Wanted to put together an accurate list of the rules and regulations that other countries besides the US and the UK have for model aircraft operations. (I already have a copy of the UK CAA and a copy of the MAAA (Oz) model aircraft operations document)

If possible, please link me to the official documents, especially if they are in English.

If not possible, I am most interested in the following rules or guidelines.

Altitude restrictions
Speed restrictions
Model size and weight restrictions
Distances from airports that models can be operated
Any restrictions on propulsion


Let's try to avoid a lot of off topic and side issue bantering and keep this thread for those in countries besides the US and UK that can share the rules and regulations.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Latvia has rules and Regs but not easy to find. When you contact the very few clubs or people who RC - they'll point to the AMA (USA) guidelines.

I think it's because there are so few RC'rs here and no obvious conflicts, that it's been near ignored. Like many things here - they tend to be an amalgam of old Soviet days and bits of US / EU regs. Can be interesting ! One point that is relevant - the US freqs on 7x Mhz are not allowed here. Main emphasis on 35MHZ and 2.4GHZ

Originally Posted by solentlife

Latvia has rules and Regs but not easy to find. When you contact the very few clubs or people who RC - they'll point to the AMA (USA) guidelines.

I think it's because there are so few RC'rs here and no obvious conflicts, that it's been near ignored. Like many things here - they tend to be an amalgam of old Soviet days and bits of US / EU regs. Can be interesting ! One point that is relevant - the US freqs on 7x Mhz are not allowed here. Main emphasis on 35MHZ and 2.4GHZ

Thanks for ther info.

R/C flyers are fairly sparse as a percentage of population once you get past the countries where it is popular.

I think I read somewhere that US, UK, Canada, Japan, Austraila, Germany, France (I think) and a very few others account for the vast majority of R/C flyers in the world. I do think that it is becoming more popular in China and other parts of Asia besides Japan these days. And as I recall, that data was from before the explosion of availability in ready to fly electric models.

Bumping this up...I would love to hear from someone in Japan, Germany, France, Canada about the R/C model regulations in their countries.

I may have to go over to the regional forums and do individual request posts for this info in each countries forum.....

I was once told by a friend who has traveled overseas quite a bit when he lived in England as well as for his job here in the states that R/C is regulated a bit more in Europe than here in the U.S.
He told me that in some places you had to get a frequency allocation permit before you could buy a radio and that locked in your frequency. The permit was granted through the postal service.
Sounded strange then. Sounds strange now. But if true it is a bit more regulated than here.
On some of the videos I have seen that highlighted R/C in Europe I got the impression that their noise standards are far more restritive than ours--especially in Germany.


BM

Originally Posted by BillM

I was once told by a friend who has traveled overseas quite a bit when he lived in England as well as for his job here in the states that R/C is regulated a bit more in Europe than here in the U.S.
He told me that in some places you had to get a frequency allocation permit before you could buy a radio and that locked in your frequency. The permit was granted through the postal service.
Sounded strange then. Sounds strange now. But if true it is a bit more regulated than here.
On some of the videos I have seen that highlighted R/C in Europe I got the impression that their noise standards are far more restritive than ours--especially in Germany.


BM

UK when I flew in the 80's / 90's was regulated for :

Model size / Engine size - site specific determined by land-owner / authority.

Model Type - again by land-owner / authority.

RC freq bands - Govt regulation where certain bands for ground use, certain for air.

Insurance - Compulsory but often ignored at 'lone / non club sites'

then for all else SMAE which later was renamed BMFA covered all else by clubs affiliating to them.

Originally Posted by Thomas B

...

I am most interested in the following rules or guidelines.

Altitude restrictions
Speed restrictions
Model size and weight restrictions
Distances from airports that models can be operated
Any restrictions on propulsion
...

For Germany:

A good article about model flying and legal restrictions can be found on RC-Network (in German):

http://www.rc-network.de/magazin/art...2-0001-00.html

Here are the essentials as requested:

Altitude restrictions: depends on the airspace structure, but never more than FL 100

Speed restrictions: Not faster than 250 knots (approx. 463kph or 288mph)

Model size and weight restrictions: Only weight restrictions apply. Up to 5kg you don't need to worry much, unless you use an IC engine, where you need a permission when you are closer than 1.5 km to the next housing area.

Most model flying fields are cleared for models up to 25kg. Over 25kg and your model has to pass an inspection, needs registration and the pilot has to pass a theoretical and practical test.

Distances from airports that models can be operated: Minimum 1.5km from the border of an airport. Other limitations apply.

Insurance: Third party liability insurance for aviation is mandatory!

For specific questions, please feel free to ask.

Jürgen

R/C flyers are fairly sparse as a percentage of population once you get past the countries where it is popular.

Sounds like this “intelligent” politician that said: "Most of our imports come from outside the country’s borders."

Jurgen, thanks for the helpful post!

Originally Posted by rebell

Sounds like this “intelligent” politician that said: "Most of our imports come from outside the country’s borders."

Probably could have expresed that better. However, the point is that there is a fairly short list of countries where our hobby/sport is practiced by tens of thousands of folks and a much larger list of countries where our hobby/sport is small or barely there at all.

Originally Posted by Thomas B

Probably could have expresed that better. However, the point is that there is a fairly short list of countries where our hobby/sport is practiced by tens of thousands of folks and a much larger list of countries where our hobby/sport is small or barely there at all.

Where I live in Latvia (english Expat) - there are only a handful of RC'rs in my town ... estimates are less than 10.
Overall in Latvia we believe there may be less than a hundred, maybe lower.

Problem with trying to find out how many is that with the modern model and electrics - people do not club together like they used to for flying site / learning etc. So there may be a lot more out there we don't know about.

For ages I thought I was alone in my town - having lived here for over 15yrs - I'd never seen any models. I found a latvian forum online and suddenly I had invite to meet local flyers - all 7 of them !

Hi there,

for South Africa you can view - South African Model Aircraft Association

website is http://www.samaa.org.za/

There is alot of information there.
If there is something not there that you need, then please pm me and ill ask my mates that own a hobby shop what the local rules are.

PM me if you have any queries and ill look into them for you.

Cheers!

Lightfoot, thanks for the good info, there. I skimmed through the info and it answers a lot, but I did not see any altitude rules in the links.

I think I saw the rest of what I am looking for.

Originally Posted by BillM

I was once told by a friend who has traveled overseas quite a bit when he lived in England as well as for his job here in the states that R/C is regulated a bit more in Europe than here in the U.S.
He told me that in some places you had to get a frequency allocation permit before you could buy a radio and that locked in your frequency. The permit was granted through the postal service.
Sounded strange then. Sounds strange now. But if true it is a bit more regulated than here.
On some of the videos I have seen that highlighted R/C in Europe I got the impression that their noise standards are far more restritive than ours--especially in Germany.


BM

When I started out in RC back in the 70's you needed a licence for the 27 MHz band, which you indeed bought from the Post Office. The General Post Office or GPO for short, was a government body that controlled all telecommunications at that time as well as the postal service.

With the advent of the use of illegal CB radios the powers that be took the easy option of de-regulating the 27 MHz band, effectively legalising CB and leaving us at the mercy of the boys with the 1kW "burners". After replacing our AM RC gear with slightly safer FM radios the govt officially legalised CB on 27 MHz FM! Some years later we were allocated a dedicated aircraft only frequency of 35 MHz.