Drone question

blink44

Lately I’ve been eyeing up drones, particularly the Mavic pro, looks great but the more I read into it it seems almost impossible to use anywhere. I was reading the regulations on the IAA website and you can’t fly in a park, on a beach, in the housing estate, I even saw a guy from the iaa say in an interview you can’t even fly in your garden as it could be at risk to the neighbours privacy. It seems like you’re only allowed use it if you have some land down the country you can fly around. As much as I’d love one is there any point buying one living in Dublin as it seems you can get in trouble in almost every situation using one.

Apologies if this question has been asked a thousand times

super_sweeney

I built one myself and used to fly it in the phoenix park and just anytime anyone came within about 300m of me i used to just bring it in. 

Have some friends that have them and fly them around the place all the time and never get any hassle. I think as long as your sensible no one will say anything. 

As for the IAA I lost all respect for them when they scare mongered everyone into registering with them then sent out everyone details to a load of people by mistake. Complete break in data protection. for someone like me who had a home made drone was not a big deal but apparently a lot of professional photography people had registered and there was a serious worry over their gear getting stolen as loads of random people now had their address and how much gear they had. So just and FYI

Homer

Pretty much everywhere in Dublin will have a restriction to 15m or below 50ft as it is Class C restricted airspace. Anything above that (up to 400ft) requires a special permission from the IAA and relevant control tower using form UF101

Now we are all not naive enough to think that people stick to that limit but it is the legal limit! Really depends on what you want to use your drone for? If you adopt a common sense approach and don't attract attention to yourself and don't fly around groups of people or kids in particular you will probably go unnoticed.

They can and have caused serious injury to people in the past and you could be held liable in the event of an incident.

Micky 32

Isn't the Mavic pro below the 1kg weight so you don't have to register it?

Psychlops

This is a brilliant site, if your drone is under 1kg you do not need to register it.
This site answers nearly all your questions

https://www.flyryte.com/

Drone FAQ:Do I need to get training to fly a drone in Ireland?
The short answer is no. The long answer is a little more complicated.

If your aircraft is more than 4 kilograms then you need to get drone training to operate in Irish Airspace. If it less than 4 kilograms, then you don’t need training if you stay clear of controlled/ prohibited and restricted airspace. These cover a lot of the country. To find out if the area you want to fly is in these airspaces then check out the airspace tab under useful links.

If you are serious about flying drones and want to do commercial work then it is very logical to do some training training and get licenced. Check out our past students opinions in the review section and see what they thought.

Can I fly in a congested area like a city?
There are no Drone rules which mention congested areas in Ireland. Remember to apply the standard rules, if you can fly and maintain your aircraft at least 30 metres from people, buildings and cars then you should be fine. Also remember to keep your drone 120 metres from gatherings of 12 or more people. You will really notice the benefit of drone groundshcool training in these scenarios. It is worth remembering that you should take extra precaution when flying in areas that you might consider as congested, if something goes wrong there is an increased risk and also there is a good chance that you will be challenged by people so it is worth informing the Gardai that you will be flying and also to have a team with you to deal with any questions which the public might have, don’t forget to bring some business cards!









If my drone is less than 1kg in weight do the rules apply?
The main document telling us about the Irish Drone rules is the Statutory Instrument 563/2015. It tells us that it does not apply to drones less than 1kg if it does not have substantial parts, is flown less than 50 feet / 15 metres and flown in a safe manner. The misconception is that if your aircraft is less than 1kg there are no rules, this is false.

If your aircraft has substantial parts or you want to fly it above 50 feet then the standard rules apply. In the case of the DJI Mavic, which is less than 1kg, there is an argument over whether it has substantial parts, but in any case you would need to stay below 50 feet, which is no fun.







Airspace Map: https://www.flyryte.com/airspace/