Greetings from South Africa.

[_juju_]

I'm new to this forum, so I thought I'll just drop a quick "hi".

Located in Durbanville, northern suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa.

Any other South Africans are welcome to "hi", especially if you're in my vicinity, would love to chat about drones, licencing and wotnot.

PS:
I almost went with "stringfellowhawkensmorgenborden" as a handle, however I thought I'd probably get eaten alive, so went with my usual

 

[adwb]

It is nice to see a fellow SA citizen, welcome, I envy you and your lack of regulations, compared to us in the western countries where it is getting harder and harder to fly with out somebody complaining or inventing fake news near misses and airport airspace invasions.

 

[_juju_]

It is nice to see a fellow SA citizen, welcome, I envy you and your lack of regulations, compared to us in the western countries where it is getting harder and harder to fly with out somebody complaining or inventing fake news near misses and airport airspace invasions.

Thanks for the welcome!

Unfortunately regulations surrounding drones (sUAV's) were legislated in 2015 I believe, for the most part just as restrictive as everywhere else in the world I would imagine.

I'm currently looking into getting licensed. A whole other story by the looks of it, but that's what I'm aiming for.

 

[adwb]

ya I just had a look regs are much the same you just have a huge amount of open and unoccupied spaces com paired to the UK plus the better weather!!

The commercial side seems to be horrifically expensive if this is to be believed.

COMMERCIAL OPERATIONS
Commercial operations are permitted with the appropriate licences. The Remote Pilot's Licence (RPL) is awarded after an approximately two-week course, a medical exam, and a practical flying demonstration. There are only four authorized licencing centres in South Africa (three in Johannesburg, one in Cape Town). The cost of the RPL, excluding travel costs (if you don't live in those two cities), is approximately R25,000 (as of January 2018).
The RPL is required for drone pilots, but even if you have an RPL, you still must fly under an organization with a Remote Operator's Certificate (ROC). The process of obtaining an ROC is extremely expensive and cumbersome. The cost is well above R100,000 on average, and the awarding of the ROC licences can take many months. Currently there are only 20 fully licenced commercial operators in South Africa (current as of January 2018).

 

[_juju_]

Yup, the commercial side is kinda crazy cost wise together with the hoops you need to jump through. See this article, it's a little out of date but I believe it to be true still (for the most part). A more recent article from some lawyers.

 

[Florida Drone Supply]

Welcome to the Forum! You will find a lot of great info on here from a lot of experienced pilots.