New regulations for BMFA members flying drones and model aircraft from 1st January 2021
Hello everyone, these new regulations are spelled out in more detail on the main BMFA website, hit the news button to read the details. Here is the link;
If you fly control line models weighing over 1kg. fuelled and/or with batteries, i.e. ready to take off, and this will certainly include many speed models then you will now have to register with the CAA. Registration costs £9.00 and must be renewed annually. The CAA will issue you with an identification number which must be displayed on your model. This label can be quite small, a common siting place on RC models is underneath the tailplane, the same could apply to a CL model.
This brings us into line with what the R/C flyers have been doing for a year now. Those of us who also fly R/C will already have registered and also passed a competency test. If you are only a control line flyer then the competency test is waived. Although an Operator has to be over 18, there is no lower limit for the Pilot. Most times the Operator and the Pilot will be one and the same. The idea here as I understand it is to enable younger model flyers to continue to be able to take part, there just needs to be an Operator to supervise. It also must allow a proxy to fly your model.
It’s an aggravation to be sure but the BMFA fought our corner long and hard to get what we got; without their intervention it would have been any model over 250g as with R/C. The BMFA will host a webinar on Monday 21st December at 7.30pm to go through the legislation with us, you can use this link to register if you want to attend;
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/2316082301057/WN_Fs1b3JWTS-6co_Rx_fxUmA
I doubt you will be able to ask questions on the evening ‘live on air’, so if you have any questions ( and there must be plenty) then use this link to send them in;
https://rcc.bmfa.uk/article-16-questions
The BMFA has also emailed every member who has an email address on their data base and attached three documents, The legislation called Article 16, a BMFA guide to Article 16 and also a BMFA quickstart guide.
In a nutshell, if your models are over 1kg ready to launch, you need to register with the CAA and display the number you are given. It costs £9.00 a year, renewable annually.