Camera Drones, they are lighter, sharper and more affordable than ever before - but soon they will also be tightly regulated - even the tiny ones that only weigh a few ounces.
So, If you own a drone, operate drones for a living or if you're thinking about purchasing one, before you do it's best you get acquainted with the new legislation that the Ministry Of Civil Aviation will propose this coming Wednesday.
The Department Of Civil Aviation will hold a public consultation on draft drone regulations to establish formal rules for operating unmanned aerial systems.
The president of the Belize National UAS Industry Association spoke with us today on the importance of having Belizeans come out to the consultation:
Will Moreno, President, Belize National UAS Industry association
"We applaud the Belize Department of Civil Aviation for taking this to consultation. It is something very important and I want to make it straight: we are not against the legislation of drones; we are for responsible legislation of drones."
"If you've taken a look at the 55 page document that they have put into place the technical terms as well as the terminology or the verbose part of it it is not geared towards regular drone pilots. It is geared more towards a technical aviation specialist more along the lines of a manned air craft kind of specialist but the wording I think can be a little bit more simple so that everyone can understand. That way there is no ambiguity of where things can actually be blurred."
"I don't know if people are aware of but Belize has everything from a very small, micro, what we call a micro UAS which are the very small ones we have very small mini drones we have all the way to agricultural drones which are AGRIS T 100s that can carry capacity for spraying of 100 liters of chemicals so really and truly in Belize the demand for drones is growing."
"What's going to happen here is the way the drone legislation or the operational directives C008 TACT 25 is structured is that it is going to affect all drone operators. They are saying that they will have agriculture fall in a different section and I heard that on your news media. The reality is although it is an agricultural drone it is still a drone so the legislation needs to be inclusive of everybody. What they are trying to do is divide and conquer but they need to be inclusive of everybody. Everyone needs to follow one clear path instead of having little segments here and there."
"We need for people to come out we need for people to look at the operational directive I know you may not understand what the operational directive is saying because of the terminologies but please get in touch with us at the Belize national UAS industry association and ask that is the only way you are going to know."
"You are going to be affected if you are a commercial pilot and you are doing jobs out there commercially; you are going to be affected. If you are in an industry that utilizes drones or are thinking of utilizing drones-because there are so many others that have not started using drones yet, you need to be at this consultation because it will affect you if not now then down the road."
Moreno is holding a virtual meeting this evening to raise awareness among drone operators.
