So you thought flying a drone is like flying a radio-controlled model aircraft? Something for the kids to do on a quiet sunny holiday? Think again. To legally fly a drone anywhere within the borders of South Africa nowadays, you now have to, by law, be registered as a commercial pilot. But the advantage is that you could also find yourself earning as much as R100 000 a month, doing it.
Hence the arrival soon in Cape Town of an official school for drone pilots.
Pilot training expert Ian Melamed of Benoni, who runs a training school, ProWings, near his home town, has become the first South African to be authorised by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to run formal, accepted classes for future drone pilots.
This week, Melamed flew to Cape Town to investigate possible premises for the school.
The remote flying licence is not only a first for this country, but also in the world, with the training properly structured to produce pilots with recognised qualifications. South Africa is one of the first countries in the world to approve a remote training organisation for commercial drone pilots, as well as drone regulations and technical standards.
“On Friday (last week) the CAA gave me the authority to train people for a remote flying licence, and already we have had to register classes of 23 every other week for the next month-and-a-half to cope with the demand,” Melamed said.
The aviation authority confirmed: “ProWings is the first and the only organisation thus far to receive… approval. This makes the organisation the first to receive such approval in South Africa.
Melamed said he had been running ProWings as an aviation school for three years and was happy to expand to Cape Town.
Melamed said the school came about because greater numbers of people were becoming interested in flying drones.
Drones were becoming more available, affordable and widespread and were developing apace to perform a greater variety of tasks.
They were very successfully being used to curb poaching at the country’s game reserves, he said.
A team set up at Thembe Elephant Park in northern KwaZulu-Natal recently and poaching went down to zero animals being killed and three to four attempts a day. The drone was so successful, it also put a stop to the smuggling of stolen vehicles from South Africa into Mozambique.
This unintended success was considered collateral damage by a certain police officer on the Mozambique side who lost out on a very lucrative side income from all the bribes he accepted from the smugglers, Melamed said. “He was really angry with us,” he said.
“Let’s face it, drones are here to stay. And pilots need to know and understand aviation laws. We operate a drone that can fly for six hours at 100km/h, which allows it a huge range. Operators of such machines need to be properly trained and licensed.
“Drones are mostly a positive thing. In the hands of a competent, legal operator it can be of great benefit. I believe we are not far away from flying passengers by remote control.”