No it wasn't.....appears to be illegal on at least five counts.
Italy Drone Laws
- You may not fly your drone over 230 feet
- You may not fly your drone further than 490 feet horizontally or out of visual line of sight
- You may not carry dangerous goods on your drone
- You may not fly your drone over populated areas, gatherings, beaches, national parks, urban areas, infrastructures, railways, highways and industrial plants
- You must stay at least 8km away from aerodromes
- You must only fly your drone during daylight
- Your drone must weigh under 25kg
- You must keep your drone 50m away from persons/property not under control of the drone operator
- You must carry third party insurance
As usual in Italy rules are changing on a monthly basis, they are prone to wide interpretation and uncertain. That is true for almost every law in the country. For example, you cannot find agreement on wether, on the highway, you can overtake another car on the right or not, as that is now a customary practice, although, supposedly, it should be illegal. 10 years ago it was a HORRIBLE thing to do, today it's common practice, despite pages and pages of rules, interpretations, etc. The complete lack of clarity, the confusion, the wording of most laws, etc. lead to utter confusion.
When I fly P4 in the US, I have no doubt whatsoever of the limitations, in Italy you can read the rule and then keep on reading for a couple of months about interpretations. There're even interviews to the legislators aiming to understand how commas must be interpreted and those rules keep changing as well, or are in the process of being changed again. It's truly confusing. You're also referring to the PRO / Commercial rules, which are different from the consumer's rules (Lord knows why). Consumers, for example (Unless of course the rules didn't change again) DO NOT have to carry insurance. I bet that there's also a wide variety of interpretations when it comes to the definition of daylight, as it's not specified (Dawn / sunset, or how many minutes before / after that and I bet people could make arguments about the lunar phases, or the presence of led lights).
In Italy there're 50.000.000 ways to make the perfect tomato sauce, one for every Italian...In Germany probably only one. It's both the fun side and the disastrous side of the country. Residency rules are up for interpretations and you cannot find two high ranking officials giving you the same answer, in the USA those rules are ironclad.
This said, flying with caution is extremely important anywhere, rules or no rules. I hope I am getting better at that on a daily basis.
BTW, why didn't anyone make a self deploying parachute with a vertical speed sensor? It shouldn't be so complex and that SHOULD BE MANDATORY.
The market today offers pretty much expensive contraptions, rather than smart solutions. With so many drones all over the World, shouldn't that be a priority?
