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

[Myk Rian]

First off, let's not turn this into a government bashing.

The FAA now requires a license for ANY RC aircraft 250 grams and up.
Anyone else have a drone? RC plane? YOU need a license.

faa.gov/uas/registration/ I have a $27 toy, but I'll get a license. I plan on upgrading to a serious quad drone.
The license is for you, not each flyer you have. It is not just drones you need to register for.

Back in the 70s I went through the US Governments' CB radio licensing. It really was a joke.
There was no enforcement. All us CB'rs STILL ran our 1,000 watt barn-burners, (linear RF amplifiers) so we could talk to Australia.
Illegal as all get-out, but fun.

Sooo, has anyone gotten through the process?
Has anyone actually gotten to the checkout page?
Let's see a picture of your RCs.

[Wade Lippman]

You are saying that if you register a toy now that doesn't have to be registered, a big one next year doesn't require reregistration and is therefor free? Hey, anything to save $5.

[Ole Anderson]

No drone yet, but I see a possible reason for this is: can you imagine what a sleeper cell terrorist could do with an drone capable of carrying 20 pounds or more? Way more potential than a 1000 watt CB. Require different and mandatory licensing, similar to gun laws for drones capable of carrying a substantial payload. Lay off licensing Walmart toy drones. Go to B&H Photo and you can find drones capable of 100 pound payloads. Expensive, yes, but have you seen some of the equipment ISIS has? Sorry if this crosses the line to political, please remove.

[Erik Loza]

No drone yet, but I see a possible reason for this is: can you imagine what a sleeper cell terrorist could do with an drone capable of carrying 20 pounds or more? Way more potential than a 1000 watt CB. Require different and mandatory licensing, similar to gun laws for drones capable of carrying a substantial payload. Lay off licensing Walmart toy drones. Go to B&H Photo and you can find drones capable of 100 pound payloads. Expensive, yes, but have you seen some of the equipment ISIS has? Sorry if this crosses the line to political, please remove.

I heard an interesting piece on NPR along those lines, where the rep from the FAA basically said that they have increasingly more cases of drones flying into restricted airspaces such as airports, etc. and that they were doing a big push to get these regulations in place prior to the holiday season, since they knew lots of folks would be getting them as gifts. It's a valid concern. My sister in law is a corrections officer at Folsom State Prison and while it hasn't happened there so far, there have been cases of drones dropping contraband into prison yards at other facilities.

Erik

[Bert Kemp]

The whole licensing thing would make no difference at all as far as terrorist is concerned. They can sit in their cellar build the drone at home and use it how ever they want. No regulations will make any difference. All its going to do is make it harder and more costly for regular folks to buy and use drones. Theres all kinds of great uses for these things beside the fun factor.

[Erik Loza]

The whole licensing thing would make no difference at all as far as terrorist is concerned. They can sit in their cellar build the drone at home and use it how ever they want. No regulations will make any difference. All its going to do is make it harder and more costly for regular folks to buy and use drones. Theres all kinds of great uses for these things beside the fun factor.

Bert, I don't necessarily disagree with that except to mention that in the interview I heard, the FAA rep seemed to be focused on what we might call "nuisance drones". Where hobbyists are making bad decisions about flying their toys, which seems to be the more prevalent issue. Onto commercial air fields, for example, or there have been several incidents where CDF fire aircraft were unable to deliver their payolads on active forest fires due to hobbyists flying drones...

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-cou...-if-you-fly-we

My feeling is that that the FAA is sending a message irresponsible hobbyists who do things like that. Obviously, bad guys will do what bad guys are going but in my opinion, that doesn't mean we should do "nothing". Just my 2-cents, of course.

Erik

[Pat Barry]

I was all set to buy a drone and a go-pro camera setup, but now, with regulation, I just don't feel like its cool anymore. But now, the more I think about it, what they should be doing is making anyone who has one of these go thru pilots training.

[Robert LaPlaca]

I was really big time into R/C planes 25 years ago..

Let me say that almost any R/C aircraft powered or otherwise weights considerably more than 250 grams.. Most sane R/C want-to-be pilots, joined a R/C club, one of the restrictions of any R/C club worth its weight was the pilot was required to be a member of the Academy of Model Aviation (AMA), AMA offered the pilot 1 million dollars of liability insurance, the R/C plane club also expected each pilot to qualify and or train with a Instructor rated pilot before they were granted pilot rating.. Generally speaking the whole training process, taught the pilots what was very much off limits, a few limitations that comes easily to mind (and are kind of common sense) is flying near an active airport is prohibited, as is flying over buildings, or any flying over crowds is prohibited..

