Hello Folks,
I am new here so I apologize if I don't know the rules or am terribly misinformed.
I wanted to know if there were legal implications associated with autonomous drones.
In the sense that I would like to have the public capability of telling anyone on the street that my aircraft can be programmed to fly anywhere in a certain radius. You look at map, pick a starting point and an ending point.
Clearly this sounds like it could lead to "terrorism" just thinking about this vexes me and I just want to go back in time and stop whoever got this whole terrorism crap started which prevents many things which are intended for scientific purposes to be suspected as a "bad thing".
Anyway, I would appreciate it if someone informed me of what a public operator would need to operate an autonomous drone, because what I described above is basically my venture and I want to know that it is legal.
Would I need to "Train" potential operators and certify them? Or would they need to sign papers saying "I will not mis-use this item"...
Thank you for your time.
Regards,
Jacob Cunningham.
Replies
Would there be no need to license the private operators?
The only restrictions I'm aware of with hobby aircraft are the ones you see with GPS modules.
"Most modules permit NMEA output only when the module is traveling under 515 m/s AND when its at an altitude of under 60,000 ft (18,000 m). This is to prevent the modules from being used for military use." -Adafruit For the record, that is approximately at an 11 mile altitude and traveling at over 1,000 miles per hour. I don't think any project featured here can even remotely exceed those specs.
Other than that, what John Birkeland said, and as long as you don't have any weapons on there, you're fine.
Isn't that alone a bad idea?
Would one need a license to distribute self piloting drones to establishments?
How about AMA licensing?
As long as you are following model airplane rules/recommendation you should be fine, since there is to my knowledge no US laws covering hobby/private UAV's yet.
The most important ones would be:
- Do not fly over populated areas
- Stay below 400 feet
- Always fly in line of sight