So now it's the UK's turn to tighten the thumbscrews on drone pilots and try to kill the hobby over here as well. The CAA have today released a new Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC) and Guidance Material (GM) document for the rules and procedures for the operations of unmanned aircraft. It should be noted that everything in the document is law that must be complied with by a drone pilot. This means that you can potentially end up facing court and having a criminal record if you get caught being in non-compliance of any of the rules.

A link to the new document is in the quote box below. Legal requirements have amber headings with additional guidance below them having green headings.

Quote:CAA Decision to revoke and adopt AMC and GM for UK Reg (EU) 
2019/947 pursuant to Article 76(3) UK Reg (EU) 2018/1139
DECISION No. 16

http://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/ORS9...onNo16.pdf

Sean covers one of the revised rules surrounding VLOS in his video at the bottom of this post. See the details under the amber "AMC1 Article 2(7) Definitions" heading on page 4 of the document along with the green headed sections below that, but in summary:

• The original 500 metre general guidance being the acceptable distance for flying within VLOS has now been replaced with tighter rules.
  
• You must now be able to see the drone clearly without any visual aid and also be able to tell what orientation of the drone it is in without the use of lights on the drone to help with that.
  

I wonder how far away you would still be able to see the orientation of a DJI Mini. I doubt very far which now effectively renders those drones useless for any type of useful cinematic aerial photography if you want to fly them legally. As for FPV, even with a visual observer present I can't see how the VO is going to be able to keep track of position and orientation of a quad that they aren't piloting it themselves when it is flying at high speed and constantly changing orientation as the pilot performs acro manoeuvres. These new stricter regulations now effectively appear to make flying freestyle FPV illegal as far as I can see.

Regulations and guidance specific to a visual observer for FPV flights can be found under the green heading titles "GM1 UAS.OPEN.060(4) Responsibilities of the Remote Pilot" at the top of page 47.

Unfortunately, when one of the ''free western'' countries does something draconian, the others tend to follow suit. Chipping away at freedoms little by little.

Pretty soon, China is going to have the most liberal drone laws.

To be honest, I have a hard time maintaining LOS on my 7 inch quad without assistance at 100-200m, let alone 500m. This is unfortunately going to have to be settled and overturned in court. Although, the public cares little about less than 1 percent of the population who chooses to partake in a hobby.

Hi Snow,

Bummer.  

Next thing you know, your flying might look a lot like mine...stealthy. 

I can barely tell the orientation of a tiny whoop in my living room which is about
30 ft (10m) by 15 ft (5m)...even with the lights. With anything outside, I really
can't tell the orientation just by sight. I try to keep it straight and just fly out and
back...with NO yaw movement or I will become disoriented.

Wow, the concept of keeping super detailed flight logs is well....let me log that
tiny whoop flight. Yeah, right. 

Then there are those "fly zone volumes"...let me get my tape measure out;
maybe stake some flags...then keep within those bounds. WOW. 

Looks like getting caught could be a real nightmare.

Interestingly, I didn't see anything about Remote ID.

I previously thought that the one (and only) good thing to come out of Brexit was that the CAA decided not to continue to follow the same EU drone rules in favour of going their own way, and for a while it looked like they were giving UK fliers more freedom with the likes of relaxed EASA UAV regulations and the CAA Article 16 Authorisation for BMFA and FPV UK members.

But what the CAA giveth with one hand they seem to have taken away with the other.

The CAA even recently announced that the new "C" label classifications given to all new recently sold consumer drones for use in the EU (and originally the UK) would no longer apply to the UK. While this doesn't really affect home built FPV quads, what this does mean is that for anyone who bought an expensive DJI Mavic 3 (which has a "C1" label), while that drone can be flown in quite a few places in Europe without over-restriction, the only place you can now fly the same "C1" labelled Mavic 3 in the UK is out in the countryside well away from buildings and people. Sean (Geeksvana) covered this in a couple of his recent live streams HERE and HERE for anyone interested.

The way things are going, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the UK CAA also decide to adopt Remote ID over here too within the next few years.

(08-Dec-2022, 12:46 PM)iFly4rotors Wrote: Hi Snow,

Bummer.  

Next thing you know, your flying might look a lot like mine...stealthy. 

Most of us already do this. Or fly places that are hard to get to away from people. Very few actually jump through hoops and the ones that got all the tickets tend to be the ones flying around people. The people who fly for business as well as pleasure.

(08-Dec-2022, 12:46 PM)iFly4rotors Wrote: I can barely tell the orientation of a tiny whoop in my living room which is about
30 ft (10m) by 15 ft (5m)...even with the lights. With anything outside, I really
can't tell the orientation just by sight. I try to keep it straight and just fly out and
back...with NO yaw movement or I will become disoriented.

Similarly, I don't see anyone caring about this part except the DJI mafia. The people on one of the UK drone sites seem to have a major hard on about all of this, but the board is full of a bunch of do-gooder types that i am quite frankly not one of (but I keep a foot in that door for other reasons, but I'm definitely not part of that clique).

(08-Dec-2022, 12:46 PM)iFly4rotors Wrote: Wow, the concept of keeping super detailed flight logs is well....let me log that
tiny whoop flight. Yeah, right. 