[Erik Loza]

I was really big time into R/C planes 25 years ago..

Let me say that almost any R/C aircraft powered or otherwise weights considerably more than 250 grams.. Most sane R/C want-to-be pilots, joined a R/C club, one of the restrictions of any R/C club worth its weight was the pilot was required to be a member of the Academy of Model Aviation (AMA), AMA offered the pilot 1 million dollars of liability insurance, the R/C plane club also expected each pilot to qualify and or train with a Instructor rated pilot before they were granted pilot rating.. Generally speaking the whole training process, taught the pilots what was very much off limits, a few limitations that comes easily to mind (and are kind of common sense) is flying near an active airport is prohibited, as is flying over buildings, or any flying over crowds is prohibited..

I feel like the whole drone craze sprung up so fast and like wildfire, before anyone really thought about putting regulations and safeguards into place, that regulatory agencies had no idea what to do until everyone already owned one. Less than ten years ago, what hobbyist owned an unmanned aircraft? Now, you can buy them anywhere. The trajectory of this hobby was so steep.

Erik

[glenn bradley]

The whole licensing thing would make no difference at all as far as terrorist is concerned. They can sit in their cellar build the drone at home and use it how ever they want. No regulations will make any difference. All its going to do is make it harder and more costly for regular folks to buy and use drones. Theres all kinds of great uses for these things beside the fun factor.

An echo of gun control but, I now tread too near the line of the rules and regs and may disappear ;-)

[Myk Rian]

You are saying that if you register a toy now that doesn't have to be registered, a big one next year doesn't require reregistration and is therefor free? Hey, anything to save $5.

Yes, but you don't register the drone, you register YOU.

[Bert Kemp]

Yes it seems there are a lot of irresponsible people flying them were they should not. But there has to be a better way then punishing everybody. I don't know what that is but we have to consider alternatives.
I really don't have any objection to it except for the cost factor. I mean like if I had one I think my own common sense would tell me not to infringe on occupied airspace, or other peoples right to privacy. I just wish common sense was more common and then they wouldn't be putting so many restrictions on us.

Bert, I don't necessarily disagree with that except to mention that in the interview I heard, the FAA rep seemed to be focused on what we might call "nuisance drones". Where hobbyists are making bad decisions about flying their toys, which seems to be the more prevalent issue. Onto commercial air fields, for example, or there have been several incidents where CDF fire aircraft were unable to deliver their payolads on active forest fires due to hobbyists flying drones...

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-cou...-if-you-fly-we

My feeling is that that the FAA is sending a message irresponsible hobbyists who do things like that. Obviously, bad guys will do what bad guys are going but in my opinion, that doesn't mean we should do "nothing". Just my 2-cents, of course.

Erik

[Erik Loza]

Bert, maybe it "should" be more expensive. I mean, why is it that we should feel entitled to be able to buy a drone any time we want and operate it with no oversight or regulation and without having to be inconvenienced? This is obviously just my opinion but I don't think it's "punishing" anyone to require them to demonstrate competency and compliance in order to operate one of these things.

True story: I was walking out of a restaurant in Atlanta with two of my colleagues a couple of years ago. Some guy and his friends were on the street flying a drone over some this apartment complex. This is a busy metropolitan street, not out in a field. All of a sudden, drone takes a hard nose dive and dips out of site behind a row of buildings. Out of control flight, like a missile. Friends of drone-guy are like, "Dude, you just got that. You crashed it already!". However, where it went down was over a parking areas/pool commons. What if that thing fell on someone's car or worse, struck a bystander? Because as it is now, there is no regulation in regards to how/when/where to operate one of these in public areas and as we see, neither is there any requirement for competency, let alone common sense. So, I don't think it's "punishing" someone to require them to demonstrate competency and judgment with a device that can cause damage to life or property. Sure, buy a drone if you want but get trained to properly and safely operate it. Again, just my 2-cents.

Erik

[Clint Baxter]

[ So, I don't think it's "punishing" someone to require them to demonstrate competency and judgment with a device that can cause damage to life or property. Sure, buy a drone if you want but get trained to properly and safely operate it. Again, just my 2-cents.

Erik[/QUOTE]

+1

Clint

[Jerome Stanek]

I think registering the drone would be better than the person. That way if a drone did damage it could be traced back to the owner. How many channels are there for operating a drone on. Back when I flew rc planes you had to confirm no one else was on the channel you ere going to use.