My bad! I realised looking at my web page recently, that I never posted part 3 of the practical RPL exam after posting part 1 and part 2
Even though RPL exam in South Africa has changed a bit recently (since nowdays almost all professional drones have GPS there is less focus on flying without GPS), there is one thing that is unlikely to change.
This one thing i understading risks and being able to take action on any of the risks materialize.
In this part of RPL exam, drone operators need to demonstrate the following:
understanding the airspaces in terms of reading the aeronautical maps
applying the above information to the physical location and advising via radio call (yes, in SA you will still need to make a radio call)
emergency behaviour
The above may not be in any specific sequence, althought the radio call will always be just before the practical flight. Instead of asking you what you will do emergency, your examiner might “create” emergency. It will usually be blocking your view and asking you to spin around while spinning your drone at the same time. The objective of this is to disorientate you, make you lose sight of the drone and momentarily lose control. You will then have to regain control and safely bring the drone back and land it. The most obvious action here is to push the RTH button. But – in some cases the examiner may not want yo udo that, they may request that you bring the drone back manually.
In order to regain control, you will need to determine which direction the drone is facing. Best way to do it is to move the stick to the left or to the right (in mode 2 the right stick). If the drone moves in the direction of the stick, it’s obviously facing away from you, If the drone is moving in oposite direction, it is facing you. You can then bring it back either flying backward or forward. If you don’t see movement, it’ facing sideways – rotate the drone (lett stick in mode 2) and repeat the process.
Emergency routines should be performed in non-GPS mode, becasue GPS losses are quite common. Your drone will drift with wind and at all times yo uwill have to counter the drift caused by wind.
“I live in South Africa and will be traveling to EU soon. What do I need to be able to fly there? Do all EU counties have same regulations?”
Non-EU citizens (or at least those who do not have EU qualifications as yet) wishing to perform drone operations in an EU member state should register in the first EU country where they intend to fly a drone. If you are not sure where you will be flying first, registration in any of EU countries will do. I found that registration in Poland is very easy and completely free from hassles and fees.
To register at drony.ulc.gov.pl, select the English version of the site, set up an operator profile and a pilot profile, and then put the operator’s number on the drone.
If operations will be carried out with a drone that has a camera and weighs up to 250 g, registration alone will suffice.
If the drone weighs more than 250 g, you will need to take an online training course and pass an online test (the whole thing will take about 50 minutes).
The training is free of charge and consists of a few dozen slides describing the applicable regulations and rules of flight.
For more information on the rules of flight operations, available ratings and the new European regulations, visit official EASA website: https://www.easa.europa.eu/en
Privileges acquiredin one EU country, are valid throughout the EU.
Easy, right?
Please, note that although the drone rules are same accross the EU, there are different interpretations of the rules in respect to privacy laws and flying over properties.
In some countries as long as you have the right certification, you will be permitted to fly over properties of others, and in some others (like Germany) this is not permitted.
As a short reminder – the practical exam in South Africa consists of the following:
Interview with examiner (to check what you learned and what you understood).
Practical flying test – done in non GPS mode.
Today’s video is a reminder on yawing and focuses on cirquits and circles, where the yawing has to be smooth. Again, this is done in non-GPS mode. Take your time. Practice multiple times until you are confident. If you get frustrated with one maneuver, move to the next one and come back later. I find the cirquits and circles easier than the boxes, so if you managed the boxes, you will manage the cirquits.
The requirement for RPL (drone license) vary and depend on location. In EU, part 101 exams for A1 and A3 certifications are online only (no practical). I believe same process applies in USA for part 107 certification. A2 certification exam in EU is based on on line and self monitored practical training, after which checklist with competency statement is signed and put on record. That’s it. No actual RPL practical exam takes place.
In South Africa, also governed by part 101 of the aviation law, we not only have to take quite lengthy and detailed course from a SACAA approved institution, but also take RPL practical exam.
The RPL practical exam in South Africa consists of the following:
Interview with examiner (to check what you learned and what you understood).
