Now that the FAA regs are all but written in stone, many have argued that CBO's can provide their own regulations to circumvent the FAA regulations. What is uncertain is if there is any provision in the proposed regulations for CBOs at all.
The AMA has even pushed an ammendment to exempt only "nationwide" CBOs from FAA regulation through the Senate (but not the House).
There are three possibilities in this morass:
1. The provision for national CBOs in s.223 and other bills passes into law.
2. The FAA regulations provide for CBOs under OMB.119
3. No bill w/ammendment gets passed and there are no CBO provisions in the FAA regs.
To dispell much of what has been said about CBO's, I recommend reading the law governing CBO's as standards bodies.
That law is available here it is OMB.119 and defines what a Standards Body is as well as what they can and can't do.
Excerpt:
" A voluntary consensus standards body is defined by the following attributes:
(i) Openness.
(ii) Balance of interest.
(iii) Due process.
(vi) An appeals process. "
I do not know of a single sUAV or Model Aircraft organization that meets a single one of those criteria.
As much as I hate to say it, I see no honest and legal way to get around the FAA in the recreational sector.
Comments
@Duane. If I want to ride my bike across the country I can. I just have to go on the sidestreets. If I want to fly to 100k feet for high altitude experiments, I CANNOT. Not in the desert, not over the ocean, not through some corridor, not with see and avoid, etc. This is my issue. YES, I can get some special "mother-may-I" waiver, but this is not the way of a free country.
Plus, we keep going back to this "who gives us our rights" thing. The federal government's powers are supposed to be limited. Rights not explicitely deligated to government in the constitution remains the rights of the people. So yeah- where does it say they can completely cut off access to airspace for a certain group of people in there?
Since 1865 you have no rights in the USA that are not granted by the Federal Govt.
For over 100 years, model aviation was untouched. Now because they might say the 125 LB, 150 MPH 2000' Alt "toys" should come under controls people are going insane.
In the real world, you can't ride your bicycle or hitch-hike on the Turnpike either. Does that deny my Divine Right to walk or travel?
@Duane - You have a common misunderstanding of the rights you have as an American. Seriously. It's not a God thing more than a logical operator. Let's try in C:
rights_flags = 0xFFFFFFFF & (LIMITED_GOVERNEMENT & CONSTITUTION_MASK);
not...
rights_flags = GOVERNMENT_RIGHTS_FLAGS;Anyway, I did read the "suggestion" put out by the FAA. Sadly that is about to be trumped by an unknown set of laws that I fear will be overly draconian.
I don't care who frowns on my hobby. I have a right to swing my arms around until they contact someone else. Or at least I should. :(
I doub't God said we have a right to fly toys either. I think potheads make the same claim though.
Recreational use beyond line of sight was frowned upon by the FAA 30 years ago and still do.
Did you even read AC 91-57? It is still in effect.
@Duane - Go try to sell a UAV right now and expect your customers to operate it without hassle even though you are being totally safe. The fact that you can't shows me the FAA is stepping on my rights.
Also, judging by what I've seen in these drafts, I am not hopeful that true hobbyist UAV beyond line of sight and sharing the airspace with general aviation will every be allowed. This to me is exactly what I'd expect from "Evil rights thieves" :)
@Duane - Small correction... According to my American History class way back, We have divine rights. These rights are given by "god" and not by the government. Note that this is the the founding principal of our country! And this is not necessarily religous, but it's a principal. Fundamentally government does not dole out privileges. Anyway I digress.
I expect these regulations to be much the same as what happened with white space. The laws will clearly reflect the special interests that crafted them and by no means will be general purpose. THey'll probably be overly conservative as well and continue to kill innovation. I hate to be a pessimist, but seriously-- look at white space!
In ISM I can transmit one watt. For white space, I have to do all this negotiation, listen for other transcievers, connect to databases... all for.... 100 mW???!?!?!?! That's like having a control room at Cape Canaviral and all the scientists busy ... for a model rocket launch that winds up falling over and fizzling on the ground.
I (unfortunately) expect no better from the FAA. I hope I'm proven wrong.
Please point out where in the constitution or anything else you have the right to play with model aircraft?
The FAA has been granted authority over the air from the ground up since 1958.
The only regulation the FAA put on modeling has been AC-91-57 30 years ago which has a request to follow guideance.
Now all of a sudden they are Evil rights theives?
Maybe they are just realizing that 60 injuries per year with $30K damages each (AMA's own figures) isn't such a safe hobby after all.
A problem in this country is that people come to perceive priviledges as divine rights.
The FAA has gathered information exactly as you described, Ritchie, and have written the regulations.
As an American, I hope they apply to everyone equally and leave no loophole for any special group, AMA or otherwise. To do otherwise would be a kick in the face to the principles our country was founded on.
When they banned leaded gas, I didn't like the fact that my hot rod was going to be effected. I also didn't expectthe NHRA to try and get members exemption from the laws that everyone had to follow.
I see no reason to abandon those principles over toys.
I am not a US citizen but I do have fears for you guys. The republican stereotype of fear mongering has not exactly helped the autonomous community and it seems that it is only serving to push through ignorant views so rubbish gets passed into bills.
AMA is a modeling club (a big one but still).
FAA is governmental flight moderator and should take information from groups such as the AMA, DIYdrones etc in to consideration when setting laws. This should only be done by well informed people from the respective fields not ignorant people who think a backyard club is something to rule a countrywide hobby (not an AMA poke just anyone considering this as an idea).
Personally I find the idea of flying anything bigger than 15ft in wingspan a pretty terrifying prospect and think anything that large should have a stabiliser system (stall and recovery) built in as a mandatory feature.
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