CASA's Director of Aviation Safety, John McCormick, has said that he expects the number of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operating in Australia to double in the 12 months up to February 2014.
He made the remarks at a recent UAV symposium held in Melbourne.
"In February 2012, there were 15 holders of Operators’ Certificates in Australia operating small remotely piloted aircraft for commercial purposes," he told the gathering.
"Today, this number has doubled to 30 and the growing number of enquiries we receive on a daily basis suggests that this number will be more than double again within the next 12 months. This rate of growth reinforces to me that safety must remain as our number one priority. This is further strengthened in the National Aviation Policy White Paper which requires CASA to enhance oversight of the operation of UAS.
"[CASA has] no authority to allow economic or commercial considerations to influence safety-related decisions we are obliged to make. It is only after all relevant safety-related factors have been considered with due precedence, that the economic or commercial considerations of that decision might be taken into account.
"Where a less onerous, but equally safe, alternative is allowed by the law, CASA will certainly entertain that option.
"As you would appreciate, due to increasing number and their varied capabilities, it is impossible for CASA to effectively regulate all of them.
"We have to address the current reality. There is no point in CASA writing regulations that can't be enforced. That's just bad law. Consequently, CASA is now looking at introducing a weight limit to make it less onerous, but still safe, for commercial operators to use small remotely piloted aircraft."
Such is the spread of UAVs that CASA is going to introduce new terminilogy to better reflects the status of UAVs as being under human control. The new terms Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) and Remotely Piloted Aerial Systems (RPAS) will replaces the current "UAV" and "UAS".