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A pilot holding a drone controller beside a parked light aircraft at sunrise, a quadcopter hovering ahead

Drone pilot jobs in South Africa: where the work is in 2026

One licence opens more careers than most people expect. South Africa’s remote pilots are flying survey grids over mine sites, checking crop health at sunrise, filming car commercials, patrolling game reserves and inspecting power lines nobody wants to climb. The industry behind that work is still growing — and still short of qualified pilots. Here is where the work is in 2026, how drone pilots actually get paid, and what raises the number on the invoice.

Where the work is

Mapping and surveying is the steadiest employer. Construction sites, mines, quarries and farms all need current, accurate aerial data, and a drone delivers in an afternoon what a ground team delivers in a week. Pilots who learn photogrammetry alongside flying are among the best paid in the industry.

Agriculture is close behind. Crop-health imaging tells a farmer which hectares need attention before the problem is visible from the ground, and precision spraying is arriving with it. Security work — estates, events, anti-poaching patrols — runs day and night. Infrastructure inspection sends drones to cell towers, solar farms and transmission lines instead of sending people up them. And film and television remains the most visible drone work in the country, and the most competitive to break into.

How drone pilots actually get paid

Here is the part many schools skip: the licence alone does not put you on a payroll. Commercial drone work in South Africa runs under an authorised operator, and a working pilot either flies for one that exists or, with time, builds an authorisation of their own. Most graduates start by joining an established operator — employed, or freelancing under its authorisation. That is the sensible route: you earn while you build hours, and you learn how real contracts run.

Many working pilots mix income streams — retainer security work, seasonal agriculture flying, project-based surveying. Spreading your work across sectors is normal in this industry, and it is what keeps a freelance month steady.

A licence is a work permit, not a job title. The RPC lets you fly commercially; the paying work runs through an authorised operator. Plan both — the certificate and the operator you will fly under — and you start earning while others are still working out the paperwork.

The ratings that raise your rate

Specialisation is where drone flying turns from a job into a career. A BVLOS rating takes you beyond visual line of sight — long-range pipeline and powerline patrol, wide-area security, and the delivery work now opening up — and BVLOS-rated pilots are scarce enough to command a premium. An instructor rating adds teaching income at an approved training organisation. A second category — adding fixed wing to a multirotor licence — opens the long-endurance mapping work multirotors cannot reach.

Starting from zero

No aviation background is needed. The RPC Multirotor course takes you from first briefing to the SACAA skills test in three to four weeks, and it includes the radio certificate, the English language proficiency assessment and arranging the Class 3 aviation medical — everything the licence application needs. The full path, step by step, is in our guide to becoming a drone pilot.

Already a licensed pilot?

PPL, CPL and ATPL holders take the short route. RPC for Licensed Pilots credits the theory you have already passed and skips the radio licence and English assessment you already hold — most finish in about two weeks. Flight training and the skills test are completed in full, on our aircraft.

Where to start

Train first, specialise second. The RPC Multirotor course is the qualification nearly every job above is built on; the ratings come once you know which work suits you. Request your quote and your quote lands in your inbox in minutes, with pricing, the next intake dates — and an honest answer about the career you have in mind.

A folded quadcopter drone on a dark studio background, a red rim light tracing its edge

Which drone should you buy first? A trainer’s advice

It is the first question almost everyone asks before they start: which drone should I buy? It feels like the obvious first step — get the aircraft, then learn to fly it. After years of training remote pilots, here is the advice we give every time, and it surprises people: don’t buy one yet.

Train first, buy second

You do not need to own a drone to earn your licence. Practical training runs on ALTUS aircraft — machines we maintain and insure for training, so every exercise, fail-safe drill and assessment happens on equipment built for it. Buying before you train almost always means paying twice: the drone that looked right on a spec sheet turns out to be wrong for the work you end up choosing, and it is sitting in a cupboard while you buy the one you actually needed.

Spend the first few weeks learning what the work demands. By the end of a course you will understand the difference between a machine that photographs a wedding and one that maps a farm — and the right aircraft becomes an easy decision instead of an expensive guess.