Practical flying test – done in non GPS mode
Since there is no “golden formula” to convince examiner that you are knowledgeable – I will focus on practical part of the exam. In the video below, you will see set of maneuvers. You will be required to show competency in all of them.
Today’s video focuses on lines and boxes. What you need to practice is some space, cones (or other area markers) and a drone capable of flying in non-GPS mode. Take your time. Practice multiple times until you are confident. If you get frustrated with one maneuver, move to the next one and come back later.
Drone License is officially called Remote Pilot License (RPL). It is a document (or one of them, but that depends on location) that allows drone pilots to fly commercially within part 107/ 107 aviation laws. It has limited purpose, if you only intend to fly within hobby rules (although knowledge of the rules is always useful), although in some locations there are restrictions as to what drone you can fly without a license.
But what does it mean? Law describes this as any activity where commercial gain achieved either via direct or indirect activities. This is far from being clear as well, however based on few developments in various locations of the world, the following transpired:
Any paid services done for others done using drone while flying in air space. Logically, this excludes flying indoors with landlord’s permission, such as in warehouses, storage tanks and fly-throughs unless part of flight is outside.
Commercial activity includes any monetization of YouTube, TikTok and any social media platforms.
“Valuable consideration” – as in where video or work is used to attract customers or promote business.
While the first two are clear, the “valuable consideration” remains unclear. Where do you draw the line? In fact, there is no clear line. So far not many people worldwide has been taken to court JUST for making money on flying drones (none in South Africa) and where they have been taken to court, the cases were on their own merits.
What if you don’t have it?
Most court cases in USA had to do with negligence, property invasion, privacy or other sort of violations (such as air space and flying conditions violation, in which one of the pilots raked up a fine of over 180 000 USD).
This is perhaps because it is so easy to obtain p. 107 license (it costs about 150-200 USD to get yourself trained, certified and up in the air making money) that most pilot actually comply.
In one of the rulings, it was decided that it is in fact legal to sell existing footage as long as the footage was originally obtained without commercial gain in mind. So it is in fact all about intention (and what can be proven in court).
What else do you need?
One way or another, RPL may not be the only thing that is needed, and in South Africa getting RPL is only one small step towards the full compliance process.
In order to fly here commercially, one needs ROC (Remote Operator’s Certificate). ROC process is lengthy and expensive. In involves RPL, registration of the drone (possibly RLA of the drone), filing application that states all details of the operations, obtaining radio and some other safety equipment.
Altogether it will cost approx. 200-250 000 ZAR (I would LOVE to get corrected on this one – if there are any new developments in SA on this front, please, let me know). ROC is only valid for a year.
If you do not want to obtain own ROC, another option is to work as a pilot for one of the existing ROC holders (and salaries are very low here), or to pay monthly fee to ROC holder for the privilege of using their ROC…
Boat launch can be nerve wrecking. And, if you do it wrong, they may cost you the drone. While the saying that practice makes perfect is completely true here as well, there are number of settings, actions and skills that will help to reduce risk even in the initial phase of getting to grips with the boat launches.
1) RTH procedure – dynamic home point
This is one of the most critical settings for boat launches. In the settings of the RC, you will see screen that looks similar to the below. There should be an option to update the home point. Not all drones and not all apps support this feature, but without it flying from boat is a lot more risky.
If you cannot see this, there might still be an option to update home point manually while you are in flight by dragging the home point to required location (where the boat is currently or nearest land). Updating to landing on nearest piece of land is probably safest way to emergency land anyway. Check your app and your drone flying over land and moving before you attempt this on boat. Whatever you do, make sure that you do NOT use the “Land” option as emergency. Your drone will auto land at 10% anyway, there is no need to make it land sooner.
2) Geofencing – not this time
Geofencing or distance lock is often a good idea, but not when you are flying from a boat. The reason for that is that when the geofence is reached, the drone begins to hover and does not respond to commands until the it is back in the geofenced area. With boat moving, it might take a while to get it back into geofence area. Drone will respond to RTH command – another reason to send this correctly.
