Drone Forums Ngā Wānanga Matatopa

Our second forum included updates from government agencies and an interactive workshop focusing on the consents needed before someone can fly a drone.

About 50 people attended who had backgrounds in manned and unmanned aviation. They included drone manufacturers, model aircraft associations, commercial operators, training organisations, local authorities and government agencies.

Representatives from our ministry, MBIE, Airways New Zealand and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) updated attendees on their work since the last forum.

In the workshop, participants shared their views, concerns and ideas for changing the existing consent provisions for drones flying above people and property. There was a presentation outlining the current consent provisions under Part 101 of the Rules and Regulations for unmanned aircraft (UA). The forum then considered 4 options for the future. We gathered feedback about these in the forum and through an online survey afterwards.

Intro to Part 101 rules for unmanned aircraft(external link)

Almost all attendees agreed the current provisions need to change and several ideas were put forward ranging from better education for drone users to introducing licensing and registration schemes. We will use the feedback to help us develop policy as we review drone regulations.

In the first drone forum we set out our work programmes, explained our achievements so far and discussed the next steps with stakeholders.

More than 60 people representing government agencies and the private sector attended the forum.

There were 5 presentations. Our ministry outlined our work programme, the CAA spoke about their work on drones, MBIE presented a paper about innovation in the UA sector, Airways talked about drone traffic management, and a representative from Unmanned Air Vehicles New Zealand (UAVNZ) gave the perspective of their organisation.

The event gave all attendees the opportunity to ask questions and have their say on the cross-government drone work programme.