Do you think further CAA regulation is required?

[IrishSights]

With some intrepidation I'll start the ball rolling... I think it does. Heres why. The biggest threat to safety is the variety of aircraft flying in the same low level airspace. Basiclly thats SUA's, microlights and helicopters. Im not talking airport proximity here. I could be wrong in my facts here so please correct if I'm wrong.

SUSA'S
The prolification of SUSA's is going to continue and potentially, because the price is so low, many new owners will be blissfully unaware of the dangers, increasing the risk of a colision. I'm specificlly talking about flying under the FPV Exemption here as that has the highest altitude of this type of craft - 1000ft. But obviously no pilot on board.

MICROLIGHTS
Have a minimum height of 500ft of persons or structures. In my experience there is frequent ignoring of this rule in my locale. But again obviously there is one or two persons at risk on board but travelling at relatively low speed.

HELICOPTERS
Minimum height is 500ft but again with the possibility of several persons on board and at risk. Speed is relatively very high and if it goes wrong it goes very wrong.

So there is airspace overlap/coexistence and I'm wondering, with all this in mind, does the upper limit under the FPV Exemption for SUSA's need to be 1000ft?

Don't shoot me please, lets discuss...


Sent from my Galaxy Note 8

 

[BMEWS]

whilst I understand where you're coming from. IMHO the short answer is NO. The CAA have enough on their plate trying to police all the current crop of regulations, permits and other stuff they're dealing with.

I think the barrier to entry is still quite high and will only truly interest the ones that want to get into it. RC models have been around a long time and whilst FPV is becoming more the norm I don't think it's going to drive the usage to mobile phone proportions.

You've not mentioned foot launched aircraft paragliders balloons and the raft of other things which are knocking around "up there". Truth is, the sky whilst busy, isn't as busy as you would think. If you have folk who are misusing the 500' rule, they would normally have registration on their machines in order to be reported.

Regulation will just add un-necessary cost into the fray, without actually delivering benefit for it. Ultimately, you've got to trust to people's common sense (yes that's scary).

Interesting debate to start though.

Bmews