By Liam Carver — updated 18 May 2026
I have walked maybe 50 readers through this process via email in the last 12 months, and every single one of them has hit the same three speed bumps. This is the version of the CASA drone registration walk-through that addresses those speed bumps directly instead of pretending the process is as smooth as the government page implies.
Before we start: if you only fly recreationally and your drone weighs under 250g, you do not need to register it. You do still need to complete the free Operator Accreditation. Both of those steps are covered below, in the order you should do them.
Step 0: weigh your drone properly
This is the speed bump nobody talks about. Pilots assume the spec sheet weight is the registration weight. It’s not. The registration weight is takeoff weight — drone + battery + propellers + anything you’ve bolted to it (filters, prop guards, payloads, the lot). A “248g” Mini drone with prop guards is 286g and needs to be registered.
Use a kitchen scale. Weigh it ready to fly. That number is what CASA cares about.
Step 1: Operator Accreditation (everyone, free)
Every recreational pilot with a drone over 250g needs this. Even if your drone is under 250g, doing the accreditation is recommended and costs nothing but an hour of your time.
- Go to CASA’s drone registration page and click through to the Accreditation portal.
- Create a myCASA account. Use a real email address — this is the account you’ll use for the rest of your flying career.
- Verify your identity. You’ll need a driver’s licence or passport. The verification check is automated and usually takes under a minute.
- Work through the online learning module. It’s about 45 minutes of slides and short videos.
- Take the assessment quiz at the end. 20 multiple choice questions. You need 80% to pass. You get unlimited attempts.
You’ll get a digital accreditation card by email. Save it to your phone. The accreditation is valid for 3 years. Diary an entry to redo it — CASA will email a reminder but they sometimes go to spam.
Common gotchas at this step
- The myCASA login portal is slow. Don’t refresh halfway through registering — you can end up with two half-completed accounts. If it’s spinning, wait it out.
- The ID verification sometimes fails with no clear reason. Most often it’s because the name on your driver’s licence has changed and you haven’t updated CASA. Fix it via the “support” link on the portal — it’s actually responsive.
- The quiz is harder than it was 12 months ago. CASA rewrote it in late 2024. The questions about flying near emergency services and the new 30m rule have caught out a lot of repeat-pilots who breezed through the old version.
Step 2: Register the drone itself (anyone with a drone over 250g)
This is the step that costs $40 per drone per year. Do it after your accreditation is complete — the system links the two.
- Log back into myCASA.
- Go to “Register your drone.”
- You’ll be asked for the make, model, weight, serial number, and intended use (recreational or commercial). Pick recreational unless you’re planning to charge money for flights — commercial flying needs a Remote Operator’s Certificate as well, which is a separate and much bigger process.
- Pay the $40. The system accepts cards. There is no payment plan; it’s annual upfront.
- You’ll get a registration certificate by email and a Registration Number. Write the number on the drone with a paint pen, or print a small label — CASA can ask to see it physically marked on the airframe.
Renewal is yearly, on the date you first registered. Diary it.
Speed bumps at this step
- Serial number location varies. On a DJI Mini 3 it’s printed inside the battery compartment in font roughly 2pt. Photograph it before you forget. On Holy Stone drones it’s usually on a sticker under the body. On Autel drones it’s etched into the bottom plate.
- “Make” is sometimes ambiguous. Is your drone a “DJI” or a “DJI Mini”? CASA wants the brand (DJI). Model goes in the next field (Mini 3 Pro).
- The system rejects unknown models occasionally. If you’ve imported something obscure, you might need to email support with a photo and they’ll add the model to the dropdown. This takes 1-3 business days.
Step 3: Mark the drone
The Registration Number needs to be visible on the drone. CASA’s wording is “clearly displayed on the exterior of the drone, in a location accessible without dismantling tools.”
In practice: a small label sticker is fine. A paint pen is fine. A laser-etched ID plate is overkill but looks great. Inside the battery compartment counts as “exterior” because you can open it by hand. The bottom of the drone is also fine.
Do not write the registration number on the battery itself. Batteries get swapped between drones in fleets and that causes immediate confusion.
Step 4: Set up your phone
Three things to have on your phone before your next flight:
- Your accreditation certificate (saved as a PDF or screenshot).
- Your registration certificate for the drone you’re flying.
- The CASA “Can I fly there?” app — not strictly required, but it shows you exclusion zones, helipad buffers, and flight restrictions in real time. It’s free.
If a CASA or police officer asks (rare but it happens, especially near airports and crowd events), you can produce both within 30 seconds. We have not yet heard of anyone being fined who had their documents on their phone.
What happens if you don’t register
The legal answer is fines up to $1,650 for unregistered flying, with theoretical higher penalties for repeated offences. The practical answer is that CASA does not have an army of inspectors hunting down hobbyists at every park. What they do have is a process for following up on reports, and the people most likely to report you are the people whose backyard you accidentally hovered over.
Where unregistered pilots actually get caught:
- Flying near airports and triggering airspace alerts. Modern DJI drones broadcast their position. If yours appears at YBBN airspace edge, someone is on the phone within minutes.
- Posting crash footage to social media with serial numbers visible. We are not joking. We get tagged in posts like this every other month.
- Flying at events where police are already on-site for other reasons.
The $40 is cheap insurance against finding yourself in the system as an unregistered operator. Just pay it.
What changed in the last 12 months
- The accreditation quiz got harder (late 2024).
- The 30m rule got more explicit about who counts as “associated with the flight.”
- The myCASA portal got a UI refresh that broke some bookmarks — if you have an old shortcut and it 404s, go in through the main casa.gov.au page.
What’s coming in the next 12 months
The big one is Remote ID for sub-2kg drones, scoped for 2027 rollout. When that lands, drones will broadcast their position and operator ID via a short-range protocol — effectively making “fly anonymously” impossible for any registered drone. Existing DJI Mavic 3 / Air 3 / Mini 4 Pro hardware can support it via firmware. Older drones may not be eligible to fly recreationally once the rule comes in.
If you’re buying right now, this is the strongest argument for not buying anything older than a Mavic 3 / Air 3 generation aircraft. Hannah covers this consideration in our beginner buying guide.
Questions we get
Do I need to register each drone separately? Yes. One registration per airframe.
Can I share a registration if I have two Mini 3s? No. Each one needs its own.
Does my insurance cover an unregistered drone? Almost certainly not. Public liability policies typically void if you’re operating illegally.
What if I lend the drone to a mate? They need their own accreditation. The registration sticks with the drone, not the operator.
What if I sell the drone? Transfer the registration to the buyer through myCASA. Takes about three minutes.
Stuck on any step? Email [email protected]. We are not affiliated with CASA in any way, but we have walked enough readers through this to know where each step trips people up.
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