Flying the Mavic 4 Pro in Australia and Canada: CASA and Transport Canada Rules for a 1 kg Drone
Australia asks nothing of hobbyists and everything of the flight: daylight, 120 m, 30 m, no populous areas. Canada registers everyone for C$10 and splits the world into Basic and Advanced. What a 1085 g drone must do in each, and the traps for visiting pilots.
Pilots group Australia and Canada together because both are big, English-speaking and full of landscapes the Mavic 4 Pro was built for. As regulators they could hardly be more different. Australia lets a hobbyist fly a 1 kg drone with no registration, no test and no minimum age, then draws hard lines around where and when. Canada requires everybody to register and pass an exam, then opens up once you have.
The Mavic 4 Pro's maximum take-off mass is 1085 g per DJI's User Manual v1.2, section 7.10. That number decides your category in both countries.
Rules checked 13 October 2026 against CASA's Know Your Drone, safety rules, registration, accreditation and travelling pages, Transport Canada's registration, Basic and Advanced, foreign-pilot and 2025-changes pages, and the Canadian Aviation Regulations Part IX (current to 21 September 2026). Neither regulator's pages mention a Remote ID broadcast requirement, and we found no insurance mandate for standard operations in either country; we state both as "not found" rather than "does not exist".
Side by side
| Rule | Australia (CASA) | Canada (Transport Canada) |
|---|---|---|
| Weight class for 1085 g | "Very small" RPA (over 250 g, up to 2 kg) | "Small" drone (250 g to 25 kg) |
| Recreational registration | Not required | Required, C$10, Drone Management Portal |
| Commercial registration | Required via myCASA, 16+, 12 months, $40 levy (drone over 500 g) | Same C$10 registration |
| Pilot credential | None for fun; free operator accreditation (3 years) for work in the excluded category | Basic certificate (14+, online exam) or Advanced (16+, exam plus flight review, C$25) |
| Height | 120 m AGL | 122 m (400 ft) AGL; 30 m above a structure when within 61 m of it |
| Distance from people | 30 m; never over people | 30 m for Basic; closer or overhead only in Advanced with a declared drone |
| Night | Daylight only | Allowed with lights on |
| Airports | Not within 5.5 km of a controlled airport (over 250 g) | Basic: more than 5.6 km from certified airports, 1.9 km from heliports |
| Insurance | No requirement found | Not required for standard operations; recommended |
| Visiting pilots | Hobby: just follow the rules. Work: CASA permission via myCASA plus accreditation | Canadian certificate required; foreign-owned drone needs a Foreign SFOC-RPAS |
| Official apps and maps | CASA-verified apps (OpenSky, ok2fly and others) | NAV Drone; NRC Drone Site Selection Tool |
Australia
Flying for fun: no paperwork, strict rules
CASA's position for recreational flying is permissive on paper: no registration, no licence, no operator accreditation and no age limit, including over 250 g. The trade is a fixed set of standard operating conditions for everyone, listed on CASA's Know Your Drone page at casa.gov.au:
- No higher than 120 m above ground level.
- At least 30 m from other people, and never over people, at any height. CASA extends this to anywhere a person could reasonably be, such as a house or a car.
- Daylight only.
- Visual line of sight with your own eyes, not through a screen, a device or goggles.
- One drone at a time.
- No populous areas: beaches, parks, events and sports ovals during games are the examples CASA gives.
- Over 250 g: not within 5.5 km of a controlled airport. Near non-controlled airfields and within 1.4 km of helicopter landing sites, move away or land if crewed aircraft appear.
- Stay away from emergency operations.
The daylight rule stings for this aircraft: the 100 MP main camera and 51-minute endurance make it a natural blue-hour tool, and none of that is available under the Australian rules. The populous-area rule is the other: much of the coastline you would want to film is a beach with people on it, and Sydney Harbour is restricted airspace outright. CASA issues per-offence fines with larger court penalties; the amounts differed between two CASA pages we read, so we are not quoting one.
Flying for work: register, accredit, stay in the excluded category
The moment the flight is "as part of your job", or for payment, three things change: you register the drone, you hold either a remote pilot licence (RePL) or operator accreditation, and you fly within the standard operating conditions above. For a drone under 2 kg this is the "very small, excluded category": an aviation reference number (ARN), the free accreditation and the registration, but no RePL or operator's certificate (ReOC). Weight categories are at casa.gov.au.
Registration is through myCASA: 16 or older, 12 months, and a levy of $40 per drone over 500 g (free at 500 g or less), which the Mavic 4 Pro is well above. Flying unregistered for business carries a fine of up to $18,200 per CASA's registration page at casa.gov.au, updated 8 July 2026.
Operator accreditation is a free online quiz with an 85 % pass mark, valid for 3 years, minimum age 16; under-16s may fly supervised by an accredited adult. Details at casa.gov.au.
Visiting Australia with your own drone
Flying for fun, there is nothing to apply for. Flying commercially with a drone registered in another country, CASA's travelling page is explicit that you cannot register it in Australia; you apply for permission to fly it through myCASA and hold operator accreditation. Source: casa.gov.au.
