Checklist · Aviation, Drones & Space
Drone (RPA) operation compliance checklist for a business client (CASR Part 101, RePL, ReOC and CASA approvals)
Pre-operation checklist for a commercial drone job: operator category, registration, RePL and ReOC holdings, the CASA drone safety rules (120 m, visual line of sight, 30 m from people, populous areas, 5.5 km from controlled aerodromes, daylight), approvals needed, and the client-side legal checks.
- Kind
- Checklist. Steps or checks to work through and tick off.
- Where it applies
- Australia, Commonwealth
- AI use
- Yellow AI can help in set ways. A lawyer checks specific points before use.
- Law stated as at
- 18 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 18 October 2026 against the 2 authorities it cites, for Australia and Commonwealth.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use when a client (or a contractor it engages) proposes a drone operation for work: inspection, survey, filming, agriculture, events or deliveries. Use it before contracting and again before each operation that differs from the standard conditions. Recreational flying follows the simpler rules for flying for fun.
Used for these tasks
- Check a proposed drone operation against the rules and the client's approvals
- Build the drone operator's authorisation and compliance register
Each task page says how far AI may help with the task and what the lawyer must review.
How AI may be used
AI may compare the operation plan against the checklist and the operator’s documents and list gaps; the lawyer and the operator’s chief remote pilot decide whether the operation is within the standard conditions or needs an approval.
AI may
- Extract the operation details (location, height, distance from people, time of day, airspace, aircraft weight) from the job brief into Part B
- Check the operator’s registration, RePL, ReOC and approval documents for names, numbers and expiry dates and flag any gap
- Build the operator authorisation register from the documents provided and diarise expiry dates
AI must not
- Must not decide that an operation falls within an excluded category or the standard operating conditions; that needs the regulations and the operator’s ReOC
- Must not interpret airspace or aerodrome proximity from a map without a CASA-verified drone safety app check by the operator
- Must not advise that no approval is needed for operations near people, at night, beyond visual line of sight or near aerodromes
The lawyer checks
- The operator category (excluded, ReOC or approval required) is confirmed against Part 101 and the operator’s ReOC conditions, not only the summary rules
- Every condition in Part C that the operation does not meet is covered by a current CASA approval or ReOC procedure
- Registration, RePL and ReOC are current for the named pilots and aircraft on the operation dates
- Landholder consent, state and local rules (national parks, councils), privacy and surveillance laws and insurance are dealt with in the contract
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
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- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
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