The FAA has released its final rules for drone registration requirements. Every small unmanned aircraft used for hobby and recreational purposes must be registered (you can begin registering on December 21st). This includes traditional radio controlled models in addition to autonomous and semi-autonomous drones. "Small" means 0.55 to 55 lbs.
takyon: Registration costs $5 per operator, but the fee will be waived for the first 30 days to encourage early registration:
Anyone 13 and older can register themselves as an operator; younger children can operate drones under adult supervision with proper registration.
This is only one of the elements of FAA's drone-related rulemaking. The agency is also tackling a set of comprehensive rules for recreational drone fliers and another one for commercial drone operators, such as Google or Amazon.
For now, the FAA's guidance for fliers of store-bought and homemade drones remains the same: Keep your drones under 55 pounds; fly them within your line of sight and below 400 feet; stay at least 5 miles away from an airport; avoid flying near stadiums or crowded places; and take some drone classes or join a club for extra safety.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 15 2015, @01:44AM
> stay at least 5 miles away from an airport;
That's going to make recreational drone usage impossible for a majority of the population. For example, central park in NYC is about 4 miles away from LaGuardia. Everywhere there is any significant population there is at least one airport nearby.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 15 2015, @01:52AM
http://blog.cameralends.com/2015/02/23/where-to-fly-a-drone-in-new-york-city-legally/ [cameralends.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 15 2015, @01:54AM
Great news! You can play with a drone simulator in a video game instead! All part of the plan to make sure you never ever do anything in real life! That way you'll never learn to do anything that could threaten the establishment!