Drones in Thailand
When the beaches of Pattaya were closed to the public a while ago due to the corona crisis, the police used a drone as an aid.
A drone is – as defined by Wikipedia – an unmanned aerial vehicle. The word drone is also used in Dutch. This is an Old Dutch and Old English word for a male bee, the drone. With that drone equipped with a camera, the police could check whether there were people somewhere along the beach who had the courage to go to the beach. Subsequently, officers on bicycles or motorcycles could call the offenders to account, with or without the presentation of a fine.
Roof terrace Hilton Hotel
When I saw that I was reminded of a German pool friend, who took a drone bought in Germany to Pattaya a year or two ago to make fun videos with it during his vacation. Immediately with his first attempt to make such a video, things went wrong. He went to the roof terrace of the Hilton Hotel on Beach Road and flew his drone all over the beach and made a nice video, which he showed me. He was then summoned by hotel staff to pack his things, because it was felt that the roof terrace should not be used for such recordings. In addition, he was asked for a permit, which he (obviously) did not have.
Permit
In went looking for some more information about whether or not you can use a drone in Thailand with a permit. You regularly see videos on Facebook and also on this blog that are made with a drone and I wondered whether the makers of those videos have such a permit. And yes, the golden rule in Thailand is that an official permit is required to use a drone.
Standard store88 / Shutterstock.com
Website
I found a website that provides detailed information about how to deal with the use of a drone, what requirements are set and where registration can take place to apply for a permit. See: itsbetterinthailand.com/
Finally
It is good to read that website, but especially the comments. It is not easy to get a permit, especially as a foreigner. If you only come on vacation for a few weeks, it is practically impossible because of the bureaucracy of the responsible authorities. Of course you can still use the drone in a remote area such as an empty beach on an island, but it remains a risk of high fines and possible imprisonment.
Are there any blog readers who have experience using a drone in Thailand?
I posted an article about that a while ago, the link below.
https://www.thailandblog.nl/lezers-inzending/registratie-van-een-drone-in-thailand-voor-hobbydoeleinden/
In the end, there was more than 1 months between the 4st application and the day I received my permit. I have to renew my permit next winter, because it is always only valid for 2 years. I wonder if this is faster now.
greeting
Ferdinand
Might be interesting to read https://www.minorfood.com/en/news/experience-the-first-drone-pizza-delivery-in-thailand. In the video you can see the first “drone pizza delivery”. Is this going to be the “new” future
of food delivery? If so, I think that the laws and regulations will be adjusted again and the process of registering a drone will become even more bureaucratic and lengthy and, above all, cost-increasing. What do you think about that? Please comment and thank you in advance.