Oh dear, it looks like I'm going LEGIT!!

[morph000]

Was looking at doing the Nowra NSW course for around $5k I saw on the riseabove site

Add $3,500 to CASA on top of that to get your OC (if that's where you're going).
The RPAS courses generally get you the theory and hours for your CC.

Some will help with the paperwork for OC.
Some are throwing in a Phantom for the $5k
Others are offering RPAS for less.

I was lucky. Having my pilot's license, it only cost me $250 to get my manufacturer's certificate ('type' cert).
Add $160 to CASA to apply for the CC.
OC is next... the expensive bit.

Dunno about that !
Have a read:
http://www.riseaboveaerials.com.au/prod ... ation.html

Note:
"Q. Once I complete this course, do I need to sit an exam with CASA?

A. No. You will sit an in-house exam with Total RPA at the end of the course, and Total RPA Instructors will also assess you ‘practically' on the UAV.


Q. Is there a difference between the RPC and the UAV controller's certificate?

A. No, they are both certificates issued by CASA that allow you to fly a UAV (RPA) for hire and reward ie, get paid!!


Q. What is the biggest advantage of doing this course over the Controllers certificate course you also offer?

A. The RPC course is designed specifically for the UAV pilot. The course material relates to UAV's as apposed to Cessna's and light aircraft.

Further, the course is finished in 5 days, with no need for any further study or testing. At the end of the course Total RPA will apply to CASA on your behalf for the issue of your certificate (Normally 2 weeks processing time)"

That says to me CASA gives me a full UAV licence,no extra expense, unless you've been through this course and demonstrate to the contrary??

 

[Narrator]

Misleading!
The Controller's certificate allows you to get paid, but only while flying under an authorised Operator.
If you want to operate entirely as your own business, you need to obtain an OC from CASA.
Don't believe me. Do like I did, phone CASA to get the details. Ask to speak to Werner Lushington, their UAV guru.

 

[Ezookiel]

Why would the major networks hire a drone operator when they just send ray and his camera crew off to a dji training day were they will learn how to fly use way points set out a root on where to go press start film and then land batta bing batta boom . The drone technology is moving so fast that even an idiot in the next few years will be able to fly film good footage and not pay and arm a leg or a dji inspire for it

Why? Because they want to get good images created by good camera operators.
Just like there is a whole industry supplying real estate agents with quality photography.
DJI can perfect their flying cameras but that still won't make them take good video.
Just the same way you can take Nikon's or Canon's best SLR and their best lenses and still take bad photos.
There is a lot of skill and art involved in creating great photos and videos and people pay for quality content.

The TV networks contract in experienced professionals when they need flying cameras because getting results with these things is an order of magnitude beyond using a camera on the ground. Despite technological advances it still takes an expert to get really good results.

I can vouch for that, as my major hobby - above flying these things - is photography. I've heard many people say "any idiot can take photos" funnily enough, the one who said it while taking some "action shots" with his mobile phone, of his 4wd going through an obstacle course. Was more than happy to then talk in glowing terms about the photos that I put up of his vehicle in action, taken with not just a proper camera, but a lot of experience behind one, and ask me if he could have copies of my shots. And then to ask me how I'd managed to get some of the effects he'd not been able to get. I resisted the urge to tell him back to his face, that "according to you, any idiot can take photos like these" I didn't need to. His genuine awe told me he'd already learned how wrong his statement had been.

A very good mate of mine runs a photography company that does both real estate photography, and all the photography for a major car event every year. I've seen the photos he takes for the real estate chain. They pay him very well for them, and they know they could go buy a camera and get one of their agents to snap off some shots for a fraction of the cost, and yet they still pay him big money for his shots. Quite simply because the results are so drastically different. He's a very skilled photographer, with top notch gear, and the experience and knowledge on how to draw out the best from that gear.

Why do people pay a wedding photographer rather than give a digital to one of the guests and ask him/her to take the photos for the day? They want the results. I don't care how many people can eventually fly these things. There will be people prepared to pay someone that knows one end of the camera from the other, to do the photography or videography for them, because they want the better results.

 

[Ezookiel]

Narrator is correct. You still cannot use a UAV commercially just because you have a UAV controller's certificate or a Remotely Piloted Aircraft certificate.
You can only be a paid employee to fly for someone else. You have to have a UAV operators certificate to fly commercially.
One is just the flying of the UAV itself, and for that there isn't much difference between the UAV controller certificate and the Remotely Piloted Aircraft certificate, but the OPERATORS certificate is what you need to be able to run a business that uses a UAV commercially.
The place I'm going to do my training is doing both the controllers and the operators, for $5500, but it's only that price when you do both as a package deal. The controllers takes only a few days to get. The operators takes months to be processed by CASA.

