DRONES could soon be taking to the skies from nearby gardens as basic models are making a popular choice of gift this Christmas.

The unmanned camera drones can sell for as little as a few hundred pounds and the market is burgeoning, but buyers are being warned to read the fine print and take some basic training before lifting off.

Professional flyers Lance Watson and Dan Reylar, of SkyCo in Cirencester, said the sales industry is speeding ahead of regulation. Dan built his own model a few years ago and now the pair are fully licensed drone pilots.

The danger, they say, is a model simply taken out of the box and launched into the air. After a number of near misses in America, the practice has now been banned on the other side of the Atlantic.

“We were the first people to get our licence in the area, and that is a very laborious process, which took us about seven months,” said Lance. “We have to do a rigorous flight test and exam which includes writing our own operations manual, not dissimilar to what you would do as an airline pilot.”

While anyone can shell out for a drone for personal use, safety still needs to be considered.

“Anyone can fly one under model aircraft rules,” added Lance. “In order to take one of these up into the sky we have to run through a pre-site assessment looking at things like proximity to nuclear power stations or premises and we assess the airspace to see whether it is controlled.

“If it is then you have to get aircraft control permission. It is as complicated as learning to fly a light aircraft but we fly closer to the ground. We have to do a risk assessment for flight hazards like cables and buildings. How close you fly these things to people is the main consideration.

“We can’t fly within 50 metres of any structure or person not under our direct control. Model aircraft rules are very similar. Whether flying for commercial gain or not you can’t put the public in danger.

“The fact that anyone can just buy one of these things, get it out of the box and get it into the air is extremely dangerous if it’s in a park full of children. The blades on these things could quite easily take one of your fingers off and the batteries are a little unpredictable and can explode quite easily. There is a good possibility it could throw out a nine foot ball of flame if something goes wrong.”

Other concerns are around invasion of privacy, with the potential for people to fly cameras around private property.

“If you can see something from a public position then you are able to photograph it,” said Dan. “If it is on private land then that applies as invasion of privacy. To take pictures of houses we would need to go and inform everyone in those houses. .

“It should probably be mandatory for everybody to go through the licensing process. In the wrong hands these can be very dangerous and can get up to speeds of around 40 miles an hour. People could end up flying them in restricted airspace and if it got into an engine it could bring a plane down. The problem is regulation is playing catch-up with this.”