03/08/2023
A deep dive into China’s upcoming drone regulations
“Interim Regulations on the Management of Unmanned Aircraft Flights” Its a set of rules were made by the State of Council and the Central Military Commission, those are provisional at the moment but will come into force on January 1, 2024.
According to our research these regulations aims to have a better management system for all drones activities, ensure flight safeness as well as public and national security. More than 1 million registered civilian drones on the Chinese mainland and they fly nearly 20 million hours each year. More than 15,000 enterprises on the mainland are involved in drone businesses while the number of drone owners exceeds 700,000.
As for our area of expertise, unmanned aircraft are not just to take pictures and videos from above, aerial filming it can be completely different from from our regular ones or even better, they can add the wow factor to complement our film. Thanks to technological advances over these years, drones are widely used nowadays in all different areas such express delivery, emergency response and rescue, agricultural operations, aerial surveying and for us film producers, unmanned aircraft just help us get our work done with great results in a more efficient way.
So, based on the newest regulations here is a summary:
-Owners of drones will be asked to present identification when registering with the authorities, and those who use and operate drones should have certain qualifications, If you are caught and you are not registered you might be finned.
-There will be restricted air spaces for drones, including above airports, national borders, military bases, weapons factories, power plants, transformer substations, transport hubs, radar stations, and satellite control and tracking facilities.
-A number of drone operations will be banned, including using drones to take pictures of military establishments and defense industry facilities, disrupt public order, or release illegal materials, according to the regulations.
-Most of the regular users usually have a small (< 250 g) and light drones (< 4 kg). This small ones do not required license.
-Maximum altitude, flying height limit has not changed, is still 120 (400ft); anything higher necessitates a CAAC (Civil Aviation Administration of China) commercial license. Most drones, including the famous DJI brand, automatically set the maximum altitude to 120m and warn you if you manually adjust the maximum altitude settings. As well as for maximum distances, has not changed yet, it requires your drone to have a VLOS, or “Visual Line of Sight.” meaning that you must fly with your drone in sight.
-General aerial drones (micro, light, small) and agricultural drones do not need to be declared in the flyable area, but if there is a crowd gathering in the flying area, they need to be declared and apply for a permit ahead to avoid problems.
-Operational drones, as well as all drones larger than small, require liability insurance.Except for military and police units, no individual or unit can use drone countermeasures. It will be implemented on January 1, 2024.
-It is expected that there will be an online real-name registration and flight declaration system along with a more complete control system that might ease our work.
To finish, below is a general guide that you should have in mind before you fly a drone:
-Understand the regulations and guidelines.
-Make time to practice and get to know how your drone works and how to configure it will give you better results.
-Pre flight checklist, very important for us film makers, that we need aerial footage besides our regular one. Check ahead for batteries, SD cards, permits, etc.
With this new regulations we hope it allows them to have a better control over without killing all the fun of flying a drone. As for foreigners, we know its a little trouble some to fly your drones here in China, rule number 1, enjoy your journey but try to keep it low, try to stay away from sensible areas, like military, governmental areas. rule number 2, get yourself registered and your drone too, if you have a DJI, it will be a must, and at the end of the day its a easy process you just need a Chinese phone number and known a little Chinese or a website translator to fill the application, after the process print the QR code and stick it to your drone and you are ready to go.... back to rule number 1.
