Recreational drone now illegal in most of Canada...

[KongWerks]

This is the best (scariest) quote I have seen about this...

"Joseph Yeremian, an engineer and member of the Ontario Aerospace Council Board, says the new regulations are “extremely important” for ensuring safety and privacy.

Yeremian told CTV News Channel that, in addition to interfering with aircraft, recreational drones could potentially interrupt power lines or plummet to the ground and injure people.

He offered a hypothetical situation: “If the battery dies or one of the parts breaks (and) it falls on someone, it may kill him or the blade comes through his eye and blinds him.”

Yeremian added that the regulations will also prevent people from spying on their neighbours."

"Spying"? Has he even seen a consumer drone?

"The blade comes through his eye and blinds him"? He must be a joy to work with.

Ban all scissors in the workplace and rocks on the road. What an idiot. I hope our tax dollars don't support him or his family.

 

[microlinux]

More important, there was a mention of age limit to even fly a UAV, which I think is a great ruling, but, i'd say 18yrs.old be a good start. The only issues i've personally seen, is kids of 11, maybe13 yrs.old, maybe, flying drones, & not $30-40 ones,. but, fairly large , fast machines, fly high enough to disappear.

Sure, a 5 year old child has no business flying a Phantom 4 Pro. On the other hand, I had no problem handing over the controller of my P3S to my 10 year old nephew. Supervised, with no people or buildings for hundreds of yards around. A few weeks later, I was flying it in his neighborhood ... I wouldn't hand over the controller.

There is probably a reasonable age limit for some drones, but I think a lot of safety here is the responsibility of parents. If a 12 year old says "Hey, I'm gonna go fly your Phantom 4 at the park where all the kids are playing!" and the parental response is "Ok, have a great time - don't use sport mode and kill someone!", I think we're beyond the point where more laws will help.

If you don't trust your child with other people's safety and lives, lock the thing up. Wrap it in chains and keep the key around your neck.

Maybe drones of X spec are required to have a mode where take-off/distance/speed/geo can be locked with a password. Pass a law that fines parents X dollars if a child under X age operates a drone of X spec while not under adult supervision. Put a giant red label extolling this on every box. Make anyone under the age of X take a Drone-ing safety class if they want to operate drones of X spec.

The point is, pass focused legislation that directly addresses problem areas. If politicians didn't spend all their time bickering and jerking people around, they could probably find the time to do this . . .

 

[Ripstop]

This is the best (scariest) quote I have seen about this...

"Joseph Yeremian, an engineer and member of the Ontario Aerospace Council Board, says the new regulations are “extremely important” for ensuring safety and privacy.

Yeremian told CTV News Channel that, in addition to interfering with aircraft, recreational drones could potentially interrupt power lines or plummet to the ground and injure people.

He offered a hypothetical situation: “If the battery dies or one of the parts breaks (and) it falls on someone, it may kill him or the blade comes through his eye and blinds him.”

Yeremian added that the regulations will also prevent people from spying on their neighbours."

"Spying"? Has he even seen a consumer drone?

"The blade comes through his eye and blinds him"? He must be a joy to work with.

Ban all scissors in the workplace and rocks on the road. What an idiot. I hope out tax dollars don't support him or his family.

Canada is becoming a nation of risk averse sheep. We almost cheer when the government takes away another freedom.

 

[jwmcgrath]

I'm so angry I might stop holding doors for people, and saying "sorry" for everything.

 

[Ghostrunner007]

They just made almost every town and city a no drone zone, the special interest groups that inflated the number of so called drone incidents just got they way. I wonder how long it will be before DJI applies an update to the firmware to enforce these rules and then it will make thousands of these drones useless

 

[Mike Israel]

Here is a news story on the new Canadian rules. Pretty ridiculous IMHO.

AV News: Transport Canada Releases New Dr...

 

[The Springs]

We visited Canada's mountainous areas a few years ago .The people there were great so friendly that I just had to bet my wife that I could find a mean one somewhere before we left . Well I couldn't get anyone to be rude to me even ! Cost me $100 that.
I recon you don't even have jails.
Now I read you have drone haters I'm shocked and horrified.

 

[AliasGprime]

I was soo mad about this when I read this.
I don't care if they finally take the 9km from airport seriously (finally).
I don't care if they limit the height to 90m (which is pretty low though).
My biggest concern is the 75m from anything except trees (al least...), the 500m distance limit and the night flight.
Now, I will very hardly fly me drone in my city. I found a parking lot (10 km away from my house), if there is nobody around (because cars, people and animals are now ambulant 75m restriction circle zones), where I will be able to fly my drone straight up, take a video and take it down without moving it of course (surrounded by houses).
For the 500m limit, It was my fun to modify my drone and boost it and make new personnal distance record. Now I'll just let my P3S stock, it's enought as it is.
For the night flight, I like night footages of cities. Well, too bad.

When I bought my drone 2 months ago, I know that laws were going to be higher, but I tought it was going to be like the USA. Not as bad as this.
As some says, I will be able to film farming lands... yeah!! Almost every touristic area are now off limits.
I bought it not only because I like flying it, but also because I'm a photograph and I like aerial photography.

