Hello Fellow Yuneec Pilot!
Join our free Yuneec community and remove this annoying banner!
Sign up

UK & European drone pilots.

Joined
Feb 7, 2016
Messages
292
Reaction score
151
Age
66
Location
South Manchester UK
UK drone pilots. The Department of Transport have put out a consultation document about new proposed drone regulations in the UK. Time is running out if YOU want to have YOUR say on this subject. The closing date for input from drone users, ends on the 17th September. I'll put links at the end.

I'll quickly run through what the main proposals are. Having to use an app operated by either a 3rd party, DOT or CAA before you fly, every time you fly. This will give your location and will be mandatory. Police or 3rd party personnel with powers to confiscate your drone if you are suspected of not sticking to the rules. Technology to take out your drone if it is being flown near a so called sensitive area. This will either be some kind of signal jamming or something to make your drone crash out of the sky or something to make your drone return to your home point and land. Whatever, it sounds like it would be open to abuse by the anyone that is given a licence to operate it.

If you're happy with that little lot, then do nothing and fly your drone while you still can. On the other hand, if you want to have your say and maybe mitigate some of this BS then do the survey and do it now! It doesn't matter what you fly or what make/manufacturer of drone you use, this will affect all of us.

I'll not pretend the survey is straightforward, it's long winded, frustrating and I was losing the will to live by the end of the first page! But please stick at it. At the end, there is the chance to have your say in a box called 'Any Other Comments'. Please let-rip here but keep it civil.

The other way to have your say is via the NODE website. (Network Of Drone Enthusiasts) There is a link on the NODE website where YOU can write your comments directly to the Department of Transport. It will bring up a standard e-mail already written and ready to send. But my advice would be to delete the standard e-mail and write your own comments about what you think of the new proposals. Again, get your point across but keep it civil, if you just go off on one they will likely just delete it.

European & UK drone pilots. There are proposals for noise regulations for drones. (I think this has been covered here in another thread but I'll reiterate). The crux of this proposal is the the noise test would be conducted with the microphone positioned right next to the drone with the drone on full power! Again, you can use the NODE website to have your say. Please everyone, do it now. The more of us that put in our point of view the better chance we have of getting this stuff scrapped.

Here are the links.

DOT Survey https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/drones/

Node NODE - Dedicated to ensuring fair and responsible drone regulations
 
  • Like
Reactions: AeriaL and AeroJ
You are right, that survey is tedious and depressing in the extreme, but we have to get through it. I'm almost there, with just my final comments to submit, which I am taking some time to compose properly.

I am particularly annoyed about the noise thing, given that anyone can start a chainsaw, mower, angle grinder, hammer drill or industrial strimmer anywhere in my neighbourhood at anytime in daylight hours ! :mad: If that isn't regulated, neither should drone noise be, especially when that drone is likely to be hundreds of feet above or away from residential areas. And now I'm going to go and look at photos of kittens so my blood pressure can recover :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: AeriaL
Indeed. Do you think the survey was deliberately made that way to put people off commenting? Talk about not asking the right questions!
 
Indeed. Do you think the survey was deliberately made that way to put people off commenting? Talk about not asking the right questions!

I suspect it was designed to put people off UAV flying full stop !! You do feel a bit like throwing your craft in the bin after getting through that survey, but we have to stand strong and fight for our airspace !! It has always been so with new tech, a world largely unprepared for it, and the paranoia / hysteria of the media.

When cars were first introduced to a Britain full of horses, poor drivers had to stop and send up Roman Candles every 50 yards, and if a horse wouldn't pass it, the vehicle drfiver had to pull over and cover it with a blanket ! If that still didn't work, the car driver was obliged to begin disassembling the vehicle and secreting the parts behind nearby foliage so that the horse could pass unaffected !!

What is so frustrating about this whole process is that it won't stop any of the bad guys using and flying drones however and wherever the **** they want ! They will be the ones that don't register and ignore the rules, and continue to get away with it, while the rest of us law-abiding flyers get punished with rule after rule and have to watch our airspace being further and further restricted and eroded !

