South Africa was the first country in the world to initiate regulations for the training and issuing of Remote Pilot Licenses (RPL) that are accredited by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) on the 1st of July 2015. A little more than a year has passed, yet there are still a lot of questions and discrepancies as to whether there is a legitimate need for these licenses, the strict regulations surrounding them and whether people are able to fly their Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) as hobbyists without the need for licenses. A large portion of the argument has to do with the size, weight and type of an aircraft coupled with the simplicity of its operation, which is clarified in this paper.

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