In a first, India’s civil aviation regulator, the Director-General of Civil Aviation has approved the Bombay Flying Club (BFC) as a drone training school. The approval order is dated July 24, and was made public on Monday. According to a letter by the DGCA to BFC, dated July 20, the organisation’s status as a drone training school will be valid for a period of one year from the date of issue of the letter, or until the Digital Sky Platform goes live, whichever is earlier. The Bombay Flying Club is a DGCA approved Flying Training Organisation, involved in flying training since 1928. MediaNama was the first publication to break the story on Twitter. Yash Patel, from the Bombay Flying Club, in an interview with the industry body, Drone Federation of India said that it plans to start the first batch in mid-August. It will offer this course in Mumbai and Dhule. “It’s been more than a year since we were trying to establish the drone training program and the major difficulty was in procuring the RPA [drone]”, Patel said while speaking to DFI, which Patel claimed helped them procure the drone. He said that while the process itself was not challenging, “getting clarifications on regulatory questions was a hurdle”. Privacy and safety of ops is BFC’s responsibility: Conditions The DGCA has detailed 18 conditions for BFC to be able to carry out its function as a drone training school, including: It will have to “ensure the safety, security and privacy…
