FOCA: Infor­ma­ti­on on dro­nes and model aircraft

Rules for the ope­ra­ti­on of dro­nes and model aircraft:
The ope­ra­ti­on of dro­nes and model air­craft weig­hing more than 30 kilo­grams requi­res a per­mit from the FOCA. The requi­re­ments for the ope­ra­ti­on of dro­nes and model air­craft weig­hing up to 30 kilo­grams can be found in the “DETEC Ordi­nan­ce on Air­craft of Spe­cial Categories.

The most important regu­la­ti­ons are listed below:

• Pro­vi­ded that the “pilot” has direct eye cont­act with his fly­ing object at all times, dro­nes and model air­craft may be ope­ra­ted wit­hout a permit.
• If someone wants to use tech­ni­cal aids such as bino­cu­lars or video gog­gles to extend the natu­ral ran­ge of visi­on of the eyes, an aut­ho­rizati­on from the FOCA is requi­red (aut­ho­rizati­on procedure).
• Within the visu­al ran­ge of the “pilot”, ope­ra­ti­on with video gog­gles and the like is per­mit­ted, pro­vi­ded that a second “ope­ra­tor” moni­tors the flight and can inter­ve­ne in the con­trol of the air­craft at any time if neces­sa­ry. The “ope­ra­tor” must be at the same loca­ti­on as the pilot.
• Auto­ma­ted flight (auto­no­mous ope­ra­ti­on) within the “pilot’s” field of view is per­mit­ted, pro­vi­ded the “pilot” can inter­ve­ne in the con­trols at any time if necessary.
• Aeri­al pho­to­graphs are per­mit­ted, pro­vi­ded that the regu­la­ti­ons on the pro­tec­tion of mili­ta­ry instal­la­ti­ons are taken into account. The pro­tec­tion of pri­va­cy and the pro­vi­si­ons of the Data Pro­tec­tion Act must also be obser­ved..
• As a rule, dro­nes may not be ope­ra­ted abo­ve crowds of peo­p­le or within a radi­us of 100 meters of crowds of peo­p­le (fur­ther infor­ma­ti­on and appr­oval procedure).
• Anyo­ne ope­ra­ting a dro­ne or a model air­craft weig­hing more than 500 grams must pro­vi­de lia­bi­li­ty covera­ge of at least CHF 1 mil­li­on for any damage.
• The­re are rest­ric­tions on flights of dro­nes and model air­craft near air­fields. For exam­p­le, it is not allo­wed to fly such air­craft clo­ser than 5 kilo­me­ters from the runways.
• Can­tons and muni­ci­pa­li­ties may impo­se sup­ple­men­ta­ry rest­ric­tions on the use of unman­ned aeri­al vehicles.
• For public air shows whe­re only model air­craft or dro­nes are used, a per­mit from the FOCA is still not required.

Source: Dro­nes and model aircraft