Quote from: hangingtough on August 15, 2015, 08:00:09 AM
Very low sigh ups. This hobby has more takers

this is a good initiative by the members here.... we will push this link on our RCB facebook page and website and also in-store walking soon. Hope this get a few more sign ups

regards
sujju

Thanks sujju ..appreciate that ....

The status of grievance is being shown as "Under process" in IS Division-I on 18.08.2015

  Progress

what about the meeting today? ?dgca

Today I received a reply from DGCA by post against the petition written to PM (and forwarded to DGCA from PMO) . Of course we didn't expect a ground-breaking reply but the intention was to communicate our point of view to the Government before the policy is formulated. The most important thing is that they have informed officially in writing that "DGCA is in the process of finalizing the guidelines (and globally harmonize those) on operation and use of UAV/UAS in the Indian Civil Airspace which may be lenient to recreational users of UAS". They have also noted our "valuable suggestions"  

I am attaching a photo of the letter below. Hopefully they will keep our views in perspective while formulating the policy.

Thank you sir for taking this initiative and trying to safeguard  the hobby 
Hope they remain on our side

Well done.
Better than expected.
Worth making the effort.

I am so happy.
Thank you sir.

The government does listen to people this is in contradiction to my assumption made earluer that it doesn't.

***

Thanks everyone for your support and especially K.K. Iyer sir for the suggestions made in your earlier email to DGCA which I copied here. And government does listen to the voice of the people. But they listen on a slightly different "wavelength"...so we have to use that "wavelength" to get ourselves heard 

Bravo ! Could not have imagined us getting a reply . The new govt has been doing well in terms of communication. I hope more members can write emails and letters .

  A step forward

Thats amazing progress!! gr8 work everyone

Not much progress in this matter after the DGCA reply. The petition that I had sent to Home Ministry has recently been forwarded by them to DGCA to take "further action as deemed fit in this matter". We already had a positive reply from DGCA earlier. Now we have to wait for DGCA to come up with the policy.... and in India everything moves really slow. We have made our points known. Now there is no alternative but to wait.

deleted. see next post.

Even Countries like South Africa have established rules;
http://www.safedrone.co.za/
Whereas our officials are still passing the time.
If the decision is for top business tycoons, it will be made in minutes.
What is there for doing it for general public ?

They are really slow on this.

Looks like some movement

Which newspaper bro? Please post high resolution picture

Nothing but fear-mongering by IAF and different agencies. Even though DGCA was positively inclined in favour of recreational users, I think such irrational fear-mongering will compel them to take measures which will make flying impossible. Just notice how many times the word "threat" has been used in the article.

Nobody is rationally thinking about the range and capability of a "drone" with a 15 minute battery life and limited payload capacity. Worldwide, I think there has not been a single instance of a terror attack using a "drone" by which I mean a quadcopter, simply because its not feasible and effective. Its much easy to take a car or a human laden with bomb and explode it. When these people talk about "drones" the picture they have in mind is that of the ones which basically resemble aeroplanes and used by mainly US to kill terrorists. If an attack at all happens, it will be using those real drones and not using quadcopters.

Unfortunately, India still doesn't have the capability to build a real drone. After Pakistan recently bombed terrorists using such drones built in collaboration with China, Indian government in a knee-jerk reaction approached Israel for purchasing such drones.

The longer this discussion on "drones" drag on, the more likely it is that the policy that would come would be detrimental for recreational users.

This was an article from dna 04-10-15 edition

Repeated obstruction of fire-fighting helicopters by drones has caused USA to make it compulsory to register drones. This is likely to affect the policy being drafted by DGCA.

Registration is not necessarily a bad thing. In our letters and petitions we had written about registration. But in India, a registration process is likely to include lots of red-tape. So I mentioned a process of online self-registration. Let's see what kind of controls DGCA imposes on recreational users after this change in US policy.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-will-require-drones-be-registered-n446266
http://gizmodo.com/report-drone-owners-will-now-have-to-register-with-the-1737038255

Well.... registering may not be that simple in India as a host of incorrect practices may just crop in.... What could be more useful is.... 
1. The police gets the guidelines clear from the DGCA to allow such planes being flown at a stipulated distance from the airfield / public places / places of public interest.
2.  In case someone wishes to use these machines for photography of these places a simple written permission from the police should be sufficient with the flier taking responsibility of loosing control and hurting someone or damaging something.
3.  Flying close to airports could invite a fine or a ban on individuals flying or maybe even more.  Apart from taking clearance from the Police such flying could only be permitted in non flying times and so permission from the Airport too may be added.

I take a different angle. Its been now over several years since these autonomous/camera flights are happening all around the world. How many incidents have happened that have caused loss of property/lives ? Very few, if at all.

Cars and bikes are way more dangerous, in that sense

Govt. Shouldnt panic, and neither should aeromodellors. India has wayyyyyy tooooo many places to fly . Just go a few miles outside the city and fly anywhere. No police, no issues whatsoever.

Dont fly in city, dont fly over public, events etc.. dont get lured into taking pictures etc and you will not have any issues.

Fly responsibly, fly safe.