I often wonder what new rules have been put in place for regular pilots to cope with the shared airspace ? Or is it just us who are expected to make all the concessions ? I think we need a new worldwide coalition that can represent all of us, and give us the sort of numbers and lobby power that might mean we are much more effective in demanding fairness here. For example, I was disgusted to find that the BMFA (of which I am a member) merrily negotiated with the CAA to get all its fixed wing flyers exempted from the 400 ft rule, and made zero effort to include drones with that, so the exemption simply doesn't apply to us. The very organisation that is meant to help us ignores us completely (other than providing the insurance in exchange for membership fees). But things like NODE are a very good start ! I would join them if I knew whether I was in Europe or not !!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Ren57
I suspect it was designed to put people off UAV flying full stop !! You do feel a bit like throwing your craft in the bin after getting through that survey, but we have to stand strong and fight for our airspace !! It has always been so with new tech, a world largely unprepared for it, and the paranoia / hysteria of the media.

When cars were first introduced to a Britain full of horses, poor drivers had to stop and send up Roman Candles every 50 yards, and if a horse wouldn't pass it, the vehicle drfiver had to pull over and cover it with a blanket ! If that still didn't work, the car driver was obliged to begin disassembling the vehicle and secreting the parts behind nearby foliage so that the horse could pass unaffected !!

What is so frustrating about this whole process is that it won't stop any of the bad guys using and flying drones however and wherever the **** they want ! They will be the ones that don't register and ignore the rules, and continue to get away with it, while the rest of us law-abiding flyers get punished with rule after rule and have to watch our airspace being further and further restricted and eroded !

I often wonder what new rules have been put in place for regular pilots to cope with the shared airspace ? Or is it just us who are expected to make all the concessions ? I think we need a new worldwide coalition that can represent all of us, and give us the sort of numbers and lobby power that might mean we are much more effective in demanding fairness here. For example, I was disgusted to find that the BMFA (of which I am a member) merrily negotiated with the CAA to get all its fixed wing flyers exempted from the 400 ft rule, and made zero effort to include drones with that, so the exemption simply doesn't apply to us. The very organisation that is meant to help us, ignores us completely (other than providing the insurance in exchange for membership fees). But things like NODE are a very good start ! I would join them if I knew whether I was in Europe or not !!
It matters not if you/we are in Europe or not. Join them and start the fightback, I have:)
 
  • Like
Reactions: AeroJ
I've just finishe the survey. What a nightmare!

But, I've had my say.
Good man. It is a nightmare but at least you've done something. Another thing you could do (and this doesn't involve having to fill in a long daft survey) is go to the NODE website. NODE - Dedicated to ensuring fair and responsible drone regulations 'Network Of Drone Enthusiasts'. Then click on take action. An e-mail already written for you will appear. Delete the contents of the e-mail and put in your own comments. This is sent directly to the Department of Transport. And spread the word to whoever you can! Time is running out.......!
 
You are right, that survey is tedious and depressing in the extreme, but we have to get through it. I'm almost there, with just my final comments to submit, which I am taking some time to compose properly.

I am particularly annoyed about the noise thing, given that anyone can start a chainsaw, mower, angle grinder, hammer drill or industrial strimmer anywhere in my neighbourhood at anytime in daylight hours ! :mad: If that isn't regulated, neither should drone noise be, especially when that drone is likely to be hundreds of feet above or away from residential areas. And now I'm going to go and look at photos of kittens so my blood pressure can recover :)
@AeroJ
Here is a cat picture to calm you down
fe81565d2f70259df3094f3f41784eec.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ren57
Here is a cat picture to calm you down
Lols :) No, that's not nearly cute enough to offset that survey, although Grumpy Cat is about right ! I was thinking something like this as a bare minimum...

k2.jpg

...although by the time I'd completed it I was feeling more like this..

k3.jpg

and also this...

angryseacat.JPG

If only I could send the DoT my response in cat pictures...
 
  • Like
Reactions: AH-1G
Lols :) No, that's not nearly cute enough to offset that survey, although Grumpy Cat is about right ! I was thinking something like this as a bare minimum...

