Register your drone by midnight to avoid a fine

Rotor Nowhere

IF YOU'VE successfully beaten the deadline for registering to vote and are currently sitting around, perhaps with a glass of brandy and a cigar, patting yourself on the back.

Well, don't. There's another big deadline looming. You've got until midnight to register your drone.

Just to be clear - we're talking to our British readers here. You have to register details of your drone with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) by midnight tonight (Friday).

Failure to do so will leave you open to a £1000 fine.

The CAA estimates that of the 130,000 applicable drones (those of over 250g in weight) it believes are out there, only 50,000 have been registered so far.

The drone registration process has an annual fee of £9 and can be completed in around 20 minutes (probably less, it's multiple choice) by anyone over the age of 18. Don't worry - it's not a licence - anyone can still fly the drone, including children - you just have to register the device to an adult, who is ultimately responsible for it.

The craze for amateur drones has led to a number of high profile incidents - not least of all the chaos at Gatwick Airport last year, which saw 1000 flights cancelled as police tried to track down the operators of a drone or drones seen near the runway.

This scheme was set up in the aftermath of that incident, and drone manufacturers tasked with finding a way to stop anything like it happening again.

Earlier this year, DJI announced it had designed a system which linked drones to a smartphone, and therefore a user profile.

Don't worry too much if you're thinking of buying a child a drone for Christmas. Basic drones aren't affected by the rules. As long as it weighs less than your smartphone (roughly) then you can lose it on the roof of the shed to your heart's content. μ