 

[enseth]

Narrator is correct. You still cannot use a UAV commercially just because you have a UAV controller's certificate or a Remotely Piloted Aircraft certificate.
You can only be a paid employee to fly for someone else. You have to have a UAV operators certificate to fly commercially.
One is just the flying of the UAV itself, and for that there isn't much difference between the UAV controller certificate and the Remotely Piloted Aircraft certificate, but the OPERATORS certificate is what you need to be able to run a business that uses a UAV commercially.
The place I'm going to do my training is doing both the controllers and the operators, for $5500, but it's only that price when you do both as a package deal. The controllers takes only a few days to get. The operators takes months to be processed by CASA.

Everything you say here is correct. The Operators Certificate (OC) is basically paperwork orientated and involves documentation regarding maintenance and operating procedures and the like. In short, an OC for operating UAV's has the same requirements for someone who operates a charter fleet of light planes, which is absurd. Current regulations are not relevant and the sooner they are changed the better. This is not to say that their should be no regulations governing the use of UAV for private or commercial use. They just need to be relevant to todays world. I now descend from my soapbox.

 

[Ezookiel]

I'm on that same soapbox. It is utterly ludicrous that they apply the same regulations to operating a UAV business as to an aircraft charter business.
Bureaucracy gone mad!

 

[Narrator]

I'm on that same soapbox. It is utterly ludicrous that they apply the same regulations to operating a UAV business as to an aircraft charter business.
Bureaucracy gone mad!

I think that's why they're changing the sub-2kg category soon... though what soon means is anyone's guess

 

[Ezookiel]

I'll have to weigh my P2 - with iOSD, AVL58, H3-3D gimbal, GoPro-H4B, and some 3D printed clip-on prop-guards, there's a chance it's now over 2kg. But I have no real idea, so will have to weigh it to find out one day.

 

[Meta4]

I'm on that same soapbox. It is utterly ludicrous that they apply the same regulations to operating a UAV business as to an aircraft charter business.

It makes as much sense as it would if the AMA tried to tell everyone that only qualified medical doctors can apply bandaids.

CASA, FAA etc only understand airplanes and the only way they can understand a drone is to consider it as a plane and make it fit their plane-centric rules. For them, it's obvious that commercial (plane) pilots need to have a higher standard of training and expertise. So it's only a small jump (for them) to automatically assume that commercial drone work must also require higher standards of training.
This philosophy comes apart when you realise that the flying and photographing isn't illegal at all - unless you want to sell the images. Besides commonsense safety rules, they have no restrictions on amateurs doing all the aerial photography they like for their own pleasure.
It's not about aviation safety - it's about restriction of trade.
They are trying to dictate who can sell aerial photos.
And that's getting a long way from what their charter is - aviation safety.

 

[Meta4]

How's this hypothetical?
I have a large collection of aerial photos that I have been accumulating quite legally for my own pleasure.
But if, in six months time, someone offers me $$ for some of my photos.
Under current rules, my past flying (which was 100% legal) would now be retrospectively made illegal??

Q. Are you flying illegally today?
A. That depends on what you may or may not do in six months time.
This shows the ridiculous non-reason they are employing.

 

[Narrator]

Unfortunately you are correct.
If any transaction of money or goods, even digital goods, occurs, at any time, as a result of flying, then it's considered commercial.
I guess the only time it's not is when it's made public domain, like posting here or Youtube.

 

[hotstink626]

Unfortunately you are correct.
If any transaction of money or goods, even digital goods, occurs, at any time, as a result of flying, then it's considered commercial.
I guess the only time it's not is when it's made public domain, like posting here or Youtube.

You hit the nail on the head casa themselves said they can't inforce a law thats not inforcable they are for air saftey they are not the commercial police .. unless you are blunty advertising aerial work and you don't have the current license it is hard for them to catch them. the only way they could start to stop this and i cant see this happening is to create a blanket ban on sales and hobby flying unless you have a license but the current climate doesn't require that . We are not flying guns people :roll:

 

[Ezookiel]

It's confirmed, I'm booked in for the RPAS course on the 20th - 24th of April.
Thanks FPV Australia. I can't wait.