UK Class Marks and Remote ID: What you need to know before 1st January 2026

I assume it didn’t prompt, as it’s not required yet. On my RC2 controller, I selected Connect to aircraft, DJI NEO, wait for the video to appear, then select the … (Three dots top RH corner), go Safety, scroll down and RID appears before Find my drone. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

The UK is a pretty small island. What commercial drone services do we even need?

Everyone keeps talking about “Commercial drone opportunities” but none have given any decent proposal that wouldn’t end up with the public being outraged at drone highways above their houses…

Take amazon drone delivery as an example. The drones would likely be required to follow a predefined route for “safety” and “security” this means 1000+ drones a day flying over peoples houses who live near the distribution hubs…

Would any of you like to live there with that happening?
We can do a trial where we move politicians into these houses so they can experience it?
But we all know how that would work out. right? The plan would be axed in minutes…

How do you think the Head of the Home Office would feel about amazon delivering Uber eats over his house every day..?

Also expect HUGE bailout funds for these companies to “sound dampen” peoples houses near the drone routes… (Double Glazing, Roof insulation etc etc) [Won’t be the companies money…]

And I am saying this now. It WILL result it people taking physical action against the drones… Be it EWAR techniques or simply throwing rocks at them… (I’m not encouraging it but we all know)

“Logistics” and “Distribution” are the terms I have seen quoted over and over again.
This isn’t in house/factory logistics. They think it would be acceptable to deliver someones bicycle next day via drone!

How about these companies pay the taxes they owe us first?

Maybe i’m missing a really big commercial opportunity here but look what happened to the CONCORD jets when they flew? People got mad… Very very mad. So mad the ministers got death threats…

Also please don’t bring up the “transportation” side of it… Its damned ridiculous. If the drone are limited to a 300m ceiling… Imagine a drone that can carry 6 people flying over your house at 200m height… Everyday, Everynight, day on day. May as well be using a god damned helicopter…

Huge rant :smiling_face_with_tear:

TLDR:
Large scale country wide commercial drone opportunities are really limited, flawed and not worth it.

Many thanks for taking the time to investigate and for letting me know too. I’ll have a look later myself…

Cheers! :slight_smile:

I think we’re rather over reacting to this RID. My mini 3 Pro already has RID built in. How far does this transmit its location when it’s in the air ? Have people been watching the FAA video they brought out last year, featuring someone flying their drone at a sports event ? You must have seen it. The video in which the local sheriff sees the drone and fires up the app on his phone, then the FBI become involved and send their own drone up to monitor the other drone. Meanwhile one of the sportsmen gets injured, requiring a splint to be delivered, by yet another drone ( from a major airport no less). A couple out walking in nearby woods, notice all these drones ( 3 or 4 at most) and use the app on their phone to track them.
Yep I’m sure you’ve all seen it.. Utter fantasy.
RID isn’t going to bother me in the slightest.

Link to the FAA video

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RID isn’t an issue right now. Just like online privacy isn’t an issue right now.
But people forget that with the rise of AI software suites how long until data mined history is used as legal admissible evidence?
What if your drone ID is spoofed and used for nefarious uses? (takes 30mins to do… for a novice.)
What if a new and unorthodox government comes in with bad intentions. Say 20 years from now?
What if you are harassed by a random member of the public because they know where you are flying causing unsafe flying due to physical interference?

What these new laws use as justification for themselves is “what if?” but they fail the realize that the “what if?” argument works both ways.

No fly zones already exist.
Drone and Operator registration already exist.
I really don’t see why RID is considered a necessity when there are already legal frameworks in place to monitor, asses and control access.

Should we be saying all motor vehicles must have tracking devices that ping their location to a public APP?
What about people?
Your children perhaps?

I find it crazy that people don’t see the risks this system presents.
And to anyone saying “If you’re doing nothing wrong what do you have to fear”
I fear your idea of what is wrong…

Also to point out. I don’t consider the public who want this system as completely incorrect more ill informed about classical tactics of invade and annex.
I can see commercially how a RID could be beneficial. But this seems more like a way to annex public airspace into a private playground for the super rich and corporate world.

And anyone saying what about security of areas. Every restricted area in the UK has Anti-UAS systems in play. It’s really not hard to jam a civilian signal… You just blast noise at a higher power than the person can transmit…

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But also …

giphy

I doubt anyone will be flying drones then - or not as we know them today.

Mind you, I will probably be long forgotten by then anyway :joy:

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a lot of what ifs …

I would suggest “you do you”

if you want to comply with rid, then comply with it, if you don’t then don’t.

in the same way that there are all the other laws and rules and regulations in this world and some people choose to abide by and some they don’t… like speed limits, indicators before changing lanes or turning in traffice or giving way to traffic turning , or whatever.

I bet most people break 10 laws or regulations a day, each and everyone of us, unless you are infirmed that is

Not a legal requirement (a should more than a must)

However any BMW driver knows this already ;o)

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I’m not getting this option on my Flip. Firmware etc up to date. What firmware version are you running?

01.00.1200 for my Flip. RC2 is 05.00.0300.

Yeah iv’ve heard of them things somewhere :wink:

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FLIP FW: 1.00.1100
RC2 FW: 0.5.00.0300
App version: 1.16.4
For info: I haven’t updated the FLIP to the latest FW yet as there has been a number of reports of lots of people having problems related to the update, eg.

My FLIP was flying fine so haven’t updated yet.

:smiley:

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technically the highway code is neither a law nor a requirement just an approved code of practice

it is a legal requirement that a car has indicators and lights but it’s up to you if you wish to use them… like the number of cars I see a night without head or tail lights on because they have DRLs on…

think we should adopt the Indian system of indicators… 2 beeps on the horn I’m going left… 2 beeps on the horn I’m going right… 2 beeps I’m still here and wanting to move

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more a guideline or target??

I love that movie star effect when I go past all them yellow boxes and the flashes go off… it’s a challenge to see how many I can get in a day week, month and year

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Matters not to the uninsured and unlicensed.

Same will happen

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In the US where they have Remote ID for just over a year now - it does not seem to bother the fpv community one bit (no enforcement - loads of jokes around about pilots having never seen a registered drone)

Funny that Bardwell just did a tongue in cheek comment in his livestream today (for those who may not know him - he is like a Guru of the FPV world - did even finance a movie to try to fight against the Remote ID implementation at the time)

So if you do not like Remote ID - get building :wink:

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:+1:

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Do you know why it doesn’t bother them?

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this is in the sense they are all ignoring its implementation still now 15 months on - as Bardwell mentions in the video - there is no enforcement (same as the other rules about VLOS / spotter / …). Now FPV pilots usually fly away from people/stuff so arguably not the same scenarios as the typical DJI pilot trying to capture footage of specific sceneries. FPV pilots are less likely to interact with law enforcement officers I would have thought.

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This is the issue. There is no enforcement now. But what about next year?
I imagine this would deter a lot of people coming into the hobby and even end a large number of current flyers will to continue.