Price of certification in Australia... Wtf??

Jimmyholster · Jun 1, 2015

Just got off the phone to totalrpa, a CASA certified trainer in Australia, and he told me that to get my company and one employee certified to fly a RPA commercially I'm looking at between 8 and 9 thousand!!! What the actual fudge?? Is anyone here certified with CASA? Is this price normal? I'm not sure this whole venture is worth it anymore...

Ozziepauly · Jun 1, 2015

G'day Jimmy,
Yes, budget 10k.
Your company must get the Operator Certifiate 4 to 5 grand.
Then each of your pilots must have Pilot Certifiate 3 to 4 grand.
It's worth it. I am studying for the Pilots Certifiate.
We would be sort after in the future

sirnikolas · Jun 1, 2015

Jimmyholster said:
Just got off the phone to totalrpa, a CASA certified trainer in Australia, and he told me that to get my company and one employee certified to fly a RPA commercially I'm looking at between 8 and 9 thousand!!! What the actual FUDGE?? Is anyone here certified with CASA? Is this price normal? I'm not sure this whole venture is worth it anymore...

Jimmy please refrain from using that sort of language. Please be aware that we have little eyes on this forum too.
Thanks cobber!

Jimmyholster · Jun 1, 2015

sirnikolas said:
Jimmy please refrain from using that sort of language. Please be aware that we have little eyes on this forum too.
Thanks cobber!

You're right, sorry. Just in shock over the pricing. You try to do the right thing and get certified, and it's not a reasonable price. How could they justify this amount of money. I really don't know what to do...

Jimmyholster · Jun 1, 2015

Ozziepauly said:
G'day Jimmy,
Yes, budget 10k.
Your company must get the Operator Certifiate 4 to 5 grand.
Then each of your pilots must have Pilot Certifiate 3 to 4 grand.
It's worth it. I am studying for the Pilots Certifiate.
We would be sort after in the future

Thanks for your positive point of view...got to think about this, or sell the Inspire. =(

brad-1098 · Jun 1, 2015

Jimmyholster said:
Thanks for your positive point of view...got to think about this, or sell the Inspire. =(

And don't forget you have to have public liability insurance, $2-3k.

Brendan · Jun 1, 2015

Ozziepauly said:
G'day Jimmy,
Yes, budget 10k.
Your company must get the Operator Certifiate 4 to 5 grand.
Then each of your pilots must have Pilot Certifiate 3 to 4 grand.
It's worth it. I am studying for the Pilots Certifiate.
We would be sort after in the future

10K plus insurance and bits and pieces, ends up more like 14K plus whatever multirotor and equipment you decide on. Total RPA are great too, Andrew and Alex are great people, can't recommend more highly. There is also a very big delay in CASA processing OC's due to the massive demand so factor that in.

Ian Fraser · Jun 1, 2015

Jimmyholster said:
Just got off the phone to totalrpa, a CASA certified trainer in Australia, and he told me that to get my company and one employee certified to fly a RPA commercially I'm looking at between 8 and 9 thousand!!! What the actual fudge?? Is anyone here certified with CASA? Is this price normal? I'm not sure this whole venture is worth it anymore...

If it was easy and it was cheap could you imagine what a cowboy industry it would become?

Jimmyholster · Jun 1, 2015

I emailed CASA last week asking how my aviation reference number application was going as it has been a month with no reply. I get an email today saying they can't find my application...this isn't starting well. Love dealing with government agencies. *ergh*

Jimmyholster · Jun 1, 2015

Ian Fraser said:
If it was easy and it was cheap could you imagine what a cowboy industry it would become?

That's true, I just feel the expense is a bit outlandish given the small amount of input CASA actually have in the process. I can swallow 3.5k for training, but the government shouldn't needlessly make big bucks out of this. It's just going to force a lot of people to run these uncertified... Making it all the more dangerous.

brad-1098 · Jun 1, 2015

Jimmyholster said:
I emailed CASA last week asking how my aviation reference number application was going as it has been a month with no reply. I get an email today saying they can't find my application...this isn't starting well. Love dealing with government agencies. *ergh*

I feel your pain. CASA lost my operations manual that I had professionally printed. They have told me that it will be 6 months before they start my oc application.