Buy for the work, not the hype

The drone market is built to sell you the newest, the fastest, the one with the most impressive launch video. None of that matters if it is the wrong tool for the job you are being paid to do. The only question that counts is: what work will I fly?

Aerial photography and video, land surveying and mapping, agricultural scouting, security patrols, roof and tower inspections — each rewards different things. One needs a stable camera and long battery life; another needs survey-grade positioning; another needs to shrug off wind and dust on a mine site. Choose the aircraft that does your work well, and ignore the rest of the catalogue.

What a sensible first drone looks like

Across almost every kind of work, a good first aircraft shares a few traits:

  • Matched to the work — capable enough for the jobs you will actually take, without paying for specialist features you will never use.
  • Well supported — part of an ecosystem with parts, repairs and software that will still exist in three years. A cheap drone you cannot get a propeller for is not cheap.
  • Room to grow — you will get better fast; an aircraft you outgrow in a month is a false economy.
  • Insurable and repairable — commercial work means insurance, and insurance means the aircraft has to be a known, registrable, serviceable machine.

Multirotor or fixed-wing?

Most commercial work in South Africa is flown on multirotors — they hover, they are precise, and they handle photography, inspection and close survey work. Fixed-wing aircraft come into their own for large-area mapping and long-range survey, where covering ground efficiently matters more than hovering. Your RPC category follows the same split, which is another reason to train before you buy: the category you qualify in and the aircraft you purchase should match the work in front of you.

Where honest advice comes in

As an authorized DJI reseller, we sell equipment — but we teach first, and that changes the conversation. We would rather put you on the right aircraft once than sell you the expensive one twice. Genuine equipment, advice on what you actually need for your work, and support after the sale from the people who taught you to fly it. When you are ready to buy, that is the difference between a purchase and a relationship.

You don’t need a drone to start. Enrol with your ID and functional English, train on our aircraft, and decide on your own machine once you know the work you will do. It is the cheapest expensive mistake to avoid.

When you are ready

Learn the work, earn the licence, then buy with confidence. Start with the RPC Multirotor course, or request a quote and we will help you plan the training first and the aircraft second. When the time comes to buy, talk to us about equipment — honestly, and with your work in mind.

An instructor handing a drone controller to a student on an airstrip at sunrise, a drone hovering between them

How to become a drone pilot in South Africa: the 2026 guide

Flight used to be the most expensive career in the world to break into. A commercial pilot spent years and the price of a house before earning a living in the air. Drones changed that. Today you can go from no experience to a commercial remote pilot certificate in a matter of weeks, at a fraction of the cost — and step into an industry that is still being built. This is the full path to becoming a drone pilot in South Africa in 2026: who can start, what you train, how long it takes, and the work waiting on the other side.

Who can become a drone pilot?

Almost anyone. To start a commercial drone course in South Africa you need to be 18 years old, hold a certified identity document, and read and speak functional English — that is the entire entry bar. No matric exemption, no prior flying, no maths or physics prerequisite. Curiosity and commitment do more here than any qualification on paper.

You do not need an aviation medical to enrol, either. The medical comes later, arranged during your course before your licence application goes to the regulator — more on that below.

What you actually train

The qualification you are working toward is the Remote Pilot Certificate — the RPC (formerly called the RPL). It is issued by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) and it is what lets you fly a drone commercially under Part 101 of the Civil Aviation Regulations. A complete RPC course is built from five parts:

  • Ground school. Around 40 hours of theory across eight subjects — Air Law, Human Performance, Principles of Flight, UAS Technical, Battery Safety, Meteorology, Navigation & Flight Planning, and Operational Procedures.
  • The radio licence. The Restricted Radiotelephony certificate, so you can operate aviation radio legally and confidently.
  • English Language Proficiency. The aviation English assessment every licence requires.
  • The aviation medical. A Class 3 medical, examined by a designated aviation medical examiner. ALTUS arranges it during the course so it is in hand before your application — you never chase it yourself.
  • Flight training and the skills test. Practical training in four stages, each closed by a progress check, ending in a skills test with a SACAA-designated examiner.

At ALTUS the radio licence, the English assessment and the medical are all bundled into the RPC course — you do not buy them separately or organise them yourself.