3) Hand launch and hand land
Invest some time in practicing hand launching and hand catching the drone. Easiest drones to hand catch are any of Phantom series as you can easily grab it by the landing skids.
The Mavics are a bit more difficult to catch because they have nothing to grab onto, but since they are small, they are probably safer to practice on. You will need to disable the bottom sensors (if your drone has them) as they will not perceive the hand as “suitable to land on” and will attempt to move away.
This may in turn cause the drone to crash into the boat. Bottom sensors should be disabled when flying over water in any case as the reflection may disorientate the drone and cause positioning errors.
4) Allow for boat drift
Unless your boat is anchored it will be moving or drifting. Even when it’s anchored, some movement is likely. You have to be aware of the direction of that movement and carefully chose the position to launch the drone. If the boat is drifting or moving back, launch from the front. If it’s moving forward, launch from the back.
The boat drift may cause the drone appear to be acting erratically and uncontrollable. In fact – this is not the case. The drone is holding the GPS position and it’s the boat movement that is making it appear like it’s moving. If you have ATTI enabled drone, you may want to use ATTI mode to take off altogether and only then switch to GPS.
Make sure you have space and make sure the props are spinning and you feel the drone taking off before you release it. Release the drone slowly while pushing the left stick up to gain some height.
5) Keep the drone in sight
Flying within Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) is the legal requirement that is so frequently forgotten. And not without a reason. With DJI claims that their drones can fly 10 km and more, one would think that this is what law allows… Regardless of whether you normally comply or not, keeping the drone in sight while on a boat, can literally keep you out of the water, especially when you start seeing things go wrong.
On my first boat launch, I nearly lost my drone. Boat was moving fast. The drone was tracking the boat. I was watching the screen, not the drone. Then the boat drifted out of sight. To make things worse, I lost RC connection with drone set to hover. it took me a while to regain control, by when I was almost out of battery life. I managed to land my drone on an island and went to retrieve it afterwards. Luckily – there was land nearby that I could get to. Keeping eyes on the drone would have been kinder on my nerves.
6) Interference
Interference is bad news at any stage, but having your RC signal or video feed lost while flying off the boat is particularly risky. Be aware of any radio, cell phone and wifi towers round you. Not only those ones on land, but also those on vessels. If you fly close to port area, the big transport vessels are likely to have their own transmitters than may cause interference (this beside the fact that in most cases you would not be allowed to fly there anyway…). Masts and steel structures can also cause signal loss, so be careful in ports and close to platforms.
7) Watch out for battery life
As you probably noticed by now, launching and landing are two most critical activities when flying from the boat. For that reason, you should give yourself plenty time to land the boat. You may need to adjust and readjust the position few times and you definitely do not want your drone to start the critical battery auto landing routine.
The landing should be initiated at approx. 40-50% of battery life, which means that you should finish whatever maneuvers you are doing and start bringing the drone back probably at around 60%. Of course it depends on whether you can already see the drone and whether you are far or close to the land. Do not push the limits to far, especially if you have not done many boat launches. Things can (and DO!) go wrong right at the end.
8) Land in sight
Unless you are experienced with boat launches, I recommend that you do your boat flying relatively close to some accessible land. You may go even further and set your home location there (you don’t actually have to land your drone there unless it enters the emergency routine). In the reel below, I luckily was close enough to the land when I lost connectivity and map view.
Do not overestimate yourself and your capabilities. Practice on dry land before you attempt the actual boat launch. If things go wrong – DON’T PANIC. Having a spotter always helps. And – watch out for masts, lines and other small and narrow parts of the boat!
Always make sure that your settings are right for the specific flight! Boat launch does not have to be scary!
Having a drone crash or a fly away seemingly without pilot’s fault is not a pleasant experience, but rather than pity on it, take this as an opportunity to learn. Besides – understanding what happened increases your chances of successful insurance or warranty claim.
DJI has dominated consumer drone market some time ago and since then have been a market leader in the consumer drone sector. And for a very valid reason, that is ease of use. Their drones have so many sensors and smart features that anyone can pick one up and learn to fly it in less than an hour.
