Lots and lots to read and think about but the FAA has published a press release today.
Here's one bit
2.1.2 UAS NATIONAL OBJECTIVES
1. Establish Applicable Certification and Training Requirements for Pilots/Crew Members, Other UAS Operational Personnel, and Appropriate Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) Personnel
1.1. Determine the roles and responsibilities of applicable pilots/crew members, other
UAS operational personnel, and appropriate ANSP personnel for safe UAS integration.
1.2. Develop and propose regulatory changes, as required, to define licensing (certification) and training requirements for pilots/crew members, other UAS operational personnel, and appropriate ANSP personnel (address in 14 CFR Part 61,
63, 65, and 141-147).
1.3. Publish, if required, final rule requirements for applicable pilots/crew members, other UAS operational personnel, and appropriate ANSP personnel.
1.4. Begin training and certification initiatives for pilots/crew members, other UAS operational personnel, and appropriate ANSP personnel.
2. Approve Applicable Medical Requirements and Standards (e.g., address 14 CFR Part 67)
2.1. Develop and propose regulatory changes, as required, to define draft medical requirements and standards.
2.2. Publish, if required, a final rule establishing medical requirements and standards.
3. Establish Applicable Airworthiness Certification Requirements
3.1. Facilitate the initiation of applicable classification and basis of airworthiness certification.
3.2. Facilitate the development of draft airworthiness design standards.
3.3. Develop applicable draft airworthiness certification advisory circulars.
3.4. Approve and publish final system airworthiness certification advisory circulars.
3.5. Ensure that a robust and integrated test environment is available to develop, test, and evaluate UAS.
3.6. Administer certification, including Advisory Circular (AC) guidance and oversight.
This graphic might worry folks, especially as we know how much the FAA can make things slide
Comments
LOL
Not easy to obtain PPL =)
On the one hand I agree that the FAA has the completely unenviable and virtually impossible task of integrating UAS into American airspace and from what I have seen, they are not getting massive new funding (or much of anything really) to assist themn with this task.
They already have their hands totally full just trying to regulate piloted airspace and here comes a whole new field with many more types of vehicles and capabilities.
So far they have really taken the only reasonable course open to them - namely delay every thing as long as possible so that you can retire before you actually have to do this.
Truly, it is an utterly thankless job like my friend who was put in charge of computer security at Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, He felt like Malcom McDowell in Oh Lucky Man when the Securities and Exchange Commission walked in the door.
That said, it is going to be really hard for them to not screw over us, the little guy, what infrastructure there is is devoted to dealing with government agencies, Universities and Giant Corporations.
They have been basically ordered not to mess with us hobbyists, but likely hobbyist will become a lot more tightly defined and exactly what and how a hobbyist can fly will also be much more narrowly defined.
And I think they are going to have one devil of a time dealing realistically with small scale commercial uses like farmers and photographers.
They are already very painfully aware that the first time a 10 kilo Octocopter falls out of the sky on some 5 year old's head that everybody is going to be pointing fingers at them.
Basically, this is likely to get really ugly before it gets sorted out in anything remotely like a reasonable fashion.
God help us all!
The fact is that is the FAA tries to treat the local photographer whos using a homemade hexacopter to take video of a parade the same as the state police with a long duration surveillance drone theyre going to end up with the same Wild West we have right now. People arent going to stop flying, there just going to try to hide it better.
Whoa, whoa.
1) Until very, very recently the AMA did not allow FPV or any flights beyond VLOS or autonomous control, and actively lobbied against recreational autopilot use.
2) RCAPA is a wonderful organization, but realize that most of it's membership are interested in commercial aerial photography. Where their priorities co-exist with recreational flight, great, but remember this may not always be the case.
@Gary McCray Those are my thoughts exactly. Obtaining a license and a ceritified machine will be so expensive that commercial operations will be essentially banned for the average Joe.
This looks like pure lunacy.
Thank god I live in Switzerland where the rules are a bit more practical. (for anything <20kg there's no commercial lockout, no "airworthiness" rubbish, no operating licence). What is in place is insurance cover (which most Swiss have anyway, and specific hobby flight inclusions only costs 25-40chf per year), some height and site restrictions (sensible ones, like don't fly over the military ground-to-air missile sites or airports), and use of spotters for FPV. Pretty rational stuff.
Only beef I have is the LoS restriction; makes long range FPV (eg: Trappy's mountain surfing exploits here) a bit of a grey area.
No VLOS is not ignored it clearly states that model aircraft will only be allowed VLOS anything else will be a permitted system. Can't remember where I saw that but its there.
From looking at this, my fear is that this entire process looks like it is only going to favor / permit very expensive options for any commercial use including Farmers flying crop condition analysis vehicles over their own land.
Basically the FAA doesn't look like it is going to facilitate this, only cost it out of reach of most of the people who could benefit from it.
I could be wrong, but unless I get a copter made by a licensed and approved vendor and maintained by a certified mechanic and have the appropriate approved training, my Iris is going to get confiscated and I am going to get thrown in jail for taking a photo of my house and then using it to sell the house.
Of course, that's hypothetical, the FAA will probably take the house anyway.
Don't forget that NPRM is a 90 day process so even if its started January 1st its the start of May before they start digesting it and then acting on it.
Not sure what that character was at the end of my last comment...
Either way, I also see on page 15 of 26 they say "The NPRM for small UAS is... targeted for release in 2014".
Not much time left.
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