How long it takes

An initial RPC runs about three to four weeks from first lesson to skills test. Here is the shape of it:

StageWhat happensRoughly
Ground schoolEight theory subjects, each closing with an assessment; radio and English includedWeek 1–2
Internal examsYou pass an internal assessment at 75% before any official examEnd of theory
Flight trainingFour practical stages on ALTUS aircraft, a progress check after eachWeek 2–4
Skills testFinal test with a SACAA-designated examinerWeek 4

You advance when each exercise meets standard, not when the calendar says so — and you only test once you are genuinely ready.

What it costs

The honest answer is that it depends: on your intake, the category you train in, and whether you bundle equipment with the course. That is why we quote rather than publish a single number that would be wrong for half the people who read it. Request a quote and your quote lands in your inbox in minutes, with a price that matches your plan — and it is a licence you hold for a career, so it is worth costing properly.

The career on the other side

A licence is the start, not the finish. To fly commercially you work under an authorised operator — joining an existing one or building your own authorisation over time. The work is real and it is growing: mapping and land surveying, agriculture, security and surveillance, infrastructure inspection, and film and television are the biggest employers of remote pilots in South Africa right now.

From there you specialise. A BVLOS rating opens beyond-visual-line-of-sight operations and the long-range contracts that come with them; an instructor rating adds teaching income. Already hold a manned pilot licence? The RPC for Licensed Pilots course credits the theory you have already passed and gets you there faster.

RPC or RPL? You will see both names online. They refer to the same qualification — the certificate was renamed from Remote Pilot Licence (RPL) to Remote Pilot Certificate (RPC). If you search “RPL”, you are looking for exactly what you train toward here. We cover the change in full in RPL vs RPC.

Where to start

The most direct route into the industry is the RPC Multirotor course — the multirotor category covers the aircraft most commercial work is flown on. Add the aeroplane category later if fixed-wing survey work is where you want to be. Whichever you choose, the path is the same: enrol, train in stages, test when ready, and start flying for a living.

Ready to begin? Request your quote and we will send the next intake dates.

An operator in a dark control room at dawn, lit by glowing flight-path telemetry screens

Part 101 explained simply: South Africa’s drone rules

Every drone flight in South Africa — a weekend hobby flight or a paid inspection job — happens under one set of rules: Part 101 of the Civil Aviation Regulations. It sounds like heavy legal reading, and the full text is. But the parts that decide where you can fly, how high, and when you need a licence are straightforward once someone lays them out plainly. Here they are.

What is Part 101?

Part 101 is the section of South Africa’s Civil Aviation Regulations that governs remotely piloted aircraft — drones. It sets out who may fly, where, how high, and what licences and approvals a commercial operation needs. It is administered by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA), and it applies to every drone flight in the country, whether you are paid for it or not.

Recreational or commercial: the line that matters

The single most important question in Part 101 is why you are flying.

If you fly purely for private recreation — your own drone, your own enjoyment, no payment and no work — you do not need a licence. You do still have to obey Part 101’s operating rules on where and how you fly, and a purely recreational aircraft is not subject to the same registration requirement as a commercial one.

The moment money or work enters the picture — anything you are paid for, or any flight in the course of a business — the flight is commercial. Commercial operation requires a Remote Pilot Certificate (the RPC, formerly the RPL) and an authorised operator. That is not a grey area, and the penalties for getting it wrong are real: unlicensed commercial operation is an offence under the Civil Aviation Regulations, carrying fines and potential criminal liability, and it will void your insurance.

Where and how high you can fly

Part 101’s core operating limits apply to everyone. In plain terms, unless you hold a specific approval that says otherwise, you may not fly:

  • higher than 400 feet (about 120 m) above the ground;
  • beyond your visual line of sight — you must be able to see the aircraft with your own eyes, without binoculars;
  • within 10 km of an aerodrome or airport;
  • in controlled, restricted or prohibited airspace without authorisation;
  • over people, gatherings or crowds, or close to people and property not under your control;
  • over public roads; or
  • in a national park or a declared nature reserve.

