Drone rules in Tenerife

[Janet]

Increasing numbers of people are getting involved in drone flying, and the local press has being reporting a "near miss incident" at TFS Reina Sofía where one nearly collided with a passenger plane on Sunday evening. There has been no official statement on this, but it does appear that an investigation is underway. It thereore seems a reasonable time to list the main rules and regulations on flying drones in Spain, which are perhaps more restrictive than one might imagine.

* Any drone under 2kg can be flown by anyone, but any drone over that weight requires a drone pilot's licence.
* Drones must remain in sight and may not exceed 120m altitude.
* Drones may not be flown near airports.
* Drones may not be flown in or over national parks.
* Drones may not be flown over urban areas or any areas where groups of people are gathered.
* Drones may not be flown where people are undertaking airborne sports like paragliding.
* Drones may not be flown at night.
* Drones may not be used commercially for aerial work purposes, e.g. photogrammetry, agricutural intervention, graphic reportage, pylon inspections, border vigilance, forest fire detection, etc.

The Agencia Estatal de Seguridad Aérea (AESA) says that drones are aircraft, not toys, and violations of the above rules will be treated as criminal offences, with fines of up to €225,000.Legislation in the form of a redraft of Real Decreto 552/2014, is underway: it will expand the "air navigation" regulations to include civilian use of remotely controlled and uncrewed aircraft. For current official information from AESA please see HERE.

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

That is very useful info which I will pass on to my friend who brought a drone here and nearly lost it.  The thing lost connection to the controller and headed out to sea.  We were still shaking our heads about the loss about 5 minutes later when presto, the drone appeared overhead.  It had actually flown home on next to zero power. 

If you can stomach the length and insolence, here's a video made by some guy a real asshole who bitched when threatened with a 6K fine for flying his drone near the Parador. 

[Janet]

what an arse! cannot see beyond "my drone" ... cannot understand the need for control in a protected environment!

[Nova]

What a dickhead.  My dad in the UK has a real issue with drones.  He has been building radio controlled aeroplanes and flying them since he was a child, but thanks to the increased use and abuse of drones, r/c models are now being tarred with the same brush leaving him and his pals very few places where they are still permitted to fly.  It isn't fair because, unlike drones, r/c model aeroplanes actually require skill to fly, they are built for the pleasure of flying them rather than for taking aerial photographs and causing mischief, r/c aeroplane enthusiasts tend to be aviation enthusiasts and plane spotters with the common sense not to go anywhere near airfields, and r/c aeroplanes don't have anywhere near the same range as drones.  If you fly your plane out of range, it stops receiving signals from the controller and crashes to the ground - invariably spectacularly and in several pieces, which is heartbreaking when they have built their planes lovingly from scratch.  Now, because drones are a menace flown by any old idiots, many of the farmers who have previously allowed the r/c model clubs to fly on their land have now been forced to rescind that permission.

[Anne 2009]

It'll be interesting to see how Amazon get on when they start using them.

[Perikles]

* Drones may not be flown where people are undertaking airborne sports like paragliding.

That's far too vague. Paragliders take off from Taucho and fly anywhere between Adeje and Guia de Isora. Does that mean the whole area is included?

* Drones may not be used commercially for aerial work purposes, e.g. photogrammetry, agricutural intervention, graphic reportage, pylon inspections, border vigilance, forest fire detection, etc.

Does that apply to Local Authorities looking for illegal buildings? 

[Janet]

Q1: no idea, you'll need to ask Fomento

Q2: technically, I suppose it does. Anything like land surveying, regardless of who does it, so it seems to me, must be done by manned craft.

[Nova]

I wonder why prohibit commercial use of drones... surely it's the commercial users whose use could be regulated and controlled?  I hate the idea of drones flying around above me but I'd think it would make more sense to issue licences for commercial use with tight restrictions.

[Janet]

it's only a certain type of commercial activity, as I read it, anything to do with surveying, mapping, fire control ... it feels to me like the Moncloa is trying to preempt councils and forestry organizations, for example, getting rid of human surveillance! I don't see anything in the rules about taking a video of someone's property at their request, or flying over terrain around a house in the mountains to get a geographical picture for one's own use ...

[Perikles]

Time for me to get going on my idea of a pneumatic cannon which would blast any drone out of the sky.