From Gizmodo:
You may have heard about the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) quietly declaring that this year's Super Bowl will be a "no drone zone." You may not have heard just how big that no drone zone will be. It's 60 miles wide. The no drone zone is larger than the city of Phoenix. Seems a little bit absurd, huh?
That's because it's totally absurd.
The FAA is establishing what's called a temporary flight restriction that consists of several circles around the University of Phoenix stadium, where Sunday's big game is going down. The firsthas a 10-mile radius "in which general aviation aircraft, media, banner towers, blimps and unmanned aircraft will be prohibited." The second ring's radius extends 30 miles from the stadium and prohibits all aircraft that don't have a set flight plan, transponders on board, or two-way communication with air traffic control. Drones of any shape or size won't be allowed in either ring.
Just in case you were wondering what that 30-mile radius would look like in Phoenix:
By the way, there are already some no-fly zones in the Phoenix area, including two airports and an Air Force base. Those zones are teeny tiny compared to the Super Bowl's no drone zone, though:
And for context, this is what a 30-mile radius would look like in Washington DC, where DJI recently grounded its drones after a drunk government employee flew his Phantom onto the White House lawn. The zone would reach almost all the way to Baltimore:
Obviously, there are a lot of major safety concerns surrounding the Super Bowl. The FAA is not wrong for banning flying robots at such a high profile event, one that will be attended by tens of thousands and watched live by millions more. But imposing such a strict ban sends a message that the FAA is content to blow drone-related rules entirely out of proportion. This is disconcerting as the agency finalizes regulations on commercial drones, regulations that are reportedly pretty harsh and would require drone operators to get pilot licenses.
Nobody wants anything to go wrong at the Super Bowl. But if you really think about it, the FAA is setting a precedent that it will shut down the skies to even the smallest aircraft whenever it wants. Some Average Joe in Scottsdale—which is miles and miles away from the stadium—who decides to take his Parrot Bebop for a spin during Super Bowl stands to get in deep trouble for violating the FAA's absurdly large flight restriction.
The Super Bowl is a great American tradition. But this excessive ban doesn't sound very American at all. [FAA]
Comments
Many of the members here follow the twitter feed for TRF info here:
https://twitter.com/FAANews
The law was written before these devices existed. Unfortunately the minority of morons in the hobby commit high profile incidents. And that's what gets the grease.
I don't like this mostly because rules like this tend to spread and become permanent because they sound reasonable at first and only affect a small minority of people. Before you know it every major city will have a no fly zone like this and the only place left to fly will be in the middle of nowhere (not in national parks though because that's illegal too).
This reminds me of those pedophile exclusion zones many towns have. It sounds perfectly reasonable to not allow convicted sex offenders to live near schools but as those exclusion zones spread the places those people could live continued to shrink until there was no other choice but for them to go underground which is the worst case scenario.
The way certain drone pilots behave im not surprised they banned them. And to be honest its the right choice to make personally.
"I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over."
There are plenty of reasons to be upset with the FAA's handling of sUAS regulations (or lack of). This is not one of them.
@Martin,
I think your confusing your alphabet soup. The FAA could care less about video taping the game (unless it's for commercial purposes of course :)), the FCC on the other hand.....
Your right, it's only a football game, and it's only a temporary flight restriction. And as has been pointed out before, it's nothing new. TFR have been in place around the Super Bowl for a number of years. The only thing that has changed is the specific inclusion of "drones" in the notice. If they didn't get specific, some idiot would try to claim ignorance, which by the way isn't a legal argument.
NOTAM's and TFR's that effect model aircraft are nothing new. The AMA has posted NOTAM's and TFR that effect it's members on their site for years. They also provide notice to clubs about NOTAM's and TFR's that effect them.
For example whenever the President of the United States flies to a destination in the USA, a TFR/NOTAM is in place for the duration of his visit. At our local field in upstate NY, we've had to comply on more than one occasion. I believe your own Transport Canada has a similar system.
Regards,
Nathaniel ~KD2DEY
The FAA are the terrorist here. They are the ones promoting fear. It's only a football game. If it's about videoing. Then a bunch of people with charged cell phones can put online realtime video better than a phantom with a 10 minute flight time. If anybody wanted to do real harm, just spike the beer kegs with a crap load of lsd. Next it will be hockey and oh no......maybe curling to get no fly zones.
@Pedals2Paddles,
Privacy is certainly another issue that drives public opinion with respect to the use of "Drones". However I don't think anyone attending a Nationally televised sporting event like the Super Bowl is thinking about their privacy. Nor is the FAA's decision based on public concern over privacy, it's safety oriented.
While I agree that the driving force behind most stories involving UAVs has little or nothing directly to do with terrorism. My point was that if not for the acts that took place on 9/11 I don't personally think that so much attention would have been placed on our small craft by the Media, which helped form public opinion, also I believe that without that media attention there would have been far less attention to the supposed privacy issue.
Regards,
Nathaniel ~KD2DEY
Privacy drives the fear of drones. Terrorism is hardly a thought in most people's minds, or the topic of what the media babbles about.
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