As you may have heard, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has released its new, final Remote ID Rule – as well as Operations Over People. Let’s take a closer look.
Expand Expanding Close
As expected, the FAA has released its final Remote ID rule for drones as well as Operations over People. All drones that are registered with the FAA, and any sub-250 gram drones involved in commercial work under Part 107, must have the ability to transmit their ID in the future.
Expand Expanding Close
Exactly what do you have to do as a drone pilot to anger the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration so much it proposes a $182,000 fine?
Quite a lot.
Expand Expanding Close
Reforestation company DroneSeed has been given FAA approval for its drone fleet to fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) in California, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. The approval will mean the company can begin to reforest large areas after wildfires.
Expand Expanding Close
The FAA has just made its airworthiness criteria public for 10 companies that will allow more complex drone operations to take place. The comment period for the criteria is still open, allowing you to get your say and sway the future of commercial drone operations in the U.S.
Expand Expanding Close
The second phase of a large-scale Unmanned Traffic Management pilot program has just completed. Tests took place at the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership and the New York UAS Test Site. The results complete another step toward an integrated, unified UTM system. And that’s big news.
Expand Expanding Close
Next week is National Drone Safety Awareness Week! It’s a week full of educational programming focusing on the safe operation of drones. The event is run by a public-private partnership called Know Before You Fly and will collaborate with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Expand Expanding Close
Zing Drone Deliveries has announced it has joined the FAA’s BEYOND program to develop and scale drone delivery operations in the US. Zing will be working with the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) to test out drone deliveries in the state under the BEYOND program.
Expand Expanding Close
Former FAA head Michael Huerta has joined the advisory board of counter-drone company D-Fend Solutions to help rapidly grow the company. Huerta will bring his expertise in airspace management and airport safety to the counter-drone company.
Expand Expanding Close
Louisiana drone pilot, James Benson was arrested and banned for flying his drone over his neighbor’s property, getting charged with criminal trespassing. All the flights followed FAA regulations but the judge still banned him from flying and owning a drone for two years.
Expand Expanding Close
A few days ago, Switch in partnership with ANRA Technologies and the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS) announced that is has received a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) contract from the FAA worth $1.79 million to validate unmanned traffic management (UTM) technology.
The FAA 2020 UAS Symposium is back with a little twist due to COVID-19. The FAA 2020 UAS Symposium: Remotely Piloted Edition will now be fully online with a two-episode schedule taking place at the end of July and mid-August.
COVID-19 is pushing society to get creative with how we do business and use technology. That’s included calls to expand drone use for contact-free deliveries. Now two senators are calling on the FAA to waive rules that slow down development of drone delivery services.
Expand
Expanding
Close
The hottest, most contentious issue in the US drone community is the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) plans for a drone-tracking system called Remote ID. Despite huge outcry from drone owners over the FAA’s initial proposal for the system, the agency looks set to move quickly to implement it.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Remote ID for drones in the US is coming. This week the FAA announced eight companies that will help develop the technical standards for the system that allows all drones to broadcast basic information for tracking. And some household names are on the list.
Expand
Expanding
Close
COVID-19 has changed a lot about civic life in the US — and around the world. Mayors and governors have issued sweeping stay-at-home orders, for instance. But while drones have made headlines with a few prominent deployments, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has not altered its strict regulations for the technology.
Expand
Expanding
Close
The world’s largest drone manufacturer, DJI calculates the real cost of the Remote ID Rule to be $5.6 billion USD (yes with a ‘B’) instead of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) estimated $582 million USD. Nine times more over a ten year period than the FAA estimate. Guess who’s going to pay for that… the consumer, i.e. you.
With well over 50,000 comments on the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) NPRM for Remote ID for Drones, the agency has its work cut out. The exact number of comments as of yesterday was 50,847, but this will likely increase once the site has been updated. Obviously, the FAA will have to process and read the comments first, some people have submitted multi-page comments, but the obvious question is, What happens next? Vic Moss shared this document from the Federal Register’s website that shines some light on the next steps in the rule-making process.
Note: even though the official commenting period has ended and you can no longer submit your comments online if you still want to provide your comments to the FAA you can try sending them in by regular mail. It is likely that the FAA will still consider them if they arrive within a reasonable time.
The next Drone Advisory Committee takes place in Washington, D.C. on February 27th, 2020. The DAC plays a crucial role in advising the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) when it comes to developing new proposed rules such as the FAA’s NPRM on Remote ID for Drones. The DAC represents many different parties within the drone industry, however, hobbyist drone pilots or small commercial drone operators are not represented at all in this important committee. If you want to stay on top of the latest drone rulemaking developments, I suggest that you either attend the meeting in person or online. For details, see below.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) wants YOUR input on the Remote ID Proposal.
Today the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) announces a new coalition to put pressure on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to improve the Remote ID rule. The AMA states that a recent survey pointed out that almost 70% of the respondents (hobby shops) said that FAA regulations are the biggest threat to the model aircraft industry, and while this may not include the entire drone industry there’s definitely overlap between the two.
We are glad to see the AMA take further action and join us in the fight for a better Remote ID for drones. If you want to learn more about this issue that is a threat to our hobby and business as well I recommend clicking this link here and to download the Drone Advocacy Kit.
On Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposed new safety standards for specific drones for package deliveries in the Federal Register. The move is seen as a crucial step in allowing routine package deliveries by drones in the not too distant future.
A pilot faces a year in federal prison for flying a drone during Super Bowl week. One year in prison for flying a drone in a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) or No Drone Zone? It is becoming clear that the FBI and the FAA are done issuing warnings and are starting to show their teeth, as they said they would about a week ago.
On many fronts within the drone industry, people have been taking action to try and stop or change the current proposed rules for remote identification for drones, better known as the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) NPRM for Remote ID for Drones.
Today we learned that after delaying Remote ID for drones three times themselves, the FAA has denied a request from commenters to extend the 60-day commenting period that ends on March 2. The agency states that “subsequent delays in promulgation of a final rule implementing remote identification of UAS would not be consistent with the safety and security objectives of the proposed rule.”
