AN Australian man is facing up to a fine of A$9,000 (US$6,879) after he flew a drone to a Bunnings sausage sizzle to pick up a sausage in bread, while he lounged in a hot tub.

    A drone footage shows the Victorian man writing a note reading: “Please buy snag and put in bag, here’s $10.”

    He then puts the note and money in a clear plastic bag, before attaching it to a string from the drone, as the drone takes off from his wooden deck.

    Footage then shows drone flying high up in the air, over neighboring houses, a four-lane main road and over the roof of Bunnings Warehouse Sunbury, and down into the large car park.

    An accomplice then collects the note from the drone as it hovers near the barbecue, before he walks over to collect the sausage and attaches the bag back to the drone.

    The drone then flies back to the house and is seen hovering down above a hot tub, before the man unclips the bag, takes a bite out of the sausage and gives a thumbs up to the camera.

    Peter Gibson, a spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Authority, said the incident had three potential breaches of drone use, and they were investigating.

    “The potential breaches are operating beyond a line of sight, because there’s obviously no way you could see the drone and the person was using the camera to fly it,” Gibson said.

    “That’s not allowed because while it’s fine that you can see where the drone is going, it gives you no awareness of what’s happening around the drone.”

    Gibson said the only way to operate a drone in this way is if a person has a separate spotter, and you can’t do that with recreational drones.

    “Another rule is a person cannot fly a drone over a populous area — if you have a drone flying 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6 meters) if something went wrong it would fall to the ground like a stone and someone could be hit,” he said.

    The other rule states a person is not able to fly a drone within 30 meters of people.

    “This was also breached because you can see people walking from their cars and back and the drone hovering above the barbecue before some bloke comes out and takes the note from string.”

    Gibson said they have issued fines twice before for people who have broken the rules based on social media videos.

    He said the incidents happen from time to time, and there were 15 fines issued last year and about eight or nine issued so far this year.

    (SD-Agencies)