Editorial: Drones Are Not Toys
OPINION: David Seymour and James Meager's plan to make it easier for farmers and orchardists to operate drones can best be described a 'courageous' move.
Beck, a highly experienced agricultural helicopter pilot, is now launching a campaign to make farmers more aware of their responsibilities.
One of his greatest worries is that farmers, despite attempts to educate them, will not take down electric fence wires suspended across farm gullies. Beck mentions that Peter Robb was the 27th agricultural pilot to die in NZ when, last October, his helicopter hit a wire on a farm near Whanganui. He says another helicopter pilot hit an unmarked wire a couple of weeks ago and though the pilot survived the machine was badly damaged.
“The cost of removing these dangerous wires is bugger all. All it requires is for the offending wire to be cut and a new one erected on battens on an existing fence,” Beck told Rural News. “We recommend that the battens are about 800mm in height, which means that if by chance the farmer gets chased by a bull they get over the fence and don’t get zapped on the electric fence.”
Beck says many farmers don’t understand that even though a pilot may not be working on their farm, if his machine hits a wire on it the farmer could face prosecution for an unsafe workplace.
“CAA says the workplace is the airspace or the area required by a pilot to turn, manoeuvre or manipulate the controls of an aircraft so he can fly,” he explains. “So unfortunately, if the neighbouring farmer has a wire strung across a gully this is classed as a hazard in the way of a pilot for which the farmer is likely to be prosecuted.”
Beck says NZ has the most helicopters per capita in the world and many are used for agricultural spraying at low altitude.
Farmers are also short of understanding about their responsibility and liability for the maintenance of airstrips and tracks leading to them, Beck says. Under the law, a farmer who owns land cannot pass over the responsibilities for safety to someone who is leasing their land or just using their airstrip to put fertiliser on their own property.
“Even if the owner is overseas and there is an accident, such as an aircraft hitting sheep on take-off, he is still liable. He can’t contract out the responsibility.”
Beck says farmers need to realise that aviation safety is a problem for them, not just WorkSafe NZ and CAA.
