UAS and FAA :Drone licensing: Anyone else have one?

[Jason Roehl]

This is pretty much what the FAA has done. The local police will enforce the law. That will probably work out as well as them enforcing fireworks laws. It didn't really happen. More often than not the LEO would sit and watch them along with everyone else, just to make sure they were being used safely.

Something the FAA left out of the law is "Who will pay for the enforcement"? No provisions were made for that.

Ahem. "Rule". The FAA (and any other government agency) can only write rules. It takes a legislative body to write a law. It's a bit of hair-splitting, but it is important to know and understand the difference, lest we drown in bureaucracy.

[Mel Fulks]

I think there is a real old Supreme Court case that settled that stuff. Regulatory agency rules are enforced as laws. Knew the name of the case ......until I took the test

[Marvin Hasenak]

This is like most laws and regulations, they are written because a few people fail to use common sense and respect other people rights. Using common sense should tell most people not to fly around and airport, but some PEOPLE DID IT ANYWAY. Spying on your neighbors, that is lack of respect for your fellow man, but some people HAVE DONE IT. Laws and regulations are generally followed by over 90% of the people, the other 10 percent won't pay any attention to them, they "think" they are smart enough to not get caught. The courts and prisons are full of the 10% group.

One drone in a friend's rural neighborhood met up with some number 7 bird shot. Living out in the sticks the shooter claimed he was hunting doves when the drone invaded his air space, and that it was an accident. The deputy told the drone owner there was nothing he could do.

[Martin Wasner]

One drone in a friend's rural neighborhood met up with some number 7 bird shot. Living out in the sticks the shooter claimed he was hunting doves when the drone invaded his air space, and that it was an accident. The deputy told the drone owner there was nothing he could do.

See now the shooter is extremely lucky the deputy is ignorant of the law. The shooter could be facing the same charges as if he had shot down a manned aircraft.

I don't fly like a douche, but had someone knocked my $3k toy out out the air, bad things would happen to the knocker.

[Jerome Stanek]

This is like most laws and regulations, they are written because a few people fail to use common sense and respect other people rights. Using common sense should tell most people not to fly around and airport, but some PEOPLE DID IT ANYWAY. Spying on your neighbors, that is lack of respect for your fellow man, but some people HAVE DONE IT. Laws and regulations are generally followed by over 90% of the people, the other 10 percent won't pay any attention to them, they "think" they are smart enough to not get caught. The courts and prisons are full of the 10% group.

One drone in a friend's rural neighborhood met up with some number 7 bird shot. Living out in the sticks the shooter claimed he was hunting doves when the drone invaded his air space, and that it was an accident. The deputy told the drone owner there was nothing he could do.

Maybe he should use the 3S approach that a county official told me. Shoot Shovel and Shut up

[Pat Barry]

One drone in a friend's rural neighborhood met up with some number 7 bird shot. Living out in the sticks the shooter claimed he was hunting doves when the drone invaded his air space, and that it was an accident. The deputy told the drone owner there was nothing he could do.

Sounds like your typical redneck backwoods neighborhood doesn't it?

[Jerome Stanek]

Sounds like your typical redneck backwoods neighborhood doesn't it?

except we are in a higher income area

[Rich Sabulsky]

I was very active flying RC Helicopters,, airplanes, and a hexcopter up until 2 years ago. (I started wood turning and lost interest, imagine?) The biggest change in recent times is the auto-stabilization and navigation features of the newest batch of multirotors make them MUCH easier to fly than anything that has come before. Where in the past you had to be very determined, have some disposable income, and have a bit of help to learn to fly these things (usually in a club), the new ones are inexpensive and really just charge and fly. If you let go of the sticks, they hover in place. If you lose orientation because it's too far away, you can activate a feature that causes it to fly back and land where it took off from with no help from you.

New battery technologies and more efficient electric motors are making longer and longer flight times possible. When you add in the FPV gear that is becoming ever cheaper and better, people are finding new and exciting ways to get into trouble. There are pilots using Ham radio bands to transmit control inputs up and video down from airplanes and multirotors that are literally miles away.

This new rule is designed as a way to assign blame and punish the irresponsible, but it requires that they first do the responsible thing and register as a pilot and mark their equipment with their assigned ID.

I'm not sure how they would track an unmarked craft back to a even a registered pilot, though. I hope this rule helps in some way, but I'm a bit skeptical that it will be effective.

[Myk Rian]

I suppose some people don't know what we're discussing here, so here are pics of mine.

The first was an Xmas gift from my BIL. Cute little thing. Excellent little bug to annoy a cat or dog, if you have one.


This one is my $27 dollar Ebay "Captain America". Can be flown outdoors in a light wind.


And lastly, I'm building this one right now. Been at it for 2 days now. Still have a ways to go.
This is an Ebay clone FPV (First Person Video) racer. It's a 250mm model. I will be mounting a camera in the front. The idea is you can race these, or fly it out of your view and see what it sees using a 7" LCD screen, or wearing a headset goggles. These things have come a long way.


View of the receiver and maze of wires.

[Pat Barry]

Myk, do any of those need you to register?

[Myk Rian]

I am registered for any drone I fly. I will have to put my reg. number on the one I am building. It weighs more than 250 grams.

If anyone is interested in building one, be forwarned that NO instructions came with it. You're flying by the seat of your pants, so to speak. ;-)

[Pat Barry]

I am registered for any drone I fly. I will have to put my reg. number on the one I am building. It weighs more than 250 grams.

If anyone is interested in building one, be forwarned that NO instructions came with it. You're flying by the seat of your pants, so to speak. ;-)

What is the payload weight for the one you are building?

[Brian Elfert]

I'm not sure why everyone insists on calling quad copters drones. Aren't real drones aircraft like the Predator military drones?

[Myk Rian]

What is the payload weight for the one you are building?

It should carry a light camera like a GoPro on a gimbal mount underneath. The GoPro is very popular, but pricey.

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

or fly it out of your view and see what it sees using a 7" LCD screen, or wearing a headset goggles.

Isn't that a violation of an FAA rule or something? I thought I read that anything you fly must remain in your sight?