Requirements, Rules, and Regulations the three dreaded R's. With the beginning of the New Year, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires all manned aircraft operating in most controlled airspace to be equipped with Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B) However, this does not apply to drones. In addition the FAA has implemented another regulation requiring an FAA Tracking Number (FTN) But why stop there, one more, and I think this is important, and I will mostly speak to this pending regulation. The FAA is the sole regulatory organization for regulating the airspace of the United States and its' territories. The FAA is proposing a new regulation requiring drones to be equipped with a Remote Identification System.
This system will be used to provide the location of your Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). Currently the FAA have an open comment period until March 2020. There are questions that need to be answered. How will this benefit the drone community as a whole? Or, is this only beneficial to large corporations that would like to operate for commercial purposes. I'm not against this proposal, but if it squeezes the small UAS operator, then how can we accommodate them? One such proposal is create special areas for those who choose not operate with the Remote ID. To me this will severely restrict the drone operator. And it clearly states that these areas will eventually become obsolete.
Under this system a network of UAS Suppliers (USS) operating similar to the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capabilities (LAANC). Once the UAS is launched you must be connected to the USS, with few exceptions. This I anticipate will come at a cost to the UAS operator.
To be clear, on the surface it seems that all the regulations are being implemented to make the airspace safer. But the devil is in the details. Bottom line, the rule to requiring Remote ID will be implemented, and I don't expect the current version to become less restrictive.
The FAA is seeking comment from the drone community. The proposal the FAA has put forth is 319 pages. I've laid out the just some of what the document contains, but to cover all the details would take time. Have a look and if you are inclined to comment every one's input is valuable. March is just around the corner.
Below are some bullets of what is in the proposal, but there is much more. Also there are some links throughout the blog please click on them for more information.
- FAA Recognized Identification Areas (Section XV).
- Does not permit operating over people and beyond Visual Line Of Sight (VLOS) (pg. 7 executive
summary).
- There will be two categories of remote identification system standard and limited
- A recurring statement public safety and safety and efficiency of airspace of the United States.
IN THE QUEUE: I am working on creating a VLOG. As time permits I will record videos and post them in my Blog. I'm looking to launch early summer 2020.
IN REVIEW: Flying in Windy Conditions
IN THE NEWS: SkyPixel and DJI Aerial Photo and Video Contest
Comments
Post a Comment