FPV drone safety, as authorities, associations and researchers publish it.

This section is a reference, not a safety course. It does not replace the rules of the aviation authority where the flying happens, a club safety officer, a race director or proper training. Any injury from a drone, a propeller cut of any size and any blow to the eye need medical care, and a burning or smoking battery is a matter for the fire service.

How these pages are written

• The law is never merged. Each legal statement names its country, authority, rule and date, and a page that covers several jurisdictions keeps each in its own section or table row. A rule in one country says nothing about another.
• Association and racing rules are not law. Codes from the AMA, BMFA, MAAC and MAAA bind their members, and racing rules from the FAI and organisers such as MultiGP apply at their races. Every page says which kind of rule it is giving. The FAI's own rule book says national air law takes precedence.
• Every injury figure keeps its study. Each number is given with its study, data source, years and population, and figures from different studies are never added together or averaged. One University of Florida publication gives three different national totals for drone injuries; all three are shown and none is quoted as the answer.
• Emergency-department counts are not risk. The US NEISS system records hospital emergency-department visits. Its figures describe who arrived at hospital and with what, not how likely any pilot is to be hurt.
• Nothing here is specific to racing unless it says so. No injury study specific to FPV racing was found, none of the studies separates propeller cuts from other impacts, and the one racing-specific item is a single case report.
• Gear is not presented as prevention. No page says a propeller guard, net, fail-safe, bag or any other item prevents injury or fire. Where these appear, it is because a rule requires them or an author recommends them, and the page says which.
• Nothing is taught or treated. These pages contain no flying technique, building, battery charging, storage or disposal procedures, firefighting, first aid or treatment.
• No money. Penalties appear by type and rule only, and insurance by who requires it, with no amounts.
• Gaps are admitted. The FAA's website, CASA's website and MultiGP's rule book could not be read for the research, and neither could the FAI's 2026 edition of its drone rules. Where something rests on a search summary or a secondary source, the page says so; where something was looked for and not found, the page says not found, which is not the same as not existing.

The pages in this section

1. Battery fire risk: what a UL fact sheet says about thermal runaway, CPSC recalls of hobby lithium batteries and chargers, and why aviation bodies treat lithium batteries as a fire risk on aircraft.
2. Propeller injuries research: the University of Florida and Cureus analyses of US emergency-department records, case reports including one racing-drone pilot, and the FAA-sponsored ASSURE work, each kept apart.
3. Incidents and near misses: the NTSB's 2017 drone and Black Hawk collision, the UK Airprox Board's 2024 figures and what its "UA/Other" category includes, and the AAIB's record-only roundups.
4. Association safety codes: the AMA's Safety Code and Document 550, the BMFA's and FPV UK's authorisations, the MAAA's MOP066 and what is known of MAAC's.
5. Race safety rules: the FAI's F9U safety line, helper, fail-safe and pit mode, the MAAA's and BMFA's racing rules, the AMA's 2016 distances and what is known of MultiGP's.
6. Flying near people: distances, crowds and privacy in the US, UK, EU, Canada and Australia, one jurisdiction at a time.
7. Ages and youth rules: minimum ages for registering, certificates and flying alone, and supervision rules for children.
8. Insurance: when the UK CAA and EASA require it, and what the BMFA, AMA and MAAA attach to membership.
9. Enforcement: the FAA's DETER programme, the federal crime in 18 U.S.C. 39B, UK police powers under the 2021 Act, Canada's offences and racing bodies' own sanctions.

Related reading

Who must watch a drone flown by goggles, country by country, is on flying with goggles and observers, and the full law for each jurisdiction starts at the law in the United States. Battery carriage rules on aircraft are on flying with batteries, and product recalls on recalls.