My driving licence costs me £1.40 a year to renew.

I tried to work out the ratio of road-related deaths to drone-related deaths, but apparently my calculator has a bug in it.

I also got the FPVUK email today about the annual drone registration prices going up. Like we didn't see that coming when the whole drone registration charade got introduced a few years back. It is all just another stealth tax to generate money for the government.

I originally joined FPVUK shortly after I started flying so I could have the peace of mind of their £5 million public liability insurance should the worst happen while I was flying, and I've just continued to let it renew every year. That was before all the BS regulations and registration requirements started creeping in. We all know how insurance companies will do anything to try and get out of having to pay up, so if you were found to have been breaking a single regulation while flying then I'm sure they would declare the insurance to be null and void. So it now makes me wonder what the point of being a member of FPVUK actually is. I have another few months left of my current annual membership, but I'm extremely tempted to just say eff it and let my membership lapse come renewal time, then use the annual membership fee money I saved for more FPV gear instead.

If anyone without an Operator ID registration wants to know what the UK Operator ID format looks like, it is "GBR-OP-AAAAAAAAAAAA" where the A's are a combination of uppercase alpha and numeric characters. A Flyer ID has the same format but the "-OP-" in the middle is replaced with "-RP-". So feel free to make up a fake Operator ID number and stick it on your quad like you're supposed to do. It obviously won't fool someone in authority if you're unlucky enough to be confronted by one because they will be able to check it on the CAA database, but if any do-gooders come along who claim to know something about the drone registration requirements you can just flash your fake registration number at them and then send them on their merry way.

Hi Snow,

I totally agree about the insurance companies. They want to take your 
money but, they do everything they can to get out of paying. Yep, if 
they can say, in any way, that the flight was not legal, then they surely 
will not want to pay.

The following interview with the UK CAA got published on Seans' channel earlier this evening regarding the spotter requirement for FPV flights. The requirement for tiny whoops needing a spotter was also discussed, and the takeaway is that they cannot be classified as a toy because they haven't been designed for kids under 14, so you 100% need to have a spotter when you fly your 30g whoop outside, even if it's on your own property  It's all such a clusterf***.

(12-Jan-2023, 09:00 PM)Lemonyleprosy Wrote: I mean, they have to pay for the extra enforcement somehow…

Plus, it takes a lot of money to decide on and write new regulations.



“Activities such as regulatory rulemaking or work to prepare the CAA for the innovative products that will reach the aviation market in the near future are for the benefit of industry as a whole, or large sections of it. Therefore, the most appropriate course of action for these charges is to seek a contribution from all applicable charge payers via a general price increase against each relevant charging scheme, recognising that a regulator working in a proactive manner to address the challenges of future changes to aviation in the UK is to the benefit of the entire community.”

How are those benefits feeling?

They can go bill Amazon, although i suspect the yearly backhander probably comes to far more than £380k/year.

But seriously, all they do is cause problems.  They get more than enough money from the commerical arm of the business.  Registering drone pilots is just that.  it's a database of names and addresses, oh and a basic multi-choice question online exam.  I used to program stuff like that at Uni.  Not really hard stuff.  Overall it doesn't cost as much as they make out.

But if they actually made it worth your while.  Made some drone only flight areas around the country that no one but drone pilots could use.  Or made the first 50m for recreational users only, hell I'd pay it.  But all we get are FRZ's and more and more stupid rules. 

No I really don't support it and probably never will, not recreationally anyway.

And there is yet more possible BS regulations coming with regards to the possibility of Remote ID in the UK by 2026. Details are in another thread linked below...

https://intofpv.com/t-is-remote-id-comin...uk-in-2026

Matt perfectly sums up the mess the CAA have created in his video linked to below...

Verdict in on the guy flying proximity to a plane in a no for zone. £3000 fine.

Given the circumstances I think that's quite light

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-derb...241328.amp

I also think it's pretty good news - flying a sub250g in the middle of nowhere with no contact with anyone is unlikely to get mutch in the way of a penalty. Fly safe!

(02-Mar-2023, 09:02 PM)Diggery Wrote: Verdict in on the guy flying proximity to a plane in a no for zone. £3000 fine.

Given the circumstances I think that's quite light

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-derb...241328.amp

I also think it's pretty good news - flying a sub250g in the middle of nowhere with no contact with anyone is unlikely to get mutch in the way of a penalty. Fly safe!

There is no doubting that guy was a complete dick who should have had the book thrown at him. He has done nothing but cause even more unnecessary damage to the hobby, but the media have yet again taken the opportunity to sensationalise a drone related story with BS for clicks and views which will just cause even more drone hysteria amongst the public.

I guess every time one of those Hurricanes was flying during war time and was involved in a bird strike it just plummeted from the sky and killed hundreds of civilians on the ground below. A metal 3.5 ton plane with an 11ft metal prop against a 249g plastic DJI Mini 2. No contest. Of course the Mini 2 would come out as the victor  

It is still no excuse for the nob head pilot who few his Mini 2 in a temporary flight restriction zone knowing that there was going to be a flypast, but just like the Gatwick false flag incident, the media need to stop scaremongering with false statements and just report on the pure facts.

(03-Mar-2023, 02:24 PM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: There is no doubting that guy was a complete dick who should have had the book thrown at him. He has done nothing but cause even more unnecessary damage to the hobby, but the media have yet again taken the opportunity to sensationalise a drone related story with BS for clicks and views which will just cause even more drone hysteria amongst the public.

I guess every time one of those Hurricanes was flying during war time and was involved in a bird strike it just plummeted from the sky and killed hundreds of civilians on the ground below. A metal 3.5 ton plane with an 11ft metal prop against a 249g plastic DJI Mini 2. No contest. Of course the Mini 2 would come out as the victor  

It is still no excuse for the nob head pilot who few his Mini 2 in a temporary flight restriction zone knowing that there was going to be a flypast, but just like the Gatwick false flag incident, the media need to stop scaremongering with false statements and just report on the pure facts.

It is what it is.

---

/Gives Snow a beer.