All Things That Fly is by far the best RC podcast, a weekly romp of news, information and entertaining banter on the RC world, by a cast of charismatic hobbyists. It's the highlight of my commutes and a must-subscribe from anyone into RC.
This week Jamie was kind enough to invite me on to talk about DIY Drones and the launch of the ArduCopter project. Listen here and subscribe via RSS here.
Comments
Just listened to this episode. Interesting, but I was disappointed to hear that you're not keeping track of the progress of FAA regulations. Actually kind of surprising, since your business plan will be affected by them.
2015 is the FAA deadline for integration of drones into the commercial airspace, but the FAA was mandated by Congress (2012 FAA Reauthorization and Reform Act) to determine whether certain types of SUAS, both government and non-government, can operate safely in the national airspace before the 2015 deadline. If yes, they are supposed to come up with rules that will govern their use. Original deadline for this was August 12, 2012, which they missed; rumor has it that they might come out early in 2013. It's not inconceivable that commercial and non-COA-limited government use could be allowed for SUAS that conform to either the model aircraft rules in the 2012 act (less than 55 pounds, under 400 ft. AGL, > 5 miles from an airport, outside urban areas, VLOS), the guidelines for expedited public safety agency permission (<4.4 lbs, < 400 ft. AGL, VLOS, daylight conditions), or some mix of both of these sets of limitations.
The Center for Democracy and Technology has a timeline for what issues the FAA is supposed to address at this website:
https://www.cdt.org/blogs/harley-geiger/2703drone-countdown