Do I Need A License To Fly A Drone For Business Purposes?

Drones. Or UAV, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. They’re faster these days, with flashy lights, equipped with cameras, and can fly higher than before. This is why, someone may asks the question: "do i need a license to fly a drone?"

The best point of departure is to ask where you live. Some countries are only starting to consider the enforcement of licensing, while others have had processes under way for years.

For instance, in South Africa, newly passed legislation requires that you have a licence to fly.

The USA kindly allows you to fly your drone inside your home whenever you’d like to. If you’d rather fly outside, you’d need a licence in some cases. The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) states you can fly unlicensed as long as you stay five miles away from airports, control towers, and always yield to manned aircrafts. 

Australia echoes this stating drones must be kept more than 5.5km from places where the airspace is busy. Its laws state 30 metres is as close to other people as you can go.

It is improbable that a country would allow drones to play where aircrafts need to work. Please check your government’s position before you take to flying.

The question of whether or not you need a licence seems dependent on why you want to fly in the first place. If you’re doing it for work, you do. For fun, you don’t, unless your country requires that you do, so it’s not confusing at all.

In the USA, the FAA allows flying for fun to be unlicensed, especially if you’re in your garden. The moment it becomes commercial, drones need to be registered, and you need a licence. Flying outside recreationally does come with exceptions to the rule. If your drone weighs more than 0.55 pounds or 100 grams, then you will need to register it.

In Australia, you don’t need a licence recreationally, but you do commercially.

The question of whether or not you need a licence seems dependent on why you want to fly in the first place. If you’re doing it for work, you do. For fun, you don’t, unless your country requires that you do, so it’s not confusing at all.

In the USA, the FAA allows flying for fun to be unlicensed, especially if you’re in your garden. The moment it becomes commercial, drones need to be registered, and you need a licence. Flying outside recreationally does come with exceptions to the rule. If your drone weighs more than 0.55 pounds or 100 grams, then you will need to register it.

In Australia, you don’t need a licence recreationally, but you do commercially.

You can’t get a licence to fly two drones at the same time. Your licence shows that you are able to fly a drone safely understanding when not to fly one. Flying more than one at the same time shows that you are a cowboy of the skies, and should have your right to a licence challenged.

400 ft (121.92) seems to be the maximum height you can fly without invading airspace used for commercial or military purposes in most places.

In the UK, the CAA (Central Aviation Authority) only allows flying horizontally beneath 500 metres, and vertically, 400ft. Australia’s drone laws forbid flying higher than 400ft or 120 metres too.

The EU Aviation Safety Agency has drafted changes to their legislation coming into effect in 2019. The news is not good for all those who enjoy the freedom of their aviation hobby. EU ASA has proposed a ban on flying out of sight for those who fly for fun, and seek to categorise drones into three groups, for which new registration will apply.

The general consensus is not to forget how busy the skies are, and keep your drone far away from other aircrafts - it is safer for everyone anyway.

Keep it low, but not low enough to hit

1. People
2. Buildings
3. Trees
4. Power lines
5. Sign posts

It is not advised to fly kamikaze into billboards you don’t like, as it must be illegal no matter how satisfying!

There are other creatures of the sky, such as paragliders, whose space must also be respected. It may be quiet up there, but it’s not lonely.

Flying above an official parade or anything governmental is not permitted. The same goes for crime scenes or sports events. Think about it, any situation in which you would find an official channel in the same skies using their own drones would find you excluded from the same kind of fun.

That is the key word for you, fun. Flying for fun, not to snoop, sell, deliver or interfere is the way forward. Going back to Australia, did you know that you can only fly a drone there in the day, and that you must be able to see it at all times? That would discount foggy days in the evening if you do have a desire for risk-taking.

Waxing Popularity, Waning Freedom

Are your hobbies being interfered with as a result of the formalising of drone ownership and usage? It is a controversial topic, and one that will only be debated more as drones become more common.

You could argue that the masses are ruining it for everyone. If drones were not that popular, people wouldn’t need licences. The paperwork comes after the rise in popularity, doesn’t it?

If you hear anyone ask “do I need a licence to fly a drone?” Firstly, ask them why they’d be flying. Secondly, ask them where they would be flying, and thirdly, ask them what dangers there are in flying.

It’s better to have a discussion on it rather than issue an affirmative from the onset as most people do. Why? The Drone business has been growing in popularity to the point that having a licence is just a necessity for order in the skies. The unregulated drone ? Glory days are numbered, except for in countries where more pressing legislation may be in order. Those who complain
about their freedoms being curtailed might need a reminder in what happens when too many people do the same thing without order – create chaos.

Conclusion

Getting a licence to fly a drone might just be a quick formality in the future. It could depend on your reason for flying or where you fly it, but it may also be like cars in the old days when people bought them, learnt to drive them, but only when ubiquity came, did the the licence follow.