It’s much more restrictive

Before I got my drone I would go out most days to take photographs and point my lens at whatever took my fancy. I mainly photograph landscapes and occasionally wildlife, so I just went where I wanted and pointed my lens at whatever I found. However a drone is an aircraft and as soon as you stick propellors on your camera and put it in the air, you are bound by the laws regulated by the government (CASA here in Australia), the local authorities, the military and the ‘managers’ of whatever land it is that you’ve chosen to fly over.

I was extremely naive when I got my drone – I had no idea that I couldn’t simply put it in the air wherever the hell I wanted. Over the course of the first month I had a very steep learning curve as I came to realise just how restricted flight is here in Australia. Firstly I came to grips with the basic CASA rules here – no flying over populous areas, never closer than 30m away from people, buildings, vehicles or boats, never at night, never beyond visual line of sight, never more than 120m up. Then I came to grips with the airport zones (5.5km from all airports). Then I found out about helipads, which are everywhere here in Australia and have the same 5.5km recommended exclusion zone. Then I found out about bans or restrictions within national parks. Finally I came to grips with controlled and restricted airspace. I found out about a month after getting my drone that I live inside a huge restricted airspace zone within which I cannot fly between 8:30 and and 11pm from Monday to Friday. It was extremely dispiriting – it seemed to me that I’d bought a shiny white paperweight because nobody – government, military, council, land-owners, land-managers and the public – wanted it flying near them.

So here I was with this expensive bit of kit but the incredible freedom I’d enjoyed with my DSLR was virtually non-existent on the drone. Here in Australia (like many countries coming to terms with drone usage) there is a licensing system that enables me to use the drone with more freedom, but that paperwork and associated public liability insurance runs to about $6000AUD. It would enable me to fly within the restricted airspace, to fly beyond visual line of sight, to get higher in the air and closer to people but it’s a very serious amount of money for someone who doesn’t earn their living through photography. At some point I will probably get fully licensed, but it is a high price to pay for only a small increase in freedom.