Drone registration
Also known as: drone licensing, UAS registration
Recording an aircraft and its operator with the national aviation authority, a requirement in most countries once weight or a camera is involved.
Updated
What it means
Registration attaches a name to an airframe. The operator receives a number, the number goes on the aircraft, and the authority can trace a flight back to a person. That traceability is the entire purpose.
Thresholds decide who needs it. Weight is the usual trigger, which is why a Sub-250 g drone exists as a category at all, though a camera on board often removes that exemption.
It is separate from competence. A registration number is paperwork; a pilot certificate is a test, and most jurisdictions require both for anything beyond the lightest class.
How it works in practice
The number lives on the airframe. A label on the body and the same number in the app is what an official asks for, and arranging it takes one evening. The label survives better when it is printed rather than written by hand.
Broadcast requirements layer on top. Remote ID transmits the identity in flight, which in newer aircraft is built in and in older ones needs a module bolted to the airframe and powered from it.
Carrying proof matters at events. A race or a festival with aerial coverage will ask, and a pilot without documentation is asked to land rather than argued with. A screenshot ends the conversation.
What to watch out for
Rules are national and change often. Flying abroad on a home registration is frequently not enough, and the answer differs between neighbouring countries. Checking before travelling beats learning on arrival.
Registration also does not grant airspace. Geofencing near airports and local restrictions over people apply independently, so a registered pilot can still be flying illegally while holding every document an authority issues.
Finally, the footage carries evidence. A Drone flight log and embedded GPMF telemetry record where an aircraft actually was, which is useful proof and an uncomfortable one after a careless flight, since the same file answers both questions.
How RawClip handles it
None of this changes how footage is analysed, but it changes what footage exists. Material shot from legal positions is safe to publish, and a highlight built from it does not become a problem for its owner later on.