Drones and travel. Opinions and resources on legal use across Europe?
 

As the title suggests.

I do have a little drone as it happens: small and light. I am tempted to upgrade to a better one, but still within the 250g limit which I understand is the standard weight for licensing purposes.

Anyway, it's quite tempting to pop it in the corner of the topbox for some nice panoramics and flybys etc.

It will take up space, though, and I don't want to do that if I can't use it anywhere I go. This summer we're off through Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech, Austria and a bit of Slovakia.

I've done some reading and I can see there are some requirements for registration, but unclear how difficult this is. If just a case of letting the border authority know or is an address needed etc, can a drone be confiscated on entry, etc, all this kind of stuff. That is a bit harder to establish.

So I'm curious about what people know about drone usage in those countries, and indeed if a drone is worth taking at all!

Within the EC, aviation regulations are quite standardized and are promulgated by EASA, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency. But, having said that, individual countries have the right to create more restrictive (but not more liberal) regulations than the EASA regulations.

Here's a link to information from EASA about drone operations: Civil Drones. It appears to me that new regulations are currently in the process of being developed, to be in effect around December 2020.

I think that the safest thing for you to do is to research current regulations for each individual country that you may be visiting. An easy way to do this, using Google Search, is to append "site:.xx" to the end of your search string, where xx is the TLD (top level domain) for the country. That will restrict Google Search results to only the country you specify - and governments tend to use their own TLD for their websites. For example, to research regulations for Estonia, you would enter "civil drone regulations site:.ee", because .ee is the top level domain for Estonia.

I doubt that a small drone would be confiscated if it is in your baggage (rather than in flight) in any EC country. I do know that it would be confiscated if it was found in your baggage in some other countries, for example, Morocco. But it is very possible that there may be country-specific restrictions on drone operations, for example, not flying it over people, or near military sites, etc.

Good luck with your search for information.

Michael

A tricky one and I'm in (or would have been in without Covid cancelling my trips) the same boat. My current drone is too big to easily take on a bike and I've been looking out for a smaller (and preferably folding) one for some time. It's the practicality of using one when you're on the move that's the main issue. Some of the rules and regulations that have popped up in the last few years - fly here / not here / under 30m only /under 50m only etc are very complicated. I've struggled to work out where / how I can fly near our flat in France and that's one fixed location. It's not really practical to keep on top of them if you're travelling and it's even worse if you're crossing borders / trying to check on fly /no fly zones in a language you're not familiar with. And that assuming you've got an internet connection to enable you to check.

My answer was going to be to apply the same philosophy as 'rough' camping - be careful, considerate and as invisible as possible. So no follow flying through the middle of town or buzzing the local police station / nudist beach :rofl: It also meant - for me anyway - buying at the cheap end of the market and treating it as more or less disposable. There's a few around that would fit those requirements but the whole drone thing is becoming so contentious I'm teetering on the brink of not bothering with it at all. For me Covid has pushed the issue into the future so all I'm doing at the moment is keeping a watching brief and deciding later.

Thanks for the search tips: didn't know about that one!

I have had some contact with the Austrian authorities as they seem to be a place that would need registration. It seems if I use the camera feature in flight AND exceed 79joules (however the heck I work that out!) the I need to register it for more than the drone cost me.

This translates very simply as "Don't use it in Austria if you take it at all."

Yeah: good points. As a drone goes: have a look at the DJI Mavic Mini. At €400-500 it is far from disposable but it is, well, mini. I'm seriously tempted to get that in the not too distant future. My drone is perfectly able, but the camera is fixed, and not on a gimbal and it shows!!

I think that's what EASA is trying to solve with their proposed new regulations. Their objective is to create a single regulatory framework for drone operations in all EC member states.

I've had a lot of experience with EASA regulations since the organization first came into being in the 1990s. They do a good job of consulting with all member countries, towards a goal of having one common regulatory standard that applies everywhere.

There will likely be a few individual country variations & exceptions once the new EASA regulations come into force at the end of this year, but my guess is that those variations will be minor and quite easy to discover - probably any variations that are created will be prohibitions about flying around certain government facilities.

There is a very genuine desire amongst all EC member states to have one single set of common aviation regulations.

Michael

Well any simplification of the rules is only to be welcomed and if that results in one easy to look up source of fly / no fly information then so much the better. The problem with drones though seems to be that they're rapidly coming to be seen by the 'public' as unacceptable. That is, if you're flying one, you must be up to some sort of no good or doing something wrong. Not by everybody but by enough that questions get asked / officials get called / action gets taken.

Despite having 'sat' the UK drone registration exam and knowing the UK rules and regs regarding hobby drones there's still some trepidation every time I fly mine (beyond wondering if it's shortly going to end up as a pile of bits due to my shortcomings as a 'pilot' :rofl:). I accept that some of that may well be me rather than the reality of how things are but it does colour how I view drones and bike travel - something that may be more trouble than it's worth. So for me my working principle has been check the rules / regs/ fly zones and then overlay it with a kind of 'out of (their) sight, out of mind' practicality.

Even with that I was intending to take a drone on my (now Covid cancelled) trip that was meant to start this Saturday. It's now postponed for a year and maybe things will be clearer by then. Hopefully a suitable drone might be a bit cheaper by then as well. The Mavic Mini does look to have the sort of spec I'd go for but they need to halve in price to hit my price range. :rolleyes2: Even secondhand they're still up around £350.

The Mavic Mini is perfect for that purpose. Also it is more often legal to fly, because under 250g.

To have a Insurance who covers the drone I strongly suggest. To start it a bit "hidden" helps too.

Flying over crowded areas are forbidden in many european countrys anyway.

That way you should have no hassle.. When you dont try to film Houses/Areas with army, politicans, glamour, airport background.

There are countrys with more risk!.. European should be a "bill" and not jail like some egypt tourists had to...

https://www.blick.ch/news/schweiz/na...id2451769.html


Surfy