TO DRONE OR NOT TO DRONE? THAT IS THE QUESTION (PART ii)

Part 2:  FAA position:  I quote from the FAA’s website, entitled “Busting Myths about the FAA and Unmanned Aircraft”.  

A few choice excerpts:

“Myth #2: Commercial UAS flights are OK if I'm over private property and stay below 400 feet.

You may not fly a UAS for commercial purposes by claiming that you’re operating according to the Model Aircraft guidelines (below 400 feet, 3 miles from an airport, away from populated areas.)  Commercial operations are only authorized on a case-by-case basis. A commercial flight requires a certified aircraft, a licensed pilot and operating approval.   To date, only one operation has met these criteria, using Insitu's ScanEagle, and authorization was limited to the Arctic.”

So, to fly commercially you need a certified aircraft, a licensed pilot, and operating approval.  Oh, and FAA has only approved one operation and that was limited to flying in the Arctic.  Yep, glad I didn’t sell my patent law firm to become a commercial drone pilot!

“Myth #3: Commercial UAS operations are a “gray area” in FAA regulations.
Fact—There are no shades of gray in FAA regulations. Anyone who wants to fly an aircraft—manned or unmanned—in U.S. airspace needs some level of FAA approval.”
OK,  let’s see how the appeal in Trappy v. FAA goes.  FAA lost the first round, but will be putting in their best efforts on the appeal.

OK, now for the best one:

“Myth #4: There are too many commercial UAS operations for the FAA to stop.

Fact—The FAA has to prioritize its safety responsibilities, but the agency is monitoring UAS operations closely. Many times, the FAA learns about suspected commercial UAS operations via a complaint from the public or other businesses. The agency occasionally discovers such operations through the news media or postings on internet sites.  When the FAA discovers apparent unauthorized UAS operations, the agency has a number of enforcement tools available to address these operations, including a verbal warning, a warning letter, and an order to stop the operation.”

I have heard through the grapevine that FAA has at least one full time employee scouring YouTube videos looking for commercial use of drones.  I understand they also have employees looking on YouTube for “dridiots” (drone flyers who are idiots).  A Dridiot can usually be spotted through a YouTube video that shows a shaky flight up over an airport runway, followed by a jerky flight over a national monument, with a closing shot from the inside of the Pentagon or some other highly restricted place.  The Dridiot usually titles his (almost all Dridiots are male) video something like “Stunning aerial footage of the White House”, and he usually turns the drone back towards himself for part of the video and says something like:

“Yeah, I just got this drone out of the box, and didn’t understand the directions, particular that junk about compass companion, or compass fixing, or calibration, or something, so I just flew it and look at the cool footage!  I just fired this sucker up, pulled back on the left toggle, and pretty soon I was up 1,500 feet, over the Statue of Liberty.  Look at all the park police down there, I think they are waving at me!  Here, let me pull the toggle sideways.  Look, I can see planes from JFK airport coming right by me!  Cool!  Then I went to Washington D.C. and tried to see what the Obamas were having for dinner.  Look, my drone is only 10’ from their window.  Aren’t I cool?  Then I went to Dulles Airport and flew in front of a Korean Airlines A-380 as it was taking off.  Look at the middle-finger sign the pilots gave me, must mean “cool flying” in Korean or something like that.  Must be an Asian thing because the China Airlines 747 pilots did the same thing when I buzzed their cockpit while they were  landing.  Yeah, I want to be a YouTube star and sell a million dollars in advertising.  What?  (background noise of pounding on the door)  Must be some of my fans (background noise “FBI, open the door”) Yeah, I guess the FBI wants to hire me to shoot some videos or something . . . (angry voices shouting ”down on the ground Dridiot”, sound of handcuffs clicking . . .)

TO DRONE OR NOT TO DRONE? That is the Question...

Part 1:  Can I fly one?  Well, it depends on who you are.  If you are a government, lifeguard service, electrical company, the coast guard, etc., you need a Certificate of Authorization from the FAA.  If you are a non-commercial user, such as someone who flies for fun and not profit, you need to follow FAA’s “Special Rule” for model aircraft.  So who is left?  Well, it is the “commercial” user (the ranks of which are rapidly shrinking of late, with lots of clearly commercial users who would post their prices and services now just discussing how “consulting” with them might benefit a user, or how the “solution” they come up with could help an advertising campaign).  Under the latest FAA discussions, it appears that if you want to fly commercially you need not only the Certificate of Authorization that the governmental entities need, but also a “Certificate of Airworthiness” and a Special Exemption (sounds a lot like a “permit” to me).

So, the government folks have it relatively easy, the hobbyist/recreational drone flyer needs only to abide by the “special rules” (more on this later), but the commercial operator has relatively turbulent skies ahead.  The first thing that comes to mind with FAA regulations is whether FAA even has the power to regulate drones, much less commercial uses of drones.  On one side, there is “Trappy” and his lawyer, who claim FAA lacks jurisdiction to assess fines on drone operators.  On the other side, the FAA makes is pretty clear on their website where they think their jurisdiction lies.   

(Eric Hanscom regularly flies his drone, below 400 feet, and for purely hobbyist purposes, and tries not to be a dridiot)