Ian Fraser · Jun 1, 2015

Jimmyholster said:
That's true, I just feel the expense is a bit outlandish given the small amount of input CASA actually have in the process. I can swallow 3.5k for training, but the government shouldn't needlessly make big bucks out of this. It's just going to force a lot of people to run these uncertified... Making it all the more dangerous.

Take another view on this.

Would you be happy if airlines were allowed to take short cuts in certification?

mark134 · Jun 2, 2015

I just go my OC. Started the process in September last year, so be prepared to spend big bucks and be patient.

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Kilrah · Jun 3, 2015

Jimmyholster said:
That's true, I just feel the expense is a bit outlandish given the small amount of input CASA actually have in the process. I can swallow 3.5k for training, but the government shouldn't needlessly make big bucks out of this. It's just going to force a lot of people to run these uncertified... Making it all the more dangerous.

You'll likely take a very different stance on this once you've gone through it as that will offer you some level of protection for your job.
Where I currently am there is no regulation or such paperwork or licensing to go through, which means that the tens of thousands we spent a year ago on 2 S900s are mostly worthless by now as any random dude can buy an I1 and provide services for almost nothing, making it very hard for a full-fledged business with employees that pays taxes and has running costs to continue making a living.

If people have to shell out 10K to get into it that will weed out all those who are in the "oh I have another job that pays my bills, it doesn't need to pay for itself, I just do that for fun" category who would ruin your investment.

Of course the downside is that you have to be serious about it and not be in that category yourself.

Brendan · Jun 9, 2015

Kilrah said:
You'll likely take a very different stance on this once you've gone through it as that will offer you some level of protection for your job.
Where I currently am there is no regulation or such paperwork or licensing to go through, which means that the tens of thousands we spent a year ago on 2 S900s are mostly worthless by now as any random dude can buy an I1 and provide services for almost nothing, making it very hard for a full-fledged business with employees that pays taxes and has running costs to continue making a living.

If people have to shell out 10K to get into it that will weed out all those who are in the "oh I have another job that pays my bills, it doesn't need to pay for itself, I just do that for fun" category who would ruin your investment.

Of course the downside is that you have to be serious about it and not be in that category yourself.

Well looks like that is about to happen in Australia too for a lot of the volume work (sub 2Kg) that a P3 could potentially do.

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/405002,casa-prepares-to-introduce-new-drone-rules.aspx

Ian Fraser · Jun 9, 2015

Brendan said:
Well looks like that is about to happen in Australia too for a lot of the volume work (sub 2Kg) that a P3 could potentially do.

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/405002,casa-prepares-to-introduce-new-drone-rules.aspx

One huge problem No Licence no Insurance

Brendan · Jun 9, 2015

Ian Fraser said:
One huge problem No Licence no Insurance

As someone who has spent the money with CASA, I don't think the above will be correct. Wait until it becomes legal, I'm sure some insurance company will deliver a product to cover the sub 2kg category with no license if the risk dollars vs volume makes sense.

I hope for my own sake what you say will be correct, but I'm not counting on it. Just need to make sure at the end of the day you are really good, and delivering an exceptional product/service.

Ian Fraser · Jun 9, 2015

Brendan said:
As someone who has spent the money with CASA, I don't think the above will be correct. Wait until it becomes legal, I'm sure some insurance company will deliver a product to cover the sub 2kg category with no license if the risk dollars vs volume makes sense.

I hope for my own sake what you say will be correct, but I'm not counting on it. Just need to make sure at the end of the day you are really good, and delivering an exceptional product/service.

I did apply for an ARN which I got. I was going down the Licence path then I heard things were going to change.

I am not chasing "Paid" work I just want to be able to market my own images.

mark134 · Jun 10, 2015

The big restriction with this sub 2kg ruling is that it can't be used over populous areas, so flying for real estate etc in the city will still require an OC.

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JoffaDan · Jun 10, 2015

But then how will they define populous areas? Major cities? Large suburbs?

There really doesn't sound like there will be any change to the existing rules, in which many hobbyists fly in these populous areas and readily post the footage to online media without a care in the world or any repercussion from CASA. I don't see this changing for people wanting to take real estate photos is busy areas, especially considering they are publically relaxing the laws even further.

All grey areas, I guess we will find out soon enough.