From a NY Times article today, talking about something that became law on Tuesday:
Under the new law, within 90 days, the F.A.A. must allow police and first responders to fly drones under 4.4 pounds, as long as they keep them under an altitude of 400 feet and meet other requirements. The agency must also allow for “the safe integration†of all kinds of drones into American airspace, including those for commercial uses, by Sept. 30, 2015. And it must come up with a plan for certifying operators and handling airspace safety issues, among other rules.
This is going to be interesting. They're flying in Class G airspace today, which I've always regarded as my own "see-and-avoid" airspace for the J3. Will they come up with a new Class "U" airspace underlying Class G? Actually, current minimum altitude requirements are enough to keep me out of the space these guys want to use, so maybe all the FAA needs to do is to restrict the UAVs to that space, which is what they seem to be doing. It will be interesting to see what NPRMs come out of this.
John Renwick
Minneapolis, MN
Former owner, '55 C-170B, N4401B
'42 J-3 Cub, N62088
'50 Swift GC-1B, N2431B, Oshkosh 2009 Outstanding Swift Award, 2016 Best Continuously Maintained Swift
I had a friend who used a rc helicopter for shooting pictures for real estate people until he was shut down by the feds a few years ago. Its interesting they have the 4 Pound limit. RC guys are allowed 25 pounds and must stay under 400 ft. But like cloud clearance distances and private pilots most are clueless of the actual distance. I bet this has got homeland security a little nervous. Its only a matter of time before some of the technology ends up in the wrong hands. Bill K
For RC fliers, the 400ft limit is only within 5 miles of an airport (per the rules).
We used to fly our sailplanes a LOT higher than that.
I think the major difference with new drones and RC is, the drones fully fly themselves and can be flown out of line of site (another requirement for RC). That and RC is amature/non commercial use.
IMO the drone technology is advancing too fast for the community to self regulate. The barrier to entry is little to nothing so, every idiot will have one by next Christmas and unlike RC, half of those won't be trashed on first takeoff
The sooner they get regulations in place for these, the better. I just hope they don't call them pilots.
3958v wrote:I had a friend who used a rc helicopter for shooting pictures for real estate people until he was shut down by the feds a few years ago. Its interesting they have the 4 Pound limit. RC guys are allowed 25 pounds and must stay under 400 ft. But like cloud clearance distances and private pilots most are clueless of the actual distance. I bet this has got homeland security a little nervous. Its only a matter of time before some of the technology ends up in the wrong hands. Bill K
The SUAS regulations have caused quite a stir within the model aviation community, however it looks as though 99.9% of us will remain unaffected.
Also, to clairify per the AMA codebook,the ceiling is 400 feet within three miles of an active airport (without prior notification to the airport operator). Aircraft up to 55lbs can be flown without a waiver, anything over must be inspected and have a waiver to fly. Turbine-powered aircraft require a waiver to be flown and are more regulated.
And for those that don't know the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) is a US governing body for flying models of all types who's rules are not regulatory.
However as part of being an AMA member one has insurance coverage for their modeling activities. This insurance includes liability among other things which is a large reason lots of RC modelers are members.
To be covered by the insurance you must abide by the AMA rules. If you don't care about insurance you can do most anything you want that doesn't bother anyone.
Obviously flying a large menacing RC airplane or helicopter in NYC will get you some attention but not in the middle of the desert.
CAUTION - My forum posts may be worth what you paid for them!
Bruce Fenstermacher, Past President, TIC170A
Email: brucefenster at gmail.com
