If anyone in the group has or knows of anyone that has been shutdown for commercial sUAS use would you please contact me.

roryp at volt aerial robotics dot com

Thanks

Rory

Last month Chris and I were interviewed by Carrie Kahn from NPR West regarding drone use.

The report is unfortunately a bit of an anti climax (see link). I really tried very hard to present our community as progressive, safety aware innovators and the main theme of the piece is more concerned with privacy issues.

For the record there are a number of inaccuracies in the piece   i.e. I did not build the sUAS in question in 2005 and at no point did I intend to sell sUAS. I did start playing with the technology starting back in 2005. I do intend to offer aerial imaging for agriculture if and when the FAA provides rules I can operate under.

NPR - Drone Use

There is legislation working through the House of Representatives which as reported by sUAS News allow for commercial UAV /sUAS use of the NAS by 2015. Within this legislation there is however a section (323) which if it remains in the language would require that the FAA to determine if "certain" UAV/sUAS systems could be used in the NAS without having to receive a COA etc. They would it appear require some form of policy / certification / pilot training.

There are no guarantees that this legislation will be adopted without changes or if it will make it into law however it could allow the FAA to establish a more progressive policy to small sUAS in a very short time frame. So let's all remain positive that cool heads and pragmatic thinking will hold the day (I am more positive than I was when I woke up this morning, thanks Gary Mortimer).