FAA delays Remote ID deadline until March 16

After comments stated by the FAA’s chief of aviation safety last week, the administration formally announced the “relief” that is coming to remote pilots still trying to come into compliance with Remote ID rules.

FAA delays Remote ID until March 16

The FAA’s associate administrator of aviation safety stated in a session at the Commercial UAV conference last week that “You’re going to get relief, it’s just a matter of what that relief looks like” when asked about Remote ID concerns. We now know what that relief looks, and it’s simply a delay to the enforcement of the rule.

Last week the Remote ID rule was planned to go into effect on September 16, this coming Saturday, but will now be pushed back by six months, to March 16. The FAA hopes this will allow those that are still attempting to meet compliance to meet the deadline and avoid any fines or other consequences.

“The FAA recognizes the unanticipated issues that some operators are experiencing finding some remote identification broadcast modules,” the administration said in a statement Wednesday. To be compliant with the new rules your UAS must be a equipped from the manufacturer or have a third party module attached to your drone.

Most modern camera drones will have this Remote ID enabled already. DJI has all of its current generation drones from the Mini 3 up to its large agriculture drones approved by the FAA as compliant. Autel is mostly the same with its EVO Lite all the way up to its fixed wing Dragonfish drones being compliant too. The Teal 2 and Skydio has also been approved for those looking for US made options.

DJI is planning on working on getting compliance on its older Mavic Air 2, Mavic 2 Zoom and Mavic 2 Pro drones. This delay will likely mean the update might hit users before the next deadline.

Who is this delay really for?

If you’re flying the most current drones that have already met compliance, then you have nothing to worry about. However, if you know you need a Remote ID module or aren’t sure if you need one, then here’s your chance to meet compliance. Also this is helpful if you’re waiting on an update from your drone maker that it will make it compliant.

The delay is really for those in professional industries that use older or more custom built UAVs and are attempting to acquire modules. While the excuse of the chip shortage seems to be getting old by now, there is a serious shortage of these modules because of it.

“There’s a big audience that may need modules,” a drone industry expert told DroneDJ. “It’s not just recreational. A lot of public safety and commercial operators would have to ground a significant part of their fleets.”

Public safety like law enforcement and fire departments is one of these areas that is suffering from getting their fleets into compliance with Remote ID as many use older drones that haven’t yet or most likely won’t get an update from their manufacturer.

When asked if this six month delay should be enough to relieve fleet grounding concerns, the expert said “I think so – both for module production and for more drones to receive necessary firmware updates.”

Although I think it’s important that the FAA gets Remote ID compliance rolling as it is a very important part of the administration’s plans for future drone regulation reform. The AUVSI said in a statement that it “urges drone operators to comply with Remote ID requirements as quickly as possible and for the FAA to swiftly implement all agency rulemaking.”

There are a lot of questions and concerns that we pilots have about Remote ID, but continued delays could lead to some pilots being complacent in ever complying with the regulation. A hard line in the sand and effective enforcement (both on Remote ID and ADS-B/transponder usage) should be the way forward.