 

[jwmcgrath]

I slept on this and it didn't get any better.

I'm trying to imagine a place where I am never or never have the potential to be within 250' of people, let alone a building or animal. I'm trying to figure out where these members that say it's not going to change their flying habits are flying.

In reality, any public place is off limits. Anyone can come along to any public place at any time whether they were there when you launched or not.

That leaves private property. How many people have private property that has minimum 250' from any neighbour, building, or animal?

My parents have a hobby farm of 30 acres but they are aging and plan on selling this year. I've done virtually all my "practice flying" there before spring comes.

Once they've sold, I haven't yet determined where I can fly that complies with the letter of the law, and I mean that in all sincerity.

Again, any public property YOU can go to fly, someone else can be there or show up at.

Am I missing something here?

 

[J5255]

Being intimately familiar with the Canadian Air Regulations, making up arbitrary drone usage laws may be outside Transport's mandate especially when in applies to devices with limited flight time, limited distance capabilities and respect for ground traffic dynamics. Agreed, all aircraft, including drones, should respect the existing air regulations and control zones, however, it is the drone pilot that has to make the final call with respect to safe flying.

 

[jwmcgrath]

And they say it's going to get even more strict in June? Really?? What's left??

It's actually easier to grow, buy and use marijuana here, even though it's still (arguably) illegal, than it is to comply with the letter of the law of drone use.

No more roof inspections, not even my OWN roof in the suburbs.

This is disturbing. I'm anxious to see what June brings.

 

[isopro]

And they say it's going to get even more strict in June? Really?? What's left??

It's actually easier to grow, buy and use marijuana here, even though it's still (arguably) illegal, than it is to comply with the letter of the law of drone use.

No more roof inspections, not even my OWN roof in the suburbs.

This is disturbing. I'm anxious to see what June brings.

The 75m lateral distance from any animal is the most funny part, good luck being 75m from a bird, squirrel, mice, or other critter in Canada, it's impossible...

 

[jwmcgrath]

The 75m lateral distance from any animal is the most funny part, good luck being 75m from a bird, squirrel, mice, or other critter in Canada, it's impossible...

I can't even start to make sense of what the actual "intent" of that part of the law was.

In some way, they must have been thinking herd animals, or domestic pets, or endangered wildlife... or SOMETHING that makes sense...

But they didn't. They didn't make sense. And the letter of the law is, like you said, birds, mice, critters.

I'm actually embarrassed for us as a nation today.

 

[PeakXV]

How good are LE's radar/laser triangulation instruments and/or visual looming cue/skills going to have to be and in order to be able to discern 74,75,76 meters from afar or 89,90,91 meters atop? There will be many grey area infractions down the road it appears and I'm not sure the precise distance/height restrictions are entirely enforceable with present technology and training.

 

[Red05]

So.... I do most of my flying over a lake. I am now restricted to a 15m vertical operating window. (75m-90m altitude) I cannot exceed 90m for maximum altitude and I cannot go below 75m in case of duck / swan / geese / FISH conflict incursion.

 

[GMack]

.... I'm not sure the precise distance/height restrictions are entirely enforceable with present technology....

Maybe there is a benefit to my P4 GO screen never reporting the correct altitude or distance, and even flying -46 feet underground at times.

 

[PeakXV]

Maybe there


Maybe there is a benefit to my P4 GO screen never reporting the correct altitude or distance, and even flying -46 feet underground at times.

Yup, cue up that 'offset' ap!

 

[GMack]

So.... I do most of my flying over a lake. I am now restricted to a 15m vertical operating window. (75m-90m altitude) I cannot exceed 90m for maximum altitude and I cannot go below 75m in case of duck / swan / geese / FISH conflict incursion.

We have far too many lawmakers making up laws for a feather in their hat, imho. At some point, you will become a police state or country with little freedom at the rate they are making laws.

USA had that legislator in Washington state who wanted a 200 meter drone clearance around whales for whatever inane reasons he came up with. But we also still have that congressman from Georgia who thought "Adding 8,000 more Marines to be stationed in Guam would cause the island to tip over."

No wonder there is an anti-drone sentiment with some of these elected people. Reason has been thrown out the window. "Legislate it, and we can make money off it."

 

[Matchlock]

The minute DJI does this I will throw my Phantom 4 Pro in the trash bin and go back to flying my RC Helis. Screw the Canadian government for their stupidity. "Don't treat or look upon all Muslims because of the actions of a few", they say, but they're treating all Drone pilots the same way because of the actions of just a few.

They just made almost every town and city a no drone zone, the special interest groups that inflated the number of so called drone incidents just got they way. I wonder how long it will be before DJI applies an update to the firmware to enforce these rules and then it will make thousands of these drones useless

 

[captainmilehigh]

What caught my eye in all this foolishness is the statement ' 150 meters away from people and vehicles'. So if you drive to an open area to fly, you'll need to walk 150 meters away from your vehicle before you take off........

....and, if there is anyone with you, they can't be next to you when you start flying........and essentially should be back at the car, 150 meters away or more.

And what are you supposed to do when someone walks up to you to ask questions about your drone? You can't RTH until they leave? Geez, this ruling is a mess. I hope you guys in the great white north can fix this.