The FAA’s funding and authorization expire on September 30th. The keep the agency functioning the Senate needs to approve the Reauthorization Bill before the end of the month. Electronic Frontier Foundation points out that the “current bill has been stuffed with last-minute provisions that would strip people of their constitutional rights,” and asks people to join the EFF in saying ‘no’ to the FAA Reauthorization Act.
Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) is urging its members to contact their congressional representatives to vote against the latest version of the FAA Reauthorization Bill of 2018. According to the AMA, the bill includes adjustments to Section 336 (the Special Rule for Model Aircraft) that will create burdensome restrictions on the use of model aircraft. The Senate will be voting on the bill this week.
Last week during InterDrone, Dan Elwell, the Acting Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had stated that the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability or LAANC roll-out would be completed before the end of the month. Well, it seems that the FAA is ahead of schedule. As of today the Central North States have been activated. This is the last region to come on board. LAANC is now available for commercial drone operators nationwide. Allowing pilots to get near real-time approval for their flight plans. In the past, the approval or waiver process used to take weeks if not months. The availability of LAANC throughout the country represents a huge milestone in the development of commercial drone applications.
This morning InterDrone started with the Grand Opening keynote address from Dan Elwell, the Acting Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). During his speech, Elwell reiterated that “the FAA is open for business.” InterDrone will run until Friday and is taking place at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
The FAA celebrated their first four successful drone test as part of the UAS Integration Pilot Program (UAS IPP). In Raleigh, NC, WakeMed Health and Hospitals in partnership with Matternet used drones to deliver medical supplies to remote rural locations. Three other drone trials took place in Virginia, Kansas, and Oklahoma.
With drones being such a widespread piece of aviation technology, they prove to be beneficial to many industries. Despite their potential, drones pose a serious threat to manned aircraft flying throughout the sky because of their small size. This raises the question; what would happen if a drone was sucked into a jet engine?
With the states in the west of the United States seeing historic wildfires, efforts to extinguish the flames are at an all-time high. In a massive, 100,000 acre wildfire devastating Idaho, all aircraft were forced to land for an hour and a half after a drone was spotted in the airspace, according to Channel 4 Utah.
To clear up any misunderstanding there may be around Local and Federal drone regulations, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a statement explaining exactly where things stand. State and Local authorities may determine the take-off and landing areas for drones but only the FAA has the authority to control the National Airspace.
On July 12th a small drone was recovered on the tarmac near a fence within San Francisco International Airport. While not impeding any flights, this incident certainly raises questions about how airports can ensure safety to manned aircraft that are taking off and landing. Although it might look harmless, the fear is that these small drones can have a big impact on the integrity of the larger manned aircraft in case of a collision. According to the FAA rules, you’re not allowed to fly your drone within a 5-mile radius of any airport, unless you have obtained special permission. It is unclear at this point in time, what kind of drone has been found, who flew it and why it was flown so close to the airport.
Last Friday, an appellate court upheld the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) authority to regulate hobbyist drone use in a ruling that paves the way for a new series of restrictions and requirements for recreational drone use that the aviation regulators hope to enact soon. The ruling is a win for companies such as Amazon and others that have been urging lawmakers to impose stricter regulation for the millions of hobbyist drone pilots.
In Tony Northrup’s newest video, he “hopes” that you will buy a drone… but believes that most of you shouldn’t. He makes this claim for more reasons than one, stating that there are very few places to fly drones in the world and that the cost is too high for something that he claims is “disposable.” As major advocates of drones with a channel dedicated to their use, why would Tony and Chelsea make a video about not purchasing one? Let’s dissect their argument.
Chances are if you own a drone you have thought about filming your 4th of July fireworks from the air. While an aerial perspective would make quite a good video to look back on, the FAA reminded us last Saturday that drones and fireworks do not mix well together.
Skyguide and AirMap join forces to bring Europe’s first unmanned traffic system for drones to Switzerland. The so-called U-Space system has been deployed and tested since June 2018 and is expected to be fully operational by the summer of 2019. Regardless of the name (U-Space or UTM as we call it in the US) an automated drone traffic management system is considered a requirement to safely integrate unmanned air traffic on a large scale into the manned airspace and thus to allow services such as drone deliveries, inspections, and other services.