View attachment 11375

...although by the time I'd completed it I was feeling more like this..

View attachment 11376

and also this...

View attachment 11377

If only I could send the DoT my response in cat pictures...
See my avatar for how I looked after completing that survey.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AeroJ and Ren57
Thanks everyone that took the time and did the survey. I've got to admit though, I was hoping for a better response. I don't know how many people from the UK & Europe actually participate on the Yuneec Pilots forum? It looks like we've got the usual suspects here. I'm also a member of another well know drone manufacturer's forum and the response was similar, read not that great! I have a bad feeling that we may be screwed! Ah, well, we've done our best and that's all we can do........ Happy flying, before Big Brother will be sitting on our shoulder every time we fly.

All the best.

Winston Smith.
 
I've only just noticed this thread, but responded some weeks ago after seeing a post on fb. What is the point of the questions about How many drones do I think a pilot has?? o_O
 
I've only just noticed this thread, but responded some weeks ago after seeing a post on fb. What is the point of the questions about How many drones do I think a pilot has?? o_O
I thought they had well overestimated the numbers that they were predicting.

I only have two operational (I still have a third but it hasn't flown since late 2016) and since I won't be renewing my PfCO when it's due, I won't be adding to my fleet now. Indeed, if one of them ceases to be airworthy (hopefully not the H) I won't be replacing it. So rather than my having more drones in the future, my count is set to go down.
 
I've only just noticed this thread, but responded some weeks ago after seeing a post on fb. What is the point of the questions about How many drones do I think a pilot has?? o_O
Absolutely no point whatsoever. I think they were trying to get some kind of handle on how many drones there actually are out there. But in reality, what does it matter how many drones anyone has, you can only fly one at time! In fact the whole survey was frustrating and time consuming to say the least. In the boxes that said 'why', I felt like putting "I don't understand the question", in a lot of instances. I preferred the NODE website route a lot more than that stupid survey. An e-mail direct to the Department of Transport sounds like a much better proposition to me. Anyway, I got the impression from the survey, that they have already made up their minds? I don't think it'll matter much what we say but at least we have had our 2 pence worth.

I thought the estimated numbers of drones were astronomically over estimated! Especially in the commercial sector. I think the number of drones will only keep on falling, not going up. I have 4 of which 3 are operational. But I mainly use 2, my Typhoon H and my Mavic Pro, I use my old Yuneec Q500 as a back-up. Whether I would bother replacing any of them in the future will largely depend on where the regulations go. I do at present hold a current PFCO but I only dabble in commercial stuff part time. I have full time employment, so I can pick and choose any commercial stuff that comes along. I probably won't bother renewing my PFCO when it runs out in Feb 19. So I mainly fly purely for my own edification. If it all gets too Big Brother-ish, I'll either still fly and stuff the rules or just pack it in altogether and find something else to do.....
 
  • Like
Reactions: FlushVision
Just a side note, but when I click 'take action' on the NODE page, nothing turns up except a 'coming soon' type message. Not seeing links to drone noise stuff !
 
ust a side note, but when I click 'take action' on the NODE page, nothing turns up except a 'coming soon' type message. Not seeing links to drone noise stuff !
Just went on to the NODE website and everything seems to work fine here. Click on take action. On the page that it takes you to, you have to scroll down a little. There are two boxes presented to you. On the left, 'Join And Respond To UK Drone Consultation', on the right, 'Say No To Unrealistic EU Noise Restrictions For Drones'. Click 'Act Now', on either of the boxes.....
Take Action - NODE
 
Just went on to the NODE website and everything seems to work fine here. Click on take action. On the page that it takes you to, you have to scroll down a little. There are two boxes presented to you. On the left, 'Join And Respond To UK Drone Consultation', on the right, 'Say No To Unrealistic EU Noise Restrictions For Drones'. Click 'Act Now', on either of the boxes.....
Take Action - NODE

Thank you, but that just isn't there for me... maybe it doesn't work on Win 7 / Chrome.

node.JPG
 
Last edited:

New Posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
20,952
Messages
241,579
Members
27,284
Latest member
csandoval