Eyes in the sky, feet on the ground.

Marty standing next to the tracker, inset top, his aircraft in flight inset bottom, Marty's Bixler aircraft.

On Tuesday morning, I met two model aircraft enthusiasts named Marty and Kevin who were flying their planes out near Townsville's Ross River Dam. I was curious about the weird-looking tripod-mounted contraptions the men had, as well as the funny looking goggles the men wore. Kevin explained that the weird contraptions were actually trackers that followed the model's flight and relayed a video signal from a small on-board camera to tiny video monitors mounted in the goggles. In the model aircraft world this system is known as first person view or FPV.

The goggles contain tiny video monitors.

We hear a lot about the military drones used in Afghanistan and the Middle East, and I wondered how their civilian counterparts were being put to more peaceful use.

The applications for civilian drone use appear staggering. Already being flown for aerial photography and surveying, the Queensland Police Service plan to use them for surveillance of outlaw motorcycle gangs and anti-terrorist operations before the G20 Conference in Brisbane. Surf lifesaving clubs are investigating their use for beach patrols. Electricity companies are using them for power line inspections and a company in the UK is even  making videos of golf courses with them.  TV companies are using them to hover over sports grounds to get unique views of the on-field action. Some enterprising paparazzi have even used them to film celebrity events hidden behind the high walls of private estates. Issues over privacy has led to calls for more control over drone use.

The tracking system that relays
 the video signal from the on-board
camera to the goggles.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) regards model aircraft as recreational and it is illegal to fly them for commercial 'hire and reward' unless the pilot has the appropriate operator's certificate. Unmanned aircraft (UA) on the other hand are flown by specially licensed pilots for commercial purposes such as surveying, law enforcement and aerial photography. They are generally restricted to operations below 400 feet above ground level. These regulations mean that the same aircraft can fall into both categories depending on what it's used for. A real estate agent may fly one for a hobby but can't use it to take aerial photos of a property if that property is later sold, unless he has the appropriate licence.

As of March 1st this year, 33 CASA-approved commercial operations were flying in Australia but this may change if CASA  continues with planned rule changes that would allow pilots of craft weighing less than 2 kilograms to fly after completing an on-line form. Concerns have already been raised over safety and privacy issues with civilian drone use and CASA fears that there are already many unlicenced operators already flying in Australia. 

However the authorities plan to legislate civilian drone use, it is going to be a huge industry. The US Federal Aviation Administration estimates 15,000 civil and commercial drones could be flying in the US by 2020, with 30,000 by 2030. 

Link to You Tube:Footage taken from a Bixler model aircraft in Portugal. by Helder Afonso