[From the CropCam googlegroup:]
From: Greg Lewis - ODIS [email redacted]
Date: Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 12:04 AM
Subject: International Civilian UAV Users Group?
To: Cropcam
Hello All,
We are just finishing up the latest CropCam training session and there has been some very good dialogue.
One of the things that we have been discussing is trying to gauge interest in forming an International civilian UAV group. In talking we think this would be a great opportunity to work as a collective group to start looking at and developing a certification program for civilian UAV "pilots". Regulations will be coming, being proactive and self regulating may help pushing things in the right direction when individual countries are developing their regulations. It would also be a way to verify that UAV operators who have this certification meet at least a minimum standard of competencies and follow standard operating procedures, etc.
As well, having a conference with this group would allow users with the same objective of using UAV's for civilian purposes to interact. We could share ideas, develop standard operating procedures, etc. I know there are UAV groups but I don't know of any that are civilian specific, if there are any that might already be serving this purpose could you please let me know.
Would other users be interested in participating in a group like this?
I truly think that organizing ourselves and being proactive in setting standards and sharing ideas, would help safely move the use of civilian UAV's forward.
Thank you,
-Greg-
[Thanks to Jeff Johnson for the pointer]
Wayne...repeat after me...we do not charge for our services....we do not charge for our services..... ;) I think we need to arrange some access to some restricted airspace get some beers and go fly. We could hold a few informal classes on things like GIS, search and rescue and get some of the new autopilot vendors to show their stuff (the FAA can even send some of there guys to watch).
An international effort…
On the surface it sounds good, unfortunately the idea faces some big challenges. The first being the people and resources needed to mount such an effort and the other being timeline. It will take years to bring a new group on line, and frankly by that time the party may very well be over.
Yes. Such an organization could be interesting but... Cerification means registration, check, verification, control, non abilitation, danger of hypercorporatism, the parodie of ONG, etc Maybe the only pragmatic idea up to now is the initiative of Chris to start a very open, the most open possible network of exchange. It will be evidently some probability of mistakes (bad use of the results), but let us hope that the speed of developping will be enough in order to arrive at the necessary volume to beguin to compt (at least ethically). But we could start to speak and to present different opinions.
Comments
Whatever happened with this? We've had talk about this at UAVpilot.net as well.
On the surface it sounds good, unfortunately the idea faces some big challenges. The first being the people and resources needed to mount such an effort and the other being timeline. It will take years to bring a new group on line, and frankly by that time the party may very well be over.