Career-criminal Redoine Faid escaped from Reau Prison located just south of Paris, France, with the help of a heavily armed team. This team arrived by helicopter and broke Faid out using brute force. Just months before his escape, drones were spotted flying above the prison which are now believed to be linked to the breakout.
Emergency response efforts in Santee California have been interrupted as a drone was spotted flying throughout the airspace. A helicopter battling the brush fire with water drops was forced to land, hurting the first responders’ ability to extinguish the blaze. The San Diego Sheriff’s Department evacuated homes in the affected area due to the severity of the disaster.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced on Tuesday that flying over federal prisons and Coast Guard bases would be forbidden. The flight restrictions will go into effect just under two weeks from now on July 7th. The FAA is authorized to do so under Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) §99.7 – “Special Security Instructions” – to address concerns about drone operations over national security sensitive facilities by establishing temporary Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) specific flight restrictions. Federal security partners and prison officials requested the restrictions. The concern at hand is prisoners receiving drugs, weapons and other contraband using drones and even escaping from prison. Other concerns are attempted terrorist attacks on federal facilities.
According to the report, mandated by Congress, the FAA’s rules for commercial drone operations are too strict, preventing the society to benefit from the life-saving potential unmanned aerial systems (UAS) offer. Instead of adhering to a near-zero risk tolerance, the agency should balance the risks associated with drones with their potential advantages. The report urges the FAA to compare the risk posed by small drones to other risks the public is willing to accept such as driving a car, crossing a street or swimming in the ocean.
Let me start off by saying that I, like almost 10 million other people, am a fan of Casey Neistat and his daily vlogs. Casey’s style, creativity and storytelling ability are second to none and his videos are highly entertaining. However, the videos are also very controversial when it comes to his use of drones. Yesterday, Casey uploaded his latest video in which he buys a DJI Inspire 2 and Zenmuse X5S (?). Together with his good friends and drone experts, Elaine and Justin, they get on a boat to fly and test the new drone. The group ventures out on to the Hudson River, East River, and in the New York Harbor and capture amazing drone footage of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. Within the first 24 hours of posting the video, it has been watched almost 900,000 times and a discussion has ignited in the comments section as to whether this video constitutes legal or illegal drone flying. First of all, I am not a drone/aviation lawyer, but after having watched the video a couple of times, there are a few moments that question the legality of the drone operation and at the same time show the complexity around the FAA’s drone regulations. Let’s take a closer look.
Earlier this month U.S. aviation regulators quietly filed a new proposed rule that would require recreational drone pilots to place their government assigned drone identification number on the outside of their aircraft. Currently, the roughly one million recreational drone pilots that are registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are already required to identify their drones but the marking can be placed inside the battery compartments for instance where it is not easily visible.
Yesterday the U.S. Department of Transportation announced the 10 pilot programmes that have been approved under President Trump’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Pilot Program (UAS IPP) in an effort to bring the country up to speed when it comes to drone experimentation. Yesterday we published the list of awardees and today we are reporting on the companies that made the list such as Airbus, Alphabet (Google), Apple, AT&T, Microsoft, FedEx, Uber, and others. As well as the ones that did not make the list, most notably Amazon and DJI.
Today, Secretary, Elaine L. Chao of the Department of Transportation announced the 10 applications that have been selected to start as part of the UAS Integration Pilot Program, that was introduced by President Trump late last year. Reportedly 200 businesses submitted a total of 149 applications for the program. Initially, only five applications were going to be selected as part of the UAS IPP, but because of the strong interest from states, local governments, tribes, and businesses around the country that number was increased to 10. Furthermore, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has said that the agency will work with the other applicants to “operationalize their proposed projects.”
Amazon, Apple, Intel, Qualcomm and Airbus are among the companies hoping to be granted permission for a new series of experimental drone flights as part of the U.S. initiative launched by President Trump last year.
The government has opened up applications to companies interested in being able to conduct flights beyond line-of-sight, at night or over people that are not allowed under the current FAA rules.
DJI’s VP of Policy and Legal Affairs, Brendan Schulman talks about the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Congress and how new upcoming regulations may impact hobbyist drone pilots. Brendan has been part of the Aviation Rule Making Committee (ARC) to create a report with recommendations for the FAA. This report addresses among other things, remote identification. Brendan is also working with other stakeholders from the manned aviation world, the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) and DJI customers on a proposal for Congress to create an online test or tutorial for recreational drone pilots and to prevent section 336 from being repealed.
