Drones in their application to farming a growing in popularity. This new technology is not without its restrictions, mostly at this stage related to flying limits. Drones over 2.25 kilograms require CASA licensing to be flown those under a still restricted in where and how they can be flown. Licensing is also required by anyone using them and charging for commercial services including photography, mapping, multispectral scanning and inspecting installations.
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Recently Tablelands Farming Systems ran a members information and demonstration Drone Field Day at Rossiville on Range Road, Goulburn. The aim was to provide farmers with more information about the applications, future applications and restrictions that currently apply to the use of radio controlled drones.
Guest expert from Precision Hawk, David Mellers told the large group of participants, some of whom already use drones on their own properties about the restrictions to drone operation as well as the growing number and quality of applications available for use in conjunction with remotely controlled aircraft.
He said that even when flying small quadcopters of less than 2.25 kilograms there are several regulations that operators must comply with even on their own properties.
He said that one of the restrictive conditions for farming operations , particularly broad acre farming was the line of sight restriction. He said that there was technology being developed to increase the safety factors in relation to other aircraft, terrain, obstacles and flight programming.
He said there are numerous new applications but some applications are restricted by the lack of available data transmission bandwidth.
“The applications are endless and we are real only at the tip of the wide range of applications for agriculture and industry, Mr Mellers said.
“There are a variety of sensors that can be attached to drones to detect and provide information undetectable by the naked eye or digital cameras.”
Mr Mellers said that rather than individual farmers using small drones, commercially qualified drone pilots using larger craft can be more efficient and people trained to read the analytics can detect problems that may otherwise be overlooked. They also have equipment available is much more efficient than that available to non commercial operators.
Several of the districts farmers were already using drones to assist them with farm management and they shared their experiences including checking on livestock and fences in much quicker time than could be done previously.
The line of sight restriction on flying was a limiting factor but they heard that their may be ways around these regulations with improved technology and updating of regulations which were subject to reviews.
Besides the farming applications there was also discussion on the broader application of drone technology into the future and the likelihood of solutions being found to permit beyond line of sight and night flight with safety that avoided collision risk with aircraft and objects, in shared airspace even at low levels. The applications for drones in mining, construction, resource management, forestry, safety, security, rescue and emergency management, and research are endless.