On the 27th of August 2018 India’s civil, aviation ministry released what will be the set of regulations that govern how people will fly drones in India from the 1st of December.

We have read and analyzed all the rules to tell you what you need to know about how to get a drone and fly it in India.

It helps if we first break down the policy talks two of its most important aspects:

  • before and
  • after the drone takes off.

Rules before the drone takes off

Before the drone takes off you’ll have to use the government’s Digital Sky portal first to register your drone with a unique identification number or UIN.

Secondly get an operator’s permit to fly the drone in a particular area with a valid flying license.

And lastly most importantly your drone should only take off with valid permissions by using no permission no takeoff software.

Drones classification into categories

It is important to remember that the government classifies drones into five categories based on their takeoff, weights and broadly defines use case based on three important Heights.

If you plan be able to show your [[2022-12-15-8-best-ways-to-make-money-with-a-drone|drone pilot bio]] someday, you need to be compliant with these laws. Then you will be able to charge a nice [[2022-12-07-food-delivery-using-drones-and-save-the-planet|drone pilot hourly rate]].

Depending on the weight of your drone and how high it is layout may or may not need any of this.

Which brings us to what you need to know after the drone takes off.

Rules after the drone takes off

Here are the rules after the drone takes off.

Case 1: Fly below 50 feet

Any nano drone flying below 50 feet does not need to be registered or flown by a certified pilot.

Case 2: Microdrones

Microdrones flown below 200 feet need to be registered and flown by a pilot with valid permission.

Case 3: Nano drones

Nano drones flying above 50 feet, micro drones flying above 200 feet, and any drone heavier than 2 kilograms flying at all will need to be registered and flown by a pilot with valid consent and permission.

Aside from these remember to fly the drone early during the daytime and under 400 feet and away from designated red zones.

Conclusion

There you have it a quick 101 on drone flying in India. Did you register your drone before? How was your experience. Tell us in the comments. I am looking for ideas on how to get [[2023-02-03-how-faas-nprm-for-remote-id-for-drones-will-hurt-the-industry-with-jon-mcbride|drone pilot license]] canada. If you have ideas, please let me know in the comments section. Happy landings.