FAA proposes rules for drone use; Obama issues curbs on surveillance | Hacker News Reader

FAA proposes rules for drone use; Obama issues curbs on surveillance

washingtonpost.com

34 pointspetethomas6 comments

No, these rules are not "surprisingly reasonable". Businesses have already been waiting at least a year, now they have to wait two more for the rules to go into effect? Worse, limiting flight to line-of-sight utterly undermines the real potential of UAVs -- you know, the whole "U" part.

Yup. The restrictions look exactly like the restrictions for model aircraft. All they've done is make a license for people who would fly model aircraft commercially.

"The proposed FAA rules for small drones would not apply to people who fly drones for fun or for recreational purposes. Small hobby drones have become hugely popular in the United States, but under a law passed by Congress in 2012, the FAA is largely prohibited from regulating them as long as they do not interfere with air traffic."

This is an interesting thing to see mentioned in passing. For anyone else interested in more details, here is official FAA guidance regarding personal drone use: http://www.faa.gov/uas/publications/model_aircraft_operators...

The thing is, the FAA Modernization and Reform Act defines model aircraft as being flown line of sight.

The question still up in the air is regulation of common hobbyist use cases like FPV and automation.

Interesting clause at that link you provided. Do I understand correctly that there are no weight limits currently if a drone is certified by "a community-based organization?"

3) the aircraft is limited to not more than 55 pounds unless otherwise certified through a design, construction, inspection, flight test, and operational safety program administered by a community-based organization;

The AMA large model program information is available from here

http://www.modelaircraft.org/files/520-a.pdf

In summary, a model weighing between 55 and 100 lbs needs to comply with FAA, FCC and AMA rules. It needs to pass an inspection, and there are a fair few details, like receiver backup batteries and wiring quality that will be checked.

The model also needs to pass a flying test.

I doubt any organisations other than the AMA, or one of its subgroups or special interest groups will be recognised by the FAA.

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