From Politico, a long piece arguing that the "FAA is often powerless to halt the growing drone swarm".
Excerpt:
The Washington Nationals used a drone to photograph spring training. Real estate agents use them to show off sprawling properties. Martin Scorsese hired one to film a scene in “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
So where does this leave the Federal Aviation Administration, which insists that commercial drone use is illegal?
Way behind — and facing turbulence as drone use explodes.
Thanks to falling prices, spotty enforcement and the fact that it’s almost impossible to spot the devices being used, the FAA is often powerless to halt the growing drone swarm. Retailers freely sell the tiny planes, quadcopters and hexacopters for as little as a few hundred dollars, and entrepreneurs continually come up with creative uses like wedding photography and crop monitoring — along with delivering beer and dropping off dry-cleaning.
The result, observers and drone users warn, could be a Wild, Wild West in the nation’s skies. As small drone operators grow used to flying them without the FAA’s permission, they could become less inclined to obey any rules the agency puts in place. And with the cost of the technology continuing to drop, the drones could eventually become far too ubiquitous for the agency to police.
Meanwhile, the FAA is lagging in meeting a congressional mandate to allow commercial drones to share the skies legally.
“Most people want to comply with the FAA rules,” said Ted Ellett, a former FAA general counsel who is now a partner specializing in aviation at the law firm Hogan Levells. “But the more the FAA acts like a big daddy, behemoth government agency that is imposing excessive restrictions, the more the feeling of ‘I’m an American, they can’t tell me what to do’ kicks in. And that’s a real danger for the FAA.”
Plenty of drone users are going ahead without waiting for the agency.
“A lot of our members would like to start businesses using this technology,” said Timothy Reuter, the founder of the Drone User Group Network in Washington. “Some of them are waiting for the regulations to open up. Others, honestly, aren’t.”
Comments
I'm sick and tired of the excuses of the FAA. Forget the FAA and the US as a market for now and focus on the ROW. In the end it will be the Wild West here on this front and go a much different path than the FAA and DOD contractors have been lobbying for and steering towards. It is set for a showdown that the FAA will never never be able to play catch up on and win. With the level of interest, potential and amount of embedded activity already underway; There is no possible way and budget that the FFA will ever get to even come close to reigning this surging amount of activity and growth that is set for the UAS community. It's just too bad that the bureaucrats, big business and DOD are ruining the chances for the small business owners of making the US a cornerstone for this industry.
I don't think FAA is the only player in town you have to worry about.
What I mean by that, is that I suspect there is a lot of lobbying done by the big commercial companies to restrict the use of commercial drones. By introducing a lot of technical requirements, regulations and and paperwork, only the big players will have the resources to comply.
Just look at the obviously self serving statement against "mini drones" by Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt.
I attended a sUAS conference in fall 2013 where I spoke to an insurance vendor displaying at the conference. I specifically asked him about selling insurance to a market without legal standing. He said they will sell the insurance and the commercial operator will be covered. His explanation was to compare to speeding in a car. It is illegal activity but the car owner is still covered. Cost for USD $1,000,000 coverage was around USD $300/month.
@Marius van Rijnsoever. I agree, it's most likely a commercial flight.
Then I'll fly absolutely free but get paid for washing dishes at real-estate mess hall. Can I fly that way?
That company is making valuable consideration out of the images, best ask the FAA not DIYD. The real acid test comes if you have an accident.
As of right now (please correct me if I am wrong) I can go out, build a drone for a company for profit, have them hire me as a pilot of their own drone (say, a real estate agency to film their properties from under 400ft of altitude) for an hourly rate.
Have I broken any law? I did not fly a drone commercially as it is not my drone and owner of the drone can hire me as a pilot.
I remember in the 90's President Bill Clinton showed-up on TV and said: "Internet is very dangerous for our kids and for people.."
A couple months later the same Bill Clinton on the same TV said: "Internet is a very important part of our economy.."
What happened after that we can see in our homes Today..
All depends on who's paying and how much
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