What about public parks?
Yes, drone operators can fly over public parks, but the park owner, usually the council, needs to give consent. The airshare website has a handy list of councils that already allow this. However, flying over a large group of people at a public event is likely to be regarded as a hazardous operation, which is outside the bounds of Part 101. And operators still need to bear in mind that they still need to check with private property owners if they're flying above anyone's house.
Why have drones been in the news a lot lately?
There have been a few incidents over recent weeks. This month, police were called to Rotorua Airport for the person flying a drone in the restricted area. Not long before, North Otago woman Leanna Fryer-Raisher was spooked to find a drone hovering above her rural property. Real estate agents have also been put on notice about their legal obligations when using drones to market properties after a spike in CAA complaints. And a group of scientists from Auckland University of Technology have even come up with the safest distance to fly drones over marine mammals like dolphins and whales – that's 25m above.
Has anyone been charged over breaking the laws?
Even though the CAA was getting received reports of more than one unauthorised drone operating per week over recent times, there have been next to no prosecutions. Last year, Air New Zealand demanded tougher rules for drone operators after a near-miss at Auckland Airport involving a flight with 278 people on board. But enforcement action had been yet to take off, with only about 4 per cent of complaints resulting in disciplinary measures. As at early last year, there had been a total of 696 complaints against Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) since March 2013, but only 27 of those have resulted in enforcement action. Of the 27 complaints where action was taken, 11 resulted in warning letters, 15 in infringement notices and one person was prosecuted. 669 resulted in no enforcement action taken.