From a past life in H&S I can tell you there are many versions of detailed. I can see most people recording detailed like this. FPV pilots flying bandos probably won't even bother. As I mentioned before I don't fly near people and prefer spots that are not easy to access or where the public fear to tread. I might print out a form like that and put some blurb on it just to cover my ass if I am flying at a bando with others, but if i'm out alone flying, why bother, you are already breaking the rules by flying without a spotter.

(08-Dec-2022, 12:46 PM)iFly4rotors Wrote: Then there are those "fly zone volumes"...let me get my tape measure out;
maybe stake some flags...then keep within those bounds. WOW.

Stupid rules for DJI owners. I don't have a DJI/Hubsan type flying brick drone.  I might do in the future as a tool for business, but if doing survey work I wouldn't be flying beyond LoS anyway. if doing an aerial survey of a building the scope of flight is the perimeter of the building. These rules are for the idiots who fly 4 or 5 miles away from themselves and claim because it his a strobe light on it, they still have LoS. If you are going to try and fudge the rules, just accept you might get in the shit and get on with it.

[

(08-Dec-2022, 12:46 PM)iFly4rotors Wrote: Looks like getting caught could be a real nightmare.

Already been down that road due to a misspent youth, so that particular threat is irrelevant to me.

(08-Dec-2022, 12:46 PM)iFly4rotors Wrote: Interestingly, I didn't see anything about Remote ID.

It will come, but I don't see many FPV flyers using it, let alone how to put remote id on a 1S 65mm whoop (is it even possible)? I see it being more for the bigger quads. Do people who only fly 1-2S have enough battery power for remote id to even function?

Remote ID devices aren't required on anything weighing less than 250g in the US so if the UK do end up following suit with the FAA by implementing Remote ID over here then I would expect it to utilise the same general requirements.

US pilots also don't require a Remote ID device on a quad of any weight if it is flown within a FRIA, so the UK CAA could also allow the same exemption if flying in BMFA designated flying areas (fields).

Next time I go flying I will be sure to ask the hedgehog if he/she is fine to continue spotting for me, and I always take any silent response as an indication of agreement

I'm Really Bored with this legal B*llShit, I'm not longer interesting in ANY form of compliance of any kind from this point forward. I will now be flying however i like,
and that's that. Rogue pilot 1 reporting for duty! CAA well done with my tax Money.

Well, it is clear that the UK CAA really have lost the plot. Sean's interview with them below goes to show just how disconnected from the hobby they actually are. Either that or they are purposely intent on trying to completely kill the hobby for recreational pilots. The new VLOS rules are a total joke and the comments under the video are on fire, quite rightly so. 

These new rules now effectively make FPV completely illegal in the UK and takes away any joy from someone who wants to fly a camera drone to get some nice shots of the scenery. Well done CAA for completely destroying the drone / FPV hobby in the UK for people who want(ed) to fly legally because pretty much anyone who flies any kind of drone now will be breaking the law in 80% of all cases.

So what's new.

No one runs a vtx at 25mw, no one runs a radio at 25mw, most people don't fly within LoS, in fact I suspect most quad pilots seriously don't give a flying fk.

I guess since almost everything we now do is illegal, it opens up the board, so things people would not have considered doing in the past because they are illegal are now irrelevant, because almost everything is illegal. So if you want to dive tower bridge or any number of other crazy things, you might as well just do it (from a boat on the Thames if you have brains).

Looking at the direction Canada has been going lately, I'm surprised it took them so long. The last few years have made me do a polar flip on my view of the law, which is concerning when considering how hard most of my stances are. World's gone insane...

Edit: I must've been tired when I posted this. I somehow came to believe this was a Canadian set of rules. That said, Canada's still going insane.

Is it as bad in Canada? i was thinking of visiting my brother in Quebec next year and maybe taking one of of my quads with me.

Below is an interview with the UK CAA containing their BS arguments / explanation as to why regulations for "C" label classified drones have been scrapped in the UK even though they have been accepted without issue in the EU.

With all of these new ridiculous regulations in the UK it's going to be interesting to see who actually bothers to comply with them or if we will start to see a decline of camera drone sales in the UK. I was in my local branch of Curry's yesterday and they didn't have any of the new DJI drones on display or for sale. The most up-to-date one they had was the Mini 2 which has since been superseded by the Mini 3, and there was a DJI FPV drone on display but no sign of the Avata.

There is now almost no point buying any type of camera drone for use in the UK anymore if you want to fly it legally because the only places you can fly them is out in the middle of nowhere and/or within 50-100m of yourself where you can still (maybe) visually determine with your own eyes what orientation it is in.

If you have A2/GVC and the Operational Auth (that FPVUK offers), does all this problem go away?

I am considering getting a Mini 2 at some point in the new year. Not looking for cutting edge, just something that can shoot a video at 1080p, be flown at a max of 50m and probably no more than 100m from where I'm stood. Also sub 250g if possible. Don't need any of the advanced crap like object detection and crash avoidance (because I have eyes and a brain). Don't need it to fly for more than about 10 mins.

I think a Mini 2 would be ideal for that usage level.

Re:   "You must now be able to see the drone clearly without any visual aid and also be able to tell what orientation of the drone it is in without the use of lights on the drone to help with that."

OK, so that law will through flow to GA and commercial aviation, so no Nav lights, position beacons, etc, etc?  

So how do commercial drones do this? They obviously have no LoS full stop if they are flying a package between two points over say 20 miles.