This article may be of interest:Unmanned Vehicles Magazine; August 2009 issueThe long road to integration"The FAA is giving high priority to the development of a regulatory environment for small unmanned air systems..."Read full article here (page 46):Unmanned Vehicles
Morli, the problem with transponders (at least in the US) is not technical. It's that the private pilots ("general aviation") don't want to carry them. They practice "file and forget" on their flight plans and love the freedom of being able to fly anywhere outside of urban areas without anyone paying attention. It will take a lot of political forces to get past their associations lobbying against transponders...
The publisher switched to a new on-line format with the previous issue and the download version didn't work then either. I sent a note and within a day it was fixed. I sent a note this time, got a response, but it has yet to be fixed. I'll send another notice.
The general 400 foot ceiling limitation makes sense in light of the Class E airspace,
especially in 700 foot above ground controlled airspace....but:
I vote for 700 feet maximum altitude in the 1200ft AGL controlled airspace regions,
with a 300 foot minimum over populated area. (Target altitude could be 500 feet with a +/- buffer of 200 feet..easy to maintain.)
I vote for allowing non-line of sight if the model has the ability to switch over to manual control, has two way telemetry and ground station support with first person viewing capability. ( Manual control addresses collision avoidance and errant autopilot issues)
Recreational users have been coming under more scrutiny from the FAA in recent years. I am a full scale glider pilot and there is a standard file format in our community for exchanging gps flight log files. There have been instances of the FAA downloading and examining these files. A common potential violation for glider pilots in the western US is flying into class A airspace (which is above 18,000 feet). We have all gotten real careful about paying attention to what flight logs we upload to public websites to share....
If you don't know what the different airspace classes are I'll let you know that there is no way the FAA will be allowing amateur UAV's in class A (above 18,000 feet msl), or class B (usually looks like an upside down wedding cake with the bottom, smallest ring starting at the ground and centered on major commercial passenger airports). Class C and D are around small to medium sized airports with control towers. Class E covers much of the rest of the country starting at either 700 or 1200 feet above the ground.
By the time they're done with all of their amendments, HappyGilmores Config Tool will be required by law to upload the way point data to the UAVFAA for flight plan registration!!
The following is just made up....but I can somehow see the day when......
"...whereby an autonomous craft, having been directed to follow a predetermined flight path, must register the flight plan with the committee, formatted as in Table IX, seven calendars prior to flight. Flight plans that are approved will be provided a uniquiely identifiable, alphanumeric, 16 digit approval code. Onboard transponder, per section 10.7, shall reply with flight plan approval code upon interrogation."
I'll say it if no one else will.
I think there has to be a little give and take on this one....
I'll accept 2.2kgs and construction material recommendations as long as its with no further restrictions beyond "stay X miles away from an airport or other restricted airspace".
Don't restrict my airspeed, don't restrict my altitude and don't keep me within line of sight.
I'll gladly pay for uav flight insurance, a uav operators license and uav equipment registration fees for those "privledges".
Comments
If your flying within VLOS below 400' you should'nt need a transponder.
Otherwise get one of these.
http://www.trig-avionics.com/tt21.html
Note sent to publisher. I'll let you know if I hear anything back. Otherwise, check the download link again later today or tomorrow.
Paul
The publisher switched to a new on-line format with the previous issue and the download version didn't work then either. I sent a note and within a day it was fixed. I sent a note this time, got a response, but it has yet to be fixed. I'll send another notice.
Paul
especially in 700 foot above ground controlled airspace....but:
I vote for 700 feet maximum altitude in the 1200ft AGL controlled airspace regions,
with a 300 foot minimum over populated area.
(Target altitude could be 500 feet with a +/- buffer of 200 feet..easy to maintain.)
I vote for allowing non-line of sight if the model has the ability to switch over to manual control, has two way telemetry and ground station support with first person viewing capability.
( Manual control addresses collision avoidance and errant autopilot issues)
Mike
If you don't know what the different airspace classes are I'll let you know that there is no way the FAA will be allowing amateur UAV's in class A (above 18,000 feet msl), or class B (usually looks like an upside down wedding cake with the bottom, smallest ring starting at the ground and centered on major commercial passenger airports). Class C and D are around small to medium sized airports with control towers. Class E covers much of the rest of the country starting at either 700 or 1200 feet above the ground.
Doug
The following is just made up....but I can somehow see the day when......
"...whereby an autonomous craft, having been directed to follow a predetermined flight path, must register the flight plan with the committee, formatted as in Table IX, seven calendars prior to flight. Flight plans that are approved will be provided a uniquiely identifiable, alphanumeric, 16 digit approval code. Onboard transponder, per section 10.7, shall reply with flight plan approval code upon interrogation."
I think there has to be a little give and take on this one....
I'll accept 2.2kgs and construction material recommendations as long as its with no further restrictions beyond "stay X miles away from an airport or other restricted airspace".
Don't restrict my airspeed, don't restrict my altitude and don't keep me within line of sight.
I'll gladly pay for uav flight insurance, a uav operators license and uav equipment registration fees for those "privledges".
[Stargate SG-1 02x19 - One False Step - Stagevu: Your View ]
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next