Comment by Ellison Chan on April 23, 2012 at 11:23am

This changes little.  All this does is enable the cops to use their drones, and Universities to now fly commercially.  most University use probably already falls under hobby use now anyways.

Comment by Justin Stiltner on April 23, 2012 at 11:51am

Actually, no university use falls under hobbiest rules. As soon as you are flying for reasons other than your own personal enjoyment or personal activities it might as well be a reaper drone.  Also the requirements that we are required to follow as stated in our COA are much stricter than anything hobbiests use.  For instance we must have at least 2 observers with a class 2 medical (yearly renewal) and the pilot must also have a class 2 and have passed the ground school for a private pilot license.  Also we are only allowed to fly at a specific flying site that is literally miles from anything else (university owned farm).  Having a COA is nice, but it is not an open door to fly wherever and whenever we want.  There are also technicalities such as filing a report with the FAA every month on our operations, including specific reports in cases of hard landings, crashes, or other events, as well as filing a NOTAM at least 24 hours before we fly.

Comment by Gerard Toonstra on April 23, 2012 at 11:56am

Also notice the "COA status" column on the right of the list... At least in my browser this was obscured from view and needs to be scrolled in.

Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on April 23, 2012 at 12:44pm

No University can fly commercially, what was amazing was how few COA's have been issued.

Comment by Michael Evans on April 23, 2012 at 1:20pm

Scary. How many of these students even have ANY flight experience?

Comment by Ellison Chan on April 23, 2012 at 1:23pm

At least in Canada you have to be a member of MAAC (AMA equiv.) to "fast tracked" for SFOC application.  Isn't there such a thing in US for the COA application?

Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on April 23, 2012 at 1:40pm

Individuals cannot hold a COA

Developer Comment by R_Lefebvre on April 23, 2012 at 1:51pm

@Justin, what, you don't need to have an air ambulance at the field on standby as well?  No personal approval from POTUS?

Holy crap.

@Ellison, where did you hear about this "fast track" for SFOC?  I hadn't heard that before.

Developer Comment by R_Lefebvre on April 23, 2012 at 2:01pm

Oh, I've got it, how about another requirement: Alert the Air Force so that they can have two F-16's circling the test field with radio comms to the flight crew for emergency shoot down should the test drone go rogue.

I probably shouldn't joke...

Comment by Ellison Chan on April 23, 2012 at 2:05pm

Robert, not real F-16's.  But maybe they can start a drone air force.  And then then recruit RC flyers to join and fly model F-16 patrol missions. 

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