Part 101 of CASR Unmanned aircraft and rockets

Rule status

Changing
Learn about the changes    

Part 101 of the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations (CASR) consolidates the rules for all unmanned aeronautical activities into one body of legislation.

It sets out the rules for the use of:

  • unmanned tethered balloons and kites
  • unmanned free balloons
  • unmanned rockets
  • remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) or drones
  • model aircraft
  • firework displays.

Who it affects

Part 101 of CASR affects:

  • remotely piloted aircraft owners and operators
  • model aircraft owners and operators.

It also affects organisations and people involved in:

  • unmanned balloons (including use of a large number of party balloons) and rocket operations
  • firework displays
  • research and development
  • law enforcement
  • surveillance
  • weather research
  • users of airborne telecommunications systems.

Legislation

Legislative instruments

Legislative instruments include exemptions to regulatory requirements in aviation regulations or a Manual of Standards.

Exemptions may apply to a broad range of people.

Instruments related to this part will display in this space or you can view our list of legislative instruments.

11 legislative instruments available

Part 101 Manual of Standards
Commences:
Operation of Certain Unmanned Aircraft – Renewal of Directions Instrument 2022
Commences:
CASA 22/22
Operation of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Within No-Fly Zone of a Controlled Aerodrome
Commences:
CASA 23/23
Approval – operation of RPA at night
Commences:
CASA 01/17
Obtaining Experience for Grant of RePL for Medium RPA, and for RePL Upgrade to Different Category of Small or Medium RPA
Commences:
CASA EX91/23
Part 101 Manual of Standards (Chief Remote Pilot Licence Instructor and Other Matters) Amendment
Commences:
Operation of remotely piloted aircraft over populous area
Commences:
CASA EX45/24
Remotely Piloted Aircraft Operations Beyond Visual Line of Sight
Commences:
CASA EX51/24
Indoor Operation of RPA Near People and BVLOS – Training and Use – Renewal
Commences:
CASA EX64/24
Operation of RPA Within 3 Nautical Miles of a Controlled Aerodrome (CASA-Verified Drone Safety App)
Commences:
CASA 66/24
Operation of RPA in Sydney Harbour Restricted Areas, R405A and R405B (CASA-Verified Drone Safety App)
Commences:
CASA 67/24
Show more legislative instruments

Non-legislative instruments

Non-legislative instruments apply to a particular person. Some exemptions to regulatory requirements in aviation regulations or a Manual of Standards may be listed here.

Non-legislative instruments related to this part will display in this space or you can view our list of non-legislative instruments.

12 non-legislative instruments available

Determination for Part 101 Manual of Standards (Modified Licensing Standards for Advancing RPA Technology, and Other Matters)
CASA 20/22
RPAS BVLOS OCTA Aeronautical Knowledge Examination Approval
CASA 35/23
Determination for the Part 101 Manual of Standards (Miscellaneous Revisions) Amendment
CASA 38/23
Flight Testing of Certain Remotely Piloted Aircraft (Innovaero Operations and Paul Dewar)
CASA EX104/23
Remotely Piloted Aircraft Operation Near People and Over Populous Areas (Wing Aviation)
CASA EX10/24
Schiebel S-100 RPA (Wedgetail Aerospace)
CASA EX15/24
Determination for the Part 101 Manual of Standards (Miscellaneous Fixes)
CASA 24/24
Determination for Part 101 Manual of Standards (Miscellaneous Revisions) Amendment
CASA 21/23
Flight Testing of Vertiia V1000 RPA (AMSL Aero)
CASA EX43/24
Flight testing of certain remotely piloted aircraft (Airspeeder Operations and Zephatali Walsh)
CASA EX52/24
Flight testing of large RPA airship (Stratoship Operations)
CASA EX60/24
Flight Testing of Certain Remotely Piloted Aircraft (Seppo Aukusti Saario)
CASA EX80/24
Show more non-legislative instruments

Guidance material

Advisory material provides advice and guidance to explain particular regulatory requirements of a CASR Part. Guidance material relating to this part will appear in this space or you can view all our guidance material.

6 guidance material available

AC 101-03 - Flying a model aircraft or drone for recreation or education

Updated:

AC 101-03 provides guidance on safely and lawfully flying model aircraft and drones recreationally or for education, training or research purposes in schools and higher education providers.

DOWNLOAD AC 101-03 Flying a model aircraft or drone for recreation or education (PDF, 1.3 MB)
Advisory Circular Version: 2.0

AC 101-05 - Functions and duties of RPAS maintenance controllers

Updated:

Advisory Circular AC 101-05 only contains the functions and duties of a remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) maintenance controller.

DOWNLOAD AC 101-05 Functions and duties of RPAS maintenance controllers (PDF, 231.73 KB)
Advisory Circular Version: 1.1

AC 101-01 - Remotely piloted aircraft systems - licensing and operations

Updated:

AC 101-01 describes the categorisation of RPA and general requirements for use of RPAS. It also provides guidance to operators and crew on the safe and legal operation of RPA in all classes of airspace.

DOWNLOAD AC 101-01 Remotely piloted aircraft systems - licensing and operations (PDF, 1.41 MB)
Advisory Circular Version: 6.0

RPAS Beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) outside of controlled airspace (OCTA) - Aeronautical Knowledge Standards

Updated:

The RPAS beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) outside of controlled airspace (OCTA) examination - Aeronautical Knowledge Standards will assist training organisations to develop training material related to the RPAS BVLOS OCTA - Aeronautical Knowledge Standards exam.

DOWNLOAD RPAS BVLOS OCTA aeronautical knowledge standards (PDF, 162.81 KB)
Exam syllabus Version: 1.0

2024-01 - RPA Operations over or near people

Updated:

This TMI specifies the CASA policy to support processing applications for the approval of RPA operations over or near people (OONP) for the purposes of regulation 101.245 and 101.280 of CASR.

DOWNLOAD RPA Operations over and near people - 2024-01 (PDF, 339.84 KB)
Temporary management instruction Version: 1.1

2024-03 - SORA 2.0 ground risk assessment - requirements and alternate criteria

Updated:

This TMI provides alternate methods to be used by industry for SORA version 2.0 (SORA 2.0) based applications, and by CASA for application assessment, under Part 101 of CASR. This includes an alternate method to calculate the final ground risk class through an updated intrinsic ground risk class (iGRC) table, amendment to the ground risk mitigations, and an optimal grid resolution table.

DOWNLOAD SORA 2.0 ground risk assessment –requirements and alternate criteria – TMI 2024-03 (PDF, 424.17 KB)
Temporary management instruction Version: 1.0
Show more guidance material publications

Related content

Last updated date
Updated:
Online version available at: https://www.casa.gov.au//rules/regulatory-framework/casr/part-101-casr-unmanned-aircraft-and-rockets
Back to top of page