Drone Flight Takes To Living Rooms, Gymnasiums, and Parking Garages (hackaday.com)

szczys writes: The FAA can regulate the skies, but they don't own the airspace inside of buildings. There are many ways to get your flying fix indoors. Perhaps the most obvious is flying tiny quadcopters (about 1 inch on each side) in your living room. But for years, hobby groups have formed relationships with schools and churches to have meetups in their gymnasiums. It's not limited to propeller-aircraft; ultralight rubberband power fixed-wing is a popular indoor option. And FPV enthusiasts can get competitive by setting up race courses in parking garages.

Comments

Gives 'Underground drone racing'...

[iced_tea]

A whole new meaning. I smell a new sport.

There is no regulation against such use.

[ScentCone]

The 2012 FMRA law prohibits the FAA from burdening recreational users of model aircraft with any further reguation. There's plenty of debate about whether the administration's recent end-around of using the DoT to push the new Suzy Must Register Her 9-Ounce Pink Plastic Copter In A Public-Facing Federal Database is already a direct and willful violation of that law (to be determined in court).

So unless we're talking about people wanting to race their FPV quads right next to an airport, there's really nothing driving hobbyists indoors. Especially since going indoors doesn't exempt them from that dubious new registration program anyway: if it flies by remote control and it weighs more than half a pound, it has to be registered before it ever flies if it's purchased new, or otherwise by February 19th. So grandpa needs to get busy with that garage full of 50-year-old balsa wood models, lest he become liable for a $20,000 civil fine (and that's before the criminal penalties, possibly including jail time).

Sure, those 1-inch-wide micro-quads are under the weight limit. They're also more or less no fun at all, compared to the real thing.

Re:There is no regulation against such use.

[dougmc]

Especially since going indoors doesn't exempt them from that dubious new registration program anyway: if it flies by remote control and it weighs more than half a pound, it has to be registered before it ever flies

No, the FAA says otherwise.

From their FAQ --

Q22. If I only fly it indoors, do I have to register it?
A. No, the FAA does not regulate indoor UAS use.

Now, given that they haven't even really written the regulations for much of this stuff yet, and it's largely based on advisory circulars and FAQs and such, it's possible that whenever they do get off their butt and write the actual rules that they could say something else, but for now ... they explicitly say you don't have to register anything that only flies indoors.

Also, they aren't registering model aircraft anyways -- they're registering pilots, and then requiring that the pilot's registration information be on the model aircraft. (After all, when you go to your site, do you tell them about your models? No, not a thing -- instead you just tell them about yourself.)

Re:There is no regulation against such use.

[ScentCone]

50 year old balsa woods are MODELS. They have no camera, and are not Drones. The FAA has made NO requirement for them.

The FAA doesn't use the word "drone," ever. And yes, their new registration requirement DOES apply model helicopters, model airplanes, and multi-rotors. The presence of absence of a camera has nothing to do with anything. If you have a model airplane that flies, and it weighs more than 8.8 ounces, the FAA says you have to register it by February 19th or be subject to fines up to $20,000. They have, as people have asked questions, been explicitly clear that this new requirement includes any and all flying devices. As the FAA's directory said at the press conference, "If it flies, we're going after it."

The 2012 FMRA law talks about models, not drones. They are not the same thing and never have been.

Wow, you need to read up on this. The law talks about "models," and then goes into what constitutes a model. It has NOTHING to do with fixed wings, rotors of any number, cameras, etc. It has to do with being under 55 pounds, and used recreationally. Period. That's it. You're the one that's making a distinction between a model helicopter and a quad-copter ... nobody else (from a government perspective) makes that distinction at all. It's not the form factor of the flying device, or existence of a camera - it's that you're using it recreationally, vs commercially. That's it.

Just as the US can regulate and outlaw machine guns without regulating semi-automatic guns, the US can regulate Drones without regulating Model airplanes.

When the "US" refers to "drones," they're usually talking about full-scale aircraft (like Predators, or Global Hawks, or Reapers, etc). Sure, the government can make distinctions. They just did. Their distinction is that if your model airplane weights less than 8.8 ounces, you won't have to register it. Otherwise, you will have to.

Re:Gymnasiums?

[almitydave]

...hobby groups have formed relationships with schools and churches to have meetups in their gymnasiums.

Oh yeah sure, lots of churches have gymnasiums.

My church has a community center with a gymnasium. In fact, many churches have associated schools which have gyms.

So much for FIREFLY....

[tekrat]

Thanks to the FAA, I guess you *can* take the sky from me.

Re:Gymnasiums?

[ScentCone]

Oh yeah sure, lots of churches have gymnasiums.

Obviously your town hasn't yet been infested with mega-churches. Those have at least one gymnasium. It's just down the hall from the coffee bar, past the giant child-care facility, and around the corner from the logo-wear t-shirt kiosk, the artisan bakery, and the acupuncture practice. Jesus isn't the savior anymore, he's the CEO of a retail empire.

Good idea esp. For beginners...

[ClarkMills]

Good idea especially for beginners. My first (toy) drone lasted about 2 hours... Learning to fly it in the lounge was interesting but I got ejected outside after shredding the wife's flower arrangement. From there it was up up and blown away... I still haven't found it.

In a gym you will be hard pressed to lose your done and I'd expect the the environment to be stable.

Re: Gymnasiums?

[gstoddart]

Do you think everyone lives in the U.S.A.?

The topic is the FAA, and people going to churches etc to fly drones.

Anything that isn't the USA, for once, is pretty much irrelevant to the story.

Unless of course you think an FAA rule is going to affect where you fly a drone in Whereeverthefuckistan.

1" quadcopters are pretty difficult to fly.

[jeffmflanagan]

I have one from Axis drones, that was the world's smallest quadcopter when I bought it, and avoiding slamming it into the ceiling, then crashing to the floor at my place is the biggest challenge. They're much easier to use in a gym, or at least a house with high ceilings.

Axis has a new small copter with video, called the VIDIUS, which should be really good for beginners.

I'm not with the company, just someone who likes playing with new technologies.

Re:Gymnasiums?

[ScentCone]

BTW, mega-churches exist because people want them. It's a bit presumptuous of you to claim that your town has been infested simply because a facility doesn't cater to your point of view.

Actually, they exist in our area because of a perverse loophole in zoning laws. Most are financed by third parties with a business interest in the proceeds from the church-run retail operations, and the bigger the facility, the more cash they make as a non-profit, paid out through very high salaries to key figures, and very high returns on the got-nothing-to-do-with-religion investors. Yes, people want them. Because they are very large recreational facilities that get to benefit from a tax dodge, and they are killing off attendance at the little mom-and-pop social institutions that we used to think of as churches.

It's not "presumptuous" of me to correctly relate the nature of these facilities and the way they interact with (or don't) the county, municipal, state and federal governments as they move millions and millions of dollars around while enjoying special zoning exemptions, tax avoidance, and all sorts of hiring and labor exemptions. These are large businesses that throw on the hair-think veneer of religiosity in order to avoid operating and real estate expenses that any other operation of that size would have to pay. Investors see that it's a good business model, and clone them until there's literally no room to do it any more.

So Outdoors

[AF_Cheddar_Head]

This guy was flying his drone at an outdoor football stadium during a skydiving exhibition, the \. article is about flying in spaces with a roof over your head. So yeah this article about a Kentucky idiot is a great illustration.