These are the lines most flights bump into, but they are not the whole picture — separation distances, weather, daylight and airspace all carry their own detail. Knowing exactly where the lines sit, and how to check before every flight, is the job of the Air Law module in a remote pilot course. When in doubt, the SACAA website carries the full, current regulations.

When you need a licence — and an operator behind it

For commercial work, the licence is only half of it. You need two things: a qualified pilot and an authorised operator.

The pilot side is the RPC — earned by passing ground school, the radio licence, the English assessment, an aviation medical and a skills test. The operator side is the authorisation the business flies under, which sets out what kinds of operations are approved and how they are run safely. New commercial pilots usually start by flying under an existing operator, then build their own authorisation as they grow. It is a longer road than the licence alone, and worth planning before you enrol.

Do you have to register the drone?

Any drone used commercially must be registered with SACAA before it flies. A purely recreational aircraft does not carry the same requirement — but the operating rules above still apply to it in full. If you are training toward commercial work, registration guidance is part of the course.

Flying for fun still counts. The most common mistake is assuming the rules only apply to “professional” pilots. They do not. Height, line of sight, distance from airports and people — these bind every flight in South African airspace, licence or no licence. The licence is what lets you get paid; the rules keep everyone safe regardless.

Learning it properly

Part 101 is not something to skim off a forum. Air Law is a full subject inside every RPC course, taught the way an examiner expects you to know it — because you will be tested on it, and because a single airspace mistake can end a contract or worse. If commercial flying is where you are headed, the regulations are the foundation everything else stands on.

Want the path from here to a licence? Start with what the licence is actually called, or request a quote and we will walk you through it.

RPL vs RPC: what South Africa’s drone licence is actually called now

Search for drone training in South Africa and you’ll meet two names for what sounds like the same licence: RPL and RPC. The name changed, the licence didn’t — here’s what each term means, which one you get today, and what it means for you if you hold the older one.

Two names, one certificate

RPL — Remote Pilot Licence — is the term South Africa’s drone industry grew up with, and it’s still the phrase most people type into a search box. For years it was simply what the qualification was called.

RPC — Remote Pilot Certificate — is what the same qualification is called now. It’s the current term, the one you’ll be working toward when you train, and the one your certificate carries.

Both refer to the SACAA-issued qualification that lets you operate a remotely piloted aircraft commercially under Part 101 of the Civil Aviation Regulations. If you trained years ago and hold a document that says RPL, you hold the same class of privilege the RPC grants now — the name moved on, the qualification didn’t.

The name on the paper changed. The privilege it grants — flying commercially under Part 101 — did not.

Side by side

AspectRemote Pilot Licence (RPL)Remote Pilot Certificate (RPC)
StatusThe former nameThe current name
What it refers toThe Part 101 commercial remote-pilot qualificationThe same Part 101 qualification
Where you’ll still see itOlder certificates, and how most people still searchCurrent training, applications and paperwork
What you actually getOne licence — categories (multirotor, aeroplane) and ratings (BVLOS, instructor) added on topThe same licence and the same add-ons

The practical takeaway: whichever term you searched to get here, you’re looking at the same qualification. Choose a school by whether it’s a SACAA-accredited ATO, how it structures training, and what happens after your skills test — not by which acronym it prints.

If your certificate has lapsed, you don’t start over. Renewal and revalidation is a short refresher course with a revalidation flight check — not a new licence. Bring what you hold and we pick up from there.

If you hold an older RPL

If you trained a while ago and your document says “Remote Pilot Licence,” you hold the same class of privilege called an RPC today. Nothing about the qualification was downgraded or replaced when the name moved on. Two things are worth checking: that your licence is still valid (they expire, and a lapsed one needs revalidation before you fly commercially again), and that your medical and English Language Proficiency ratings are current, since those ride alongside the licence. If any of that has slipped, a renewal course sorts it out in about a day.

What this means for new students

If you’re starting out, the acronym is the last thing to worry about. You’re training toward the RPC — the current Part 101 commercial licence. At ALTUS that’s the RPC Multirotor course (or Aeroplane, or both), and it includes the radio licence and the English Language Proficiency assessment your application needs, plus arranging the Class 3 aviation medical before your application goes to SACAA. One course, everything the regulator asks for, and a licence you’ll hold for a career.