Regulatory Matters

<p>Europe Air Sports and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale have issued a joint update on the latest position with EASA's Prototype Rules for Unmanned Aircraft which you can view here: <a href="https://www.bmfa.org/Portals/0/xNews/uploads/2016/10/11/EAS%20&amp;%20FAI%20Statement%20on%20the%20EASA%20Prototype%20Rules%20for%20Unmanned%20Aircraft%20-%2004-10-2016%20V2.pdf">EAS &amp; FAI update</a></p>

<p>The rulemaking team at EASA have asked me to notify members that the deadline for feedback on the Prototype Rules was 15th October.  We understand that they are still receiving dozens of emails per day, mainly from the U.K!  Thank you to all those members who provided constructive feedback.</p> <p>The formal feedback response submitted to … Read More

<p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-34256680" target="_blank">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-34256680</a></p> <p><a href="http://news.met.police.uk/news/man-convicted-of-drone-offences-129339" target="_blank">http://news.met.police.uk/news/man-convicted-of-drone-offences-129339</a></p>

<p>There has been considerable discussion over recent days regarding the effect on model flying of recent EASA proposals for the regulation of 'drones'.</p> <p>From the BMFA perspective, the situation as it stands is that the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued some draft regulations for consultation in August which outlined their thoughts on the regulation of … Read More

<p>MODEL FLYING TECHNOLOGIES</p> <p>RECENT DEVELOPMENTS AND THE BMFA POSITION</p> <p> </p> <p>There is no doubt that we are in a changing environment in terms of what is possible with model aircraft, and the ready availability of equipment capable of capturing high quality stills and film footage in easy to operate and often ready to fly packages.</p> … Read More

<span style="font-family: Arial;"> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 16px;">Representatives from the BMFA attended the &lsquo;annual review of model flying&rsquo; with the CAA yesterday (26</span>^{<span style="font-size: 13px;">th</span>}<span style="font-size: 16px;"> November) along with representatives of the LMA, SAA, BARCS and FPVuK.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times … Read More

<p>A man from Cumbria has become the first person in the UK to be successfully prosecuted for the dangerous and illegal flying of an unmanned aircraft. Robert Knowles was found to have flown the device in restricted airspace over a nuclear submarine facility, as well as allowing the device to fly too close to a … Read More

The BMFA Article 16 Authorisation includes a requirement for remote pilots to report certain accidents, serious incidents and other occurrences to the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).  This was an existing requirement, but has been emphasised in the terms of our Authorisation. To read the full guidance about mandatory … Read More

The CAA have today published CAP722F, the annex to CAP722 specific to model flying.  Please see https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/modalapplication.aspx?appid=11&mode=detail&id=10792 for further details. CAP722F describes the how the current regulatory framework applies to the operation of model aircraft, sets out CAA policy for model aircraft operations, describes the boundaries between operations which require an authorisation and those that do … Read More

We are pleased to confirm that the BMFA has now been issued with a revised Article 16 Authorisation for the benefit of its members in 2022, which is effective immediately (from 21 December 2021). The only changes to our Authorisation have been made to reflect the recent changes to the operator registration requirements for control … Read More