and could face imprisonment.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid said:

Extending stop and search to include drones will help police tackle disruption like the recent misery we saw at UK airports, when travel was ruined for thousands of innocent passengers, and bring those responsible to justice.

Police are clear that stop and search is one of the most powerful tools they have to target and disrupt crime and I remain committed to giving them all the support they need to protect the public.

Ian Savage, Head of Retail and Academy Training at Jessops, said:

Drones are one of the most exciting ways of capturing stunning aerial photos and videos, and with prices more affordable than ever they are within reach of any budding photographer and videographer. Many are intuitive and simple to operate, making them ideal for beginners, while the more sophisticated models now offer features such as full manual control of the camera and stunning 4K 60fps video, that help advanced photographers take their shots to the next level.

Along with the pleasure drones bring comes a responsibility for the user to ensure they are flying their drone safely and legally. As one of the leading drone retailers Jessops is committed to ensuring it communicates the new laws to all its customers, and it will be doing this through extensive training from our dedicated drone specialists Connor Keenan and Jon Dick.

Tim Johnson, Policy Director at the CAA, said:

It is illegal to fly drones close to airports and anyone flouting the rules can face severe penalties including imprisonment. Anyone operating a drone must do so responsibly and observe all relevant rules and regulations. The rules for flying drones are designed to keep all airspace users safe.

The CAA’s Dronecode provides advice on how to fly your drone safely and follow the rules. you can see it at www.dronesafe.uk

The Home Office is also reviewing the UK’s approach to countering the malicious use of drones, and will consider how best to protect the full range of the UK’s critical national infrastructure — including testing and evaluating technology to counter drones.

The Home Office will also extend stop and search to people suspected of carrying corrosives substances in a public place, which will help prevent acid attacks. Currently, they must be suspected of intent to cause injury.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/d/viewer?mid=1z96X9CEZJzbdN8oIoDueKgyZ1rhBp2qj&fbclid=IwAR3qrECC4OtEcz6pixMqmkcB7e84UlG6AuIvZNNazO856a7hYUQe2twkJGU&ll=55.21850437057059%2C-3.171403000000055&z=9

Hovershotz aerial drone photography Cumbria

We would like to thank all our clients and partners for 2018, for what has proved to be our busiest year to date.

Hovershotz Aerial Drone Photography Video & Inspections Cumbria, providing a professional drone service across the Lake District since 2014.

Update 21/12/2018 – allegedly more drones detected , despite the UK military deploying cutting edge drone detection technology. Either this is down to copy cat drone operators or there was never a done there in the first place.

Drones detected at Gatwick Airport causing closure and cancelled flights.

Superintendent Justin Burtenshaw is in charge of policing at Gatwick, he said: “I’ve got resources from Surrey and Sussex right the way across the outside of Gatwick trying to identify who’s operating this drone and I’m absolutely certain this is a deliberate act to disrupt the airfield.”

Two drones have been reported to have been operating over the runway at Gatwick Airport, causing the operators to close the airport, cancelling all flights and thus causing major disruption.

These drones appear to have been operating for sustained periods overnight on Wednesday 19th December through to Thursday 20th December 2018. We at Hovershotz find this very curious, as most drones have a battery life of around 20 minutes, which means that these rogue drone operators must have multiple batteries and the ability to constantly charge their batteries from where they are being operated from or they could be tethered drones where the drone has a wire running to the ground (an umbilical cord) providing constant power to the drone. Whatever the case, either constantly landing or taking off & landing or a tethered drone would make detection of these perpetrators relatively easy.

The question is why are drones allowed to fly over restricted areas and is there no technology to prevent this? Well, the simple answer is airports are no fly zones and the majority of drones have geo fencing built into them preventing operations at these locations. Permission must be requested and approved to unlock the geo fencing. This would suggest that these are probably self built drones that would not have this technology fitted.

Hovershotz understand that Gatwick airport use various methods of geofencing including DJI’s Aeroscope to detect illegal drone flights. Whether Gatwick Airport employ some form of drone shield or drone dome technology to prevent illegal drone activity is unclear. The drones could be operating on transmitter frequencies that could evade any drone jamming technology. Also, if the drone is flying autonomously (automatically on a pre-planned route) then jamming the signal is unlikely to work.

In conclusion. We feel it is highly unlikely that two drones could fly undetected for the sustained time claimed over a no fly zone such as Gatwick Airport. If these were indeed drones, then it is likely that they were only flying for a short period last night and the further sightings were most probably wrongly identified as drones. However is is feasible that a highly determined drone operator could, with a home built drone or hacked commercial drone, operating on non standard drone frequencies with multiple batteries and onsite battery charging could operate at length undetected.

Who would want to target Gatwick Airport? The counter terrorist police say there is no terror threat related to this. Could it be someone trying to commercially cripple Gatwick Airport, perhaps Gatwick are being blackmailed by the drone perpetrators. Could it even be someone trying to bring drones into disrepute and get them banned? It could even be some sort of State sponsored attack, this would fit in with the description of it being a large sophisticated drone and would answer possibly why it has been able to evade detection.

The above picture of the NPAS (police) helicopter flying over Gatwick Airport last night searching for the illegal drone operators, has been wrongly identified several times last night as a drone. It is even possible that the flashing lights that have been identified as drones could may well be Christmas decorations.

Police are hunting these illegal drone operators.
Superintendent Justin Burtenshaw is in charge of policing at Gatwick, he said: “I’ve got resources from Surrey and Sussex right the way across the outside of Gatwick trying to identify who’s operating this drone and I’m absolutely certain this is a deliberate act to disrupt the airfield.”

The Police are now reporting that they believe that the drone being used is a DJI Matrice 600. This is a large hexacopter drone that carries 6 batteries onboard. Interestingly these are the choice of drone for many governments around the world for many security purposes.

Why don’t the police just shoot down the drone – read our blog here https://www.hovershotz.co.uk/can-you-shoot-down-a-drone-over-your-property-in-the-uk/

The airport’s chief operating officer, Chris Woodroofe, says a drone is still on the airfield and 10,000 people were disrupted yesterday alone.

The UK tabloid newspapers are having a field day, with headlines such as ‘Attack of the Drones’ and DREXIT

BBC Panorama are running a documentary analysing what actually happened with the drone attack at Gatwick https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003vwg?fbclid=IwAR3kL59H_QzavfnXMYkRUAdFiP3EgsshmmZdE1QNjyCX99WAUOGjQqZ6Id4

Hovershotz are a CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) approved drone operator based in Cumbria, we have permissions for commercial operiations with drones in the UK.

Hovershotz Aerial Photography

Prior to the amendment, it was stated by the CAA that the law applied equally to drone flights taking place indoors or outdoors i.e. there was no distinct difference between the two.  Now the CAA state on their website that this is now not the case. Indoor flights inside buildings now comes under the jurisdiction of the HSE (Health & Safety Executive).

Hovershotz are experienced in operating & filming with drones indoors and we have specially adapted drones that are able to operate safely indoors, whilst providing professional results – we are able to film in up to 4K video and photograph up to 20 megapixels.

If you have a project that requires any drone filming or photography, indoors or outdoors in the North West of England (Cumbria, the Lake District or Lancashire), then Hovershotz are the logical first choice.