Big decision by Aviation Ministry, flying drones to be legal in India from December 1, 2018

Sir, can you kindly post the link to the notification?
Regards

Dear Sir, It is today's Press Release by Ministry of Civil Aviation. Attaching Press Release.

Regards

In this regard, to get an UIN, we will need ETA (Equipment Type Approval) for all the radios (including the DJI ones). Currently only RCB6i has that. Registraion starts from 1st December, so need to get the approval before that. Anyone with any suggestions?

Please go through the first 3 links

http://dgca.nic.in/new.htm

Press release from the Ministry of Civil Aviation - https://twitter.com/MoCA_GoI
Full DGCA Rules - http://dgca.nic.in/cars/D3X-X1.pdf
FAQ - http://dgca.nic.in/cars/RPS-FAQs.pdf
Do's and Don'ts - http://dgca.nic.in/cars/RPAS-Do's%20and%20Don'ts.pdf

It looks like these rules have most of the same problems as previous iterations of the rules. This is pretty disappointing since it means the several years they wasted to make these rules while a 'ban' was in effect was pretty much useless since what they came up with is both overly restrictive and almost impossible to follow for hobby pilots. Skimming over the document, the biggest problems I find are -

• requirement for VLOS operation (450m according to them) - this just means FPV pilots will have to continue ignoring the rules since they couldn't even take into account the possibility of a spotter. I'm not sure how much influence the AMAI letter carried but this pretty disappointing anyway
• mandatory equipment including GNSS tracking, RTH capability and "RFID and GSM SIM Card/ NPNT compliant for APP based real time tracking" (does anyone know what this even is or where it will come from??) on all models weighing over 250g
• too many specifications required on 'locally manufactured RPAS'. If this covers DIY models there is no way most people will be able to provide these details for their aircraft.

I'm sure I missed more points since I need more time to read it. I'd love to be proven wrong, but to me these rules seem pretty much useless from the perspective of hobby pilots and probably will not change anything. If a several year 'ban' did not stop people from flying, poorly written and hard to enforce rules probably won't make much difference either.

Do hobby rc planes also fall under rpas/drones?

Dear SK1701, You may or may have read everything and pointed our all the negative thing about the news but there is only one major point that you terribly missed and that is "Positive News for Hobby Lovers". Definitely there may be many short coming(s) but slowly and steadily it is coming in Right Direction and by the time you make a decision to permanently stay in India, may be by that time everything and every rule will be according to the country that u are staying now.

Regards,

The increased weight limit of upto 2Kg in the Micro category is good news as we had repeatedly written to them to change the classifications. But other provisions do not appear to be too favorable or practical.

Dear Sir pravesh736 , Anything that is unmanned and remotely controlled.

More rules and regulations are going to follow after this. Will be more clear in the coming days.

Regards,

In case of Micro RPA, informing the local police before every flight is impractical. The website should have provisions to enter the details instead of going to the police station everytime.

So many impractical stuffs, and these opportunist companies trying to monopolize whatever they can.

Hi, thank you. That was vague and even I knew that. But wanted some more clarity.

After going through the regulations I find that it is  pretty much impossible to comply with the provisions of the regulations except for the Nano category drones (which are toys). Don't bother applying for UIN or UAOP for existing drones or for new ones. You'd get in such legal tangles that it would require the rest of your life to untangle. The existing blanket ban would have been simpler.

After carefully reading here are my thoughts -
1> It's physically impossible to fit all the electronic gear required by the govt in a micro drone. Where do you get the Npnt software ? Etc.
2> foreigners are not permitted to fly drones.this is nonsense , what if I am a foreigner residing in India.
3>why do you have to register each and every drone , can't we just get the pilot and give him/her a unique number to stick to his drones.
4>importing is still going to be a headache
5>no regard has been given to fpv and recreational flyers.

Sent from my R1 HD using Tapatalk

Affixing fire resistant number plates on micro drones like DJI Spark or DJI Mavic is impossible. It would increase the weight and there is no surface to affix such a plate without affecting sensors. In USA they fix the number in the battery compartment using a  paper.

They haven't specified the size of the plate. So, A thin aluminium plate with the numbers engraved will work. I don't think that will be problem. And aluminium won't affect the sensors either.

Designation of Areas into Red, Yellow and Green areas and automatic permission on a mobile based app are a major positives in the slowly Improving Guidelines I believe.

Interesting Read quoted below. Definitely on the levels of an encouraging improvements in the new guidelines. Nevertheless should be getting more liberalized as time passes or will get more stringent based on the response of the environment.

Operations through Digital Platform:
Operations of RPAS to be enabled through Digital Sky Platform. The RPAS operations will be based on NPNT (No Permission, No Take off). The details including links for the digital sky platform shall be available in DGCA website from 1st December, 2018. There will be different colour zones visible to the applicant while applying in the digital sky platform, viz, Red Zone: flying not permitted, Yellow Zone (controlled airspace): permission required before flying, andGreen Zone (uncontrolled airspace): automatic permission.

What is the relevance here for RC Airplanes?

" The mandatory equipment required for operation of RPAS except nano category are (a) GNSS (GPS), (b) Return-To-Home (RTH), (c) Anti-collision light, (d) ID-Plate, (e)  Flight controller with flight data logging capability, and (f) RF ID and SIM/ No-Permission No Take off (NPNT). "

Sir entire document is silent about aspects of Aeromodelling without Payload.

I believe one more addendum to this to cover aspects of Aeromodelling LOS flights in green area is very much in order.

Yes sir, indeed. But how?

Enough representations have already been made

Yes Sir, definitely enough representation have been made and they have just not shown any interest with Aeromodelling activity.

Once the system is going to be up. The entire system is going to be flooded with UINs, Data of Pilots and Data of RPAS flight plans and application for approval.

With the amount flooding of information of intimation of automatic approval in green area conveyed to Police Dept, they will automatically loose interest in you and slowly find ways to simplify this deluge. This excitement and hyperventilation about Drones in media will also die its own slow death moment it is legal.

I for one believe, the amount of Wedding Photographers with DJI have almost over taken the amount of Serious Aeromodellers in the present context. They will keep them busy for quite some time while you can freely participate in our activity safely. They will never develop interest in our activity. Institutions and Colleges are as it is exempted for aeromodelling activity.

After all its their job to make it implementable and get the systems up and about and running and claim that they have been successful and it is now allowed to fly drones for agriculture, research and other activity like any other advancing nations.

Guy's just relax !!!
The current CAR is for RPA's (that is for multi-copters/drones)
Two things are clear from the CAR
1. If you want to fly a multi rotor above 50 feet and in other than nano or micro you will have to abide by the rules. Whether one likes it or not. That is the law.
2. The language of the CAR is clear in that it does not include traditional aeromodels. Thereby leaving room for separate rules for traditional aeromodelling community. This also goes in line with efforts being taken to have separate rules for aeromodelling. DGCA may involve ACI in that and that is good news.    

Just read and interpret Para 1.1 of the CAR and you will see the light. The same is also evident at Para 1 of the FAQ

Absolutely Captain Manish.

That's the same opinion of other stalwarts in AMAI too. I believe a draft CAR Aeromodelling specific has already been submitted to DGCA and is well received by them and a separate CAR for Aeromodelling is likely to be issued in due course.