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New FAA drone rule is a giant middle finger to aviation hobbyists:
More than 34,000 people have deluged the Federal Aviation Administration with comments over a proposed regulation that would require almost every drone in the sky to broadcast its location over the Internet at all times. The comments are overwhelmingly negative, with thousands of hobbyists warning that the rules would impose huge new costs on those who simply wanted to continue flying model airplanes, home-built drones, or other personally owned devices.
"These regulations could kill a hobby I love," wrote Virginian Irby Allen Jr. in a comment last week. "RC aviation has brought my family together and if these regulations are enacted we will no longer be able to fly nor be able to afford the hobby."
The new regulations probably wouldn't kill the hobby of flying radio-controlled airplanes outright, but it could do a lot of damage. Owners of existing drones and model airplanes would face new restrictions on when and where they could be used. The regulations could effectively destroy the market for kit aircraft and custom-designed drones by shifting large financial and paperwork burdens on the shoulders of consumers.
"I think it's going to be harmful to the community and harmful to the growth of the UAS industry," said Greg Reverdiau, co-founder of the Pilot Institute, in a Friday phone interview. He wrote a point-by-point critique of the FAA proposal that has circulated widely among aviation hobbyists.
The new rules are largely designed to address safety and security concerns raised by law enforcement agencies. They worry that drones flying too close to an airport could disrupt operations or even cause a crash. They also worry about terrorists using drones to deliver payloads to heavily populated areas.
To address these concerns, the new FAA rule would require all new drones weighing more than 0.55 pounds to connect over the Internet to one of several location-tracking databases (still to be developed by private vendors) and provide real-time updates on their location. That would enable the FAA or law enforcement agencies to see, at a glance, which registered drones are in any particular area.
But critics say the rules impose massive costs on thousands of law-abiding Americans who have been quietly flying model airplanes, quad-copters, and other small unmanned aircraft for years—and in many cases decades.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Monday March 02 2020, @07:57PM (3 children)
If they're feeling that insecure about a theoretical threat perhaps they should go back to sleeping with a teddy bear.
Neverminding the fact that we've had drones for years now and this hasn't been a problem, the "solution" makes the rather extreme assumption that someone actually up to no good will be unwilling to risk an FAA fine in the process of committing multiple felonies.
Perhaps someone here knows, but does the FAA even have the jurisdiction to do this? Sure, they regulate navigable airspace, but I don't think my living room or my back yard below the tree line really qualifies.
I have to wonder what the real reason for this is. The FAA has been manufacturing "incidents" for years. For example, counting a pilot's sighting of something that could possibly have been a drone thousands of feet below as a "near miss" even where either the plane would have to violate minimum altitude or the drone would have to fly thousands of feet above it's capability to even potentially cause a collision.
What next? Will we see elementary school kids fined for paper airplanes?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Monday March 02 2020, @09:55PM (2 children)
Airplanes made out of combustible material that probably doesn't even show up on radar? That's clearly terrorist activity!
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Monday March 02 2020, @11:11PM (1 child)
Tossing burning paper airplanes would have been so much fun. I am now amazed and chagrined we never thought of it.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday March 03 2020, @12:11AM
Even better, make a flame thrower out of a can of lysol and a candle, try to shoot them down. Source: er, um, I read it on the internet somewhere!