Drones

Australian drone rules NEAT directive

Phil Whitehouse from London, Great Britain, alias Phillie Casablanca on Flickr, CC BY 2.0

Australian drone regulations are evolving rapidly, as outlined in a newly published policy statement on emerging aviation technologies. For more information on international drone regulations, please see our latest updates on regulations in Canada and Latin America.

Drones looking up, down under!

By: Dawn MK Zoldi

Hot off the press, the Australian Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications (DITRDC) published a policy statement on National Emerging Aviation Technologies (NEAT) on May 6, 2021. DITRDC will work with state, territorial and local governments using a state-wide approach to develop:

  • A Drone Rule Management System (DRMS) used to coordinate and manage operating rules for drones from various agencies in the Commonwealth, states, territories and local governments. These include operational boundaries or rules related to safety, noise, privacy, environmental impact, and cultural sites.
  • Coordinated enforcement systems that enable state and territory law enforcement to deal with minor violations of rules and regulations related to drone operations.
  • A National Drone Detection Network (NDDN) consisting of a scalable and modular infrastructure to facilitate the detection of drones in order to protect assets, activities and events in the air and on the ground. The system will consist of a modular and scalable network of drone detection sensors that are connected to a central database that can filter and make relevant data available to a wide range of users.
  • A NEAT infrastructure planning framework that consists of clear principles and processes to ensure effective and efficient coordination of planning decisions related to the construction and operation of electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOL) and drone take-off, delivery and landing sites.

The NEAT Policy Statement also addresses unmanned traffic management and the integration of drones and eVTOL aircraft into flight information management systems, as well as regulatory modernization and industrial partnerships. The schedules for various NEAT initiatives range from 2021 to 2024.

Even with regulatory work still to be done, drones are now flying across the country. According to Jackie Dujmovic, CEO of Hover UAV and winner of the Woman to Watch Prize 2018 (nature conservation), drone and eVTOL companies are flocking to Australia with its extensive areas and the specially created and unique Remote Australian Airspace.

Dujmovic initially combined the model of her drone company with maritime use cases. Hover first created a shark alert and operational plan to track sharks and save lives in Australia. The drones not only help to track down sharks, but also find swimmers in distress and alert the lifeguards in both cases. Australian drone regulations allow this and many other use cases, especially in the Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) area.

The current state of Australian drone regulations

Australia (AUS) follows the model of the specific Operation Risk Assessment (SORA) of the Joint Authorities for Rulemaking on Unmanned Systems (JARUS) with its own spin. The Aussies have three categories of drone approvals: Recreational, Excluded Operations, and Remote Operator Certificate (ReOC).

The excluded operations category is closer to Part 107 in the United States. Excluded Ops are for less than 2 kg (4.4 lbs) drones or up to 25 kg (55 lbs) when flown on your own land. AUS’s regulator, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), requires basic training, accreditation, records, and a new $ 40 registration fee. Forbidden operators must comply with several standard operating conditions that do not include flights: within 30 meters of people, at night, in fog / rain, over people, or out of line of sight. Common commercial use cases in this category include real estate photography, agriculture, mining, and the surf-life-sight operations described above.

The ReOC provides the most important means for commercial drone flights. This more robust process requires companies to create an operations manual, keep records, and assign a senior remote pilot and maintenance controller for drone operations. With a ReOC, companies outside of standard conditions, such as B. BVLOS and night missions or the use of autonomous drones, work with additional measures and the strengthening of manual processes in the field.

AUS carries out BVLOS flights, also for drone deliveries. Dujmovic supports customers in obtaining BVLOS permits in three ways: (1) eVLOS or extended VLOS with visual observers (2) with CASA’s 5 “standard scenarios”, pre-approved use cases, or (3) with the full SORA for operations, those who do not fall into the standard scenarios. More information from Dujmovic on AUS drone regulations can be found here.

Hover UAV has set up a BVLOS hub to help companies get these required permits, write operating manuals and also provide special BVLOS training. Hover has also set up a Remote Ops Center (ROC) to enable drone-in-a-box (DIB) solutions in far-reaching locations.

For additional information on AUS drone regs, Dujmovic recommends that you check the following:

  • Australian Civil Aviation Authority – https://www.casa.gov.au/drones
  • Australian Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications (DITRDC) National Declaration on New Aviation Technologies: Infrastructure.gov.au/aviation/technology/files/national-emerging-aviation-technologies-policy-statement.pdf
  • Hovering UAV – https://www.hoveruav.com.au/

Things are really going up in Down Under!

Dawn MK Zoldi (Colonel, USAF, retired) is a licensed attorney with 28 years of combined active military and federal civil service with the Department of the Air Force. She is an internationally recognized expert on the law and politics of unmanned aircraft systems, a columnist for several magazines, Winner of the Woman to Watch in UAS (Leadership) Award 2019, President and CEO of UAS Colorado and CEO of P3 Tech Consulting LLC. You can find more information on their website at: https://www.p3techconsulting.com.

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