Where to check before you fly
CASA does not run one official map. It verifies drone safety apps and tells pilots to check one before every flight; the list at casa.gov.au includes OpenSky, ok2fly, AALTI, Aerologix and FlyFreely. State, territory and park rules sit on top; CASA's Local Drone Rules Tool covers those.
Canada
Register first, whatever you fly for
Transport Canada requires every drone of 250 g or more to be registered, recreational or not: Drone Management Portal, C$10 since 1 April 2025, registration number marked on the drone with a marker, label or engraving. Fines for flying unregistered run to C$5,000 recreational and C$25,000 commercial. Source: tc.canada.ca.
Basic or Advanced: the category is the operation, not the drone
Canada does not care whether you are paid. It classifies the operation, and the Mavic 4 Pro can do either. The overview is at tc.canada.ca.
Basic operations means all of the following: drone under 25 kg, within visual line of sight, more than 30 m horizontally from any person not involved, in uncontrolled airspace, more than 5.6 km from a certified airport and 1.9 km from a heliport. You need a Pilot Certificate, Basic Operations: minimum age 14, an online exam, no expiry. Carry it and proof of registration. Break any one of those conditions and the operation is Advanced. Source: tc.canada.ca.
Advanced operations covers flying closer than 30 m to people, over people, in controlled airspace, or near airports. You need a Pilot Certificate, Advanced Operations: minimum age 16, an online exam plus an in-person flight review, a C$25 fee, no expiry. Controlled airspace additionally needs an RPAS Flight Authorization from NAV CANADA, requested through NAV Drone. Since 4 November 2025, Advanced pilots may also conduct sheltered operations and extended visual line of sight with a small drone. Source: tc.canada.ca.
A hardware condition on Advanced catches people: the drone must have a manufacturer safety assurance declaration (CARs Standard 922) for the specific operation. Transport Canada's list of declared drones sits behind the portal login, and we could not confirm the Mavic 4 Pro's status on it. Check the list before assuming you can fly within 30 m of anyone, even with an Advanced certificate.
The numbers from the regulations
Maximum altitude is 400 ft (122 m) above ground, or 100 ft (30 m) above a structure when within 200 ft (61 m) of it (CARs 901.25). Small drones in VLOS stay 100 ft (30 m) from any uninvolved person unless flown under the Advanced provisions (901.26). The pilot or a visual observer keeps the drone in sight (901.11). Night flying is allowed if the drone's lights keep it visible to the pilot or observer and are on (901.39); the Mavic 4 Pro's front LEDs and auxiliary bottom light are set in DJI Fly. Insurance is not required for standard operations, though Transport Canada recommends it.
Where you cannot fly
National parks: no take-off or landing without the superintendent's permission. Emergency sites and 9.3 km around a wildfire are off limits. Advertised events need a Special Flight Operations Certificate even for microdrones. The two tools Transport Canada names are NAV CANADA's NAV Drone, which also handles authorisation requests, and the NRC's Drone Site Selection Tool. Source: tc.canada.ca.
Visiting Canada with your own Mavic 4 Pro
Read this before you book. A foreign pilot flying a drone of 250 g or more in Canada needs a Canadian drone pilot certificate; Transport Canada states there are no special procedures or credits for foreign qualifications, so your Part 107, EU A2 or UK Flyer ID does not transfer.
Second, foreign pilots cannot register drones in Canada. A drone that is not registered to a Canadian citizen, permanent resident or Canadian corporation therefore needs a Foreign Special Flight Operations Certificate, RPAS. For non-commercial flying there is a simplified process with a 30-business-day service standard, usually valid for up to a year; the fee was not displayed on the page we read. Commercial specialty air services by foreigners are limited to nationals of listed free-trade partners, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Source: tc.canada.ca, updated 4 September 2026.
What changed in 2025 and still matters
The SOR/2025-70 amendments arrived in two phases. On 1 April 2025 the new exams and the C$10 registration fee took effect. On 4 November 2025 the larger package landed: a Level 1 Complex category for beyond-visual-line-of-sight work, sheltered operations and EVLOS for Advanced pilots, medium drones from 25 to 150 kg, and SFOC fees. For a Mavic 4 Pro pilot the practical effects are the sheltered and EVLOS allowances. Transport Canada's summary is at tc.canada.ca.
Penalties for individuals: up to C$1,000 for flying without a certificate, C$3,000 for flying where not allowed or endangering people or aircraft, C$5,000 for an unregistered or unmarked drone; corporations pay five times that.
Two countries, one checklist
Australia: decide whether this flight is fun or work, because the paperwork only exists on the work side; then daylight, under 120 m, 30 m from anyone, nowhere populous, CASA-verified app checked. Canada: register first, hold the certificate for the operation you are about to do, keep 30 m from people and out of controlled airspace unless you are Advanced and the drone is on the declared list, and open NAV Drone before every flight.
Both sit alongside the aircraft checks in our pre-flight checklist, and both are on the international A4 card that now ships with the RotorCards Mavic 4 Pro guide. Heading to Europe with the same aircraft? Our EU C2 post covers a third set of rules.