Drones will soon be bringing next big technology revolution around the globe. In the recent times, draft drone rules were made public. You were required to fill out an abundant amount of paperwork, get your hands on multiple licenses and pay sizeable sums to have the luxury of owning and operating a drone. Even after which you were subjected to a long list of restrictions that would only allow you to operate a drone in a few select areas.
No license or permit is needed to fly drones weighing less than 250 grams. There are strict no flying zones where no one, even those with a licence, can fly a drone. The list is potentially endless. In most use cases, such drones are tiny, agile, and able to access areas that would be near impossible for humans. Though just like any other technology, their use depends largely on the intentions of the human flying it.
The rules appeared to focus more on all the things you couldn’t do with a drone, as opposed to distinctly stating what you could do. If these rules were made into law, as they were written, then flying drones would no longer be a fun practice. It would have been a tedious enterprise instead. If nobody is willing to fly drones, manufacturers won’t bother investing in making drones. It had the capacity of wiping out the entire industry even before it took off.
People in the industry importuned to introduce some changes within the draft rules and the government seems to have attended to some recommendations. They have now abolished a long list of requirements including certificate of conformance, certificate of maintenance, import clearance, and operator permits. The fee structure is also more affordable to buy and operate a drone, irrespective of the kind of drones you’re dealing with.
You also won’t need a pilot license if you’re flying micro and nano drones and if you’re an institution dabbling with experimental drone research, then it is no longer compulsory for you to get a separate certificate of airworthiness, unique identification number, prior permissions, remote pilot license, and all of that other stuff that’s mandatory for some participants.
The government also intends to provide an interactive map which you can use to chart your flight path. This will be part of the Digital sky platform, which the government hopes will be a one stop solution for all activities related to the management of drone activities in India. So now you know why the drone rules now are far better than the old ones.