how are they going to know I am flying vlos?
they are going to have to update all mapping to indicate where all trees, fences and buildings are and their relative heights and also all land topography…
if we are waiting for them to do that to try to police if I am flying behind a tree or hedge, I would not hold your breath!
when has an IT project ever been delivered
a lot of solar powered esp32s may be being deployed… 
You only need the one 
I was thinking more along the lines of distance away from the controller. For instance, if you have a DJI mini drone ( sub 250gm) and flew 500 + m away, I think they’d have you bang to rights. Don’t forget, they wouldn’t monitor in real time, but view historical data, if they had reason to look at this stored data. ( say you got arrested for some drone related incident, not that you would ) Then there’s the consideration about who’s going to store the vast amount of data ( already arguments brewing on the storage of NHS patient data being stored by a US company ) and just how safe this storage is 
… hmm don’t think that is going to work … I survey buildings… so I take off and fly up the side of buildings and take close images around the building in high resolution… as I work my way around the building I stand roughly directly below the drone … I don’t update my home location… but the end of the survey I have travelled more than 500m and I have had a building in the way… yet I maintained vlos all of the time.
if I did update the home point as I walked around the building, my home point would be 20m above ground level…
@Windswept Robert did this great one a while ago… just don’t always believe the data as it won’t always be right, especially since most controllers don’t have GPS in them… does that mean they are all going to be made obsolete
Yes Robert I follow Windswept Robert on YouTube and saw that video. Reading the CAA’s proposals though, I’m sure they want the location ( or are looking at location data ) of both the drone and the controller. I’m not sure ( not even sure if the CAA believe ) if this is possible. As shown on another thread, there are apps out there that can show where both drone and the operator are. If these apps can track the location of both, I’d think the CAA think they can as well. Only thing I can think of with these tracking apps is that they track the takeoff point of the drone, then place the controller at that point. If they genuinely can’t track the location of the controller, then the CAA’s proposals will fail / fall at the first hurdle. I can just see them taking someone to court saying “ You flew your drone over 1km from your location “. Only for the defendant to say “ The drone was tracking me on my bicycle “, case dismissed.
The 3rd party app ‘Maven’ uses tech built into the mini 2 and the controller to allow the app to track the controller (you can see this in many videos I’ve made, this one here being the latest:
So I suppose it is theoretically possible for the CAA to be able to find out the distance between the controller and the drone, but I don’t think they have that technology in use currently, and I also think that the cost both financially and logistically would be too much for them to put in place anytime soon.
And nobody wants the po po at their door eh @Windswept
Hope you’re keeping well pal
That’s what I thoucht as well Robert, plus the limited range of the broadcasting systems on the drone and controller, ( unless the CAA are installing enough equipment to cover the whole of the U.K.)
I did ask what sort of range these tracking apps that show the position of the controller and the drone have, but so far no one’s responded. I should imagine with a mobile phone it’s not going to be much over perhaps a kilometre or two?
We’ll do some tests in the new year and report back 
Good man. Would be nice to know what sort of range these apps have. 
The last time I ran some tests I was about 750m and still receiving RID data, but we will do some more tests just to clarify
what happens if one is not flying a dji product + controller (any radiomaster product etc etc)
seems like designing the rules to match one manufacturer is anti-competitive behavior and may be subject to challenge
not everything drone = DJI
It’s no different Rob, Remote ID is not a DJI propriety “thing”
All DJI drones already broadcast a signal that contains this (and more) info that can be received via an AeroScope, but Remote ID is a different animal.
If you’re flying Autel, Yuneec, etc, a firmware update might allow a RID broadcast, if the radio chipset is compatible.
If not, as above, you’ll need to buy a third party RID module and attach it to your drone to make it compliant (if that’s what your question was relating to).
Something like this 
Thanks Wayne. Just wonder if the range is say only a kilometre or so, how the CAA are going to record every flight in the country ? TBH I think it’s a load of dogs danglies if they think it’s going to work
One of the hardware receivers we have can pick up DJI drones five miles away if used with high gain external antennas.
The average smartphone, probably not that far.
But we’ll get back to you
It does not require a live data link, it will record the data and send once there is a connection, much like DJI do now with your flight data
Yes, but that does not provide gps infromation on the “controller” AND “uav”… just the UAV…
there seems to be lots of focus on both the controller and uav locations being provided at the same time.
without a box attached to the controller then the controllers location won’t be able to be broadcast.
I am guessing that it will just get the operator location from when the drone is armed… just arm it in the carpark and piggyback a 2nd battery to the takeoff location… operator location remains protected from Karen ken and etc