Slashdot Mirror
FAA To Drone Owners: Get Ready To Register To Fly (networkworld.com)
coondoggie writes: While an actual rule could be months away, drones weighing about 9 ounces or more will apparently need to be registered with the Federal Aviation Administration going forward. The registration requirement and other details came form the government’s UAS Task Force which was created by the FAA last month and featured all manner of associates from Google, the Academy of Model Aeronautics and Air Line Pilots Association to Walmart, GoPro and Amazon. “By some estimates, as many as 400,000 new unmanned aircraft will be sold during the holiday season. Pilots with little or no aviation experience will be at the controls of many of these aircraft. Many of these new aviators may not even be aware that their activities in our airspace could be dangerous to other aircraft -- or that they are, in fact, pilots once they start flying their unmanned aircraft,” said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta in announcing the task force’s results.
Registration will provide the FAA with the owner's name and address. How will this information be useful to them? Are they going to have airports reroute traffic around neighborhoods that have high concentrations of drone owners?
...that the drone registration Federal website works at least as well as the site for Obamacare when it first came online....
I wonder, will all drones be grounded till the US Federal Drone Registration website is actually up and running enough to accept peoples' input?
Unless it has to interact with multiple state and federal systems with diverse data formats running on equipment and software that is decades old, and no longer supported, and connecting all of that to the more modern systems of third party private sector companies whose vested interest is in seeing all all fail... then it should be fairly smooth sailing....
Weight is pretty much the most clueless measurement to use.
You could build something really big, put helium balloons inside it and have it sit on a scale and still weigh less than 9 oz.
Any of Physical size, maximum range, maximum speed, maximum altitude, any of those would have been much less clueless.
Probably zero autonomous control.
Basically the quadcopter people have ruined RC aircraft for the fixed-wing and scale-model helicopter folks. I will admit that given the developments in camera, storage, and battery technology it may have been inevitable, but it was the quadcopter crowd that really embraced high quality video while flying into the personal space of others and loiter on a large scale.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Next up - registering your kite. After all, it fits their definition of a remotely controlled aircraft ...
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Weight is an extremely important and controlling parameter for aircraft. It has worked well as an important parameter for classification. For example, the smaller two classes of manned aircraft are called Ultralight and Light Sport Aircraft.
"Maximum" speed, range, and altitude are less useful because they are highly variable under different conditions and impossible to test for a true maximum. Maximum design ratings are used, but weight it the major criterion, the criterion that the classes are named after.
The FAA also regulates lighter-than-air craft such as hot air balloons and blimps. It turns out that by using the EMPTY weight of the craft, you totally avoid the issue of filling it with helium balloons- and the trick of having the gas tank only 1/4 full when it's weighed. They are all measured empty, and it's the empty weight the classifications are based on.
...this is a good thing. Non-drone quads, like all RC craft, require skill to do something stupid that will hurt more than your neighbours or your wallet. Autonomous, self-piloting, drones can be more dangerous than a car if flown improperly. Regulate them, just as cars and other aircraft are regulated.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
This happens with every technology when the barrier to entry is significantly lowered. I'm sure early automobile enthusiasts felt the same way about the Model-T ruining their happy-go-lucky days of driving without licenses.
-- Let us endeavor so to live that when we pass even the undertaker shall be sorry. -- M. Twain
So, we generally work by the fiction that a "gun" is the lower receiver, and that is the part that is what we register.
Exactly what part of the drone are you going to serialize and register? The wings? The engine? The fuselage? Will you need to de-register when it breaks? Re-register it after it's repaired?
At what point will the government decide to have us "register" all of the home made cakes we bake in our ovens? The parts and technology for a cake are just as common and available as the parts and technology for a drone...
I'll bet you get more damage to property from poorly regulated baseballs thrown by children than drones.
Obviously, baseballs can hurt, and even kill people, and people play with them in public spaces all the time - we really need to get everyone registered properly so we can educate them and hold them responsible for the errant throw.
I first joined AMA 30 years ago. I've flown fixed wing, helicopters, and rockets. I've also climbed into something slightly larger and flown it. My next purchase will probably be a quad. I don't think that owning a quad will make me become stupid. The craft is not the problem.
The AMA used to work with manufacturers and retailers to have a very strong presence- every $12 kit included AMA information in the package. The AMA managed to reach a high enough percentage of purchasers that most were well-behaved.
Quads brought a ton of new people into the hobby and the existing community hasn't reached them effectively. Part of that is probably because models (other than rockets) used to be harder to fly, so newbies NEEDED an experienced pilot to train them. Clueless newbies who wouldn't learn from others quickly destroyed their new toys.
On the other hand, rockets could be flown without training, yet AMA dis a good job of getting the message of responsibility out to rocketers. How can this (large) new generation of flyers be reached and educated? Blaming it on the number of props won't do the trick, of course.
If the government wants to do that, it is certainly within their authority.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
The constitution VERY SPECIFICALLY doesn't address specific regulations. Those are generated by LAWS. The constitution does give a very firm guide for how we are to come up with laws. Things like electing officials to create and maintain laws and having people in official capacities to enact those laws.
Staying awake during junior high and high school social studies classes would have avoided this incredible lack of knowledge. (If there wasn't the benefit of a proper education then there is a valid excuse for such ignorance.)
It is just as inane to say "Show me where in the constitution it says that police can enforce speed limits!" People really don't need to loudly proclaim their ignorance and supporting their ignorance makes a statement too...
This happens with every technology when the barrier to entry is significantly lowered. I'm sure early automobile enthusiasts felt the same way about the Model-T ruining their happy-go-lucky days of driving without licenses.
It was quite dangerous to be near anyone driving at the time. Most did not know how to drive, obviously did not start with the benefit of being an automobile passenger for 15 years, and they tended to think of it as a carriage without the horses and drove them accordingly. Comedy and injury ensued. So probably about the same as drones.
I think you underestimate just how much I just dont care.
I have several drones (two quadrocopters and an octocopter) and I definitely support this.
First, the requirement is not onerous. There are no serious licensing requirements.
Second, having drones to be traceable is a good thing - if somebody crashes them into your window then you'd definitely want to find who did it. And never mind that a crashed drone can sometimes catch fire (mine did) from a ruptured battery (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... as an example).
Third, there is some honey here - FAA plans to review restrictions on flying inside the national parks once the registration system is up and running.