Law, Technology and Society

Got A Drone?

14 Comments

Here’s now to fly it by the FAA rules.

I’ve been thinking about picking up a cheap quadcopter just to play with, but probably not one big enough to require filing a flight plan.

[Late-morning update]

Man versus drone versus the law:

I personally like some of the quirkier aspects of old English law. I think limiting self-help against drones to thrown T-shirts would make a wonderful common law rule. If you can take it down by throwing a T-shirt at it, then it’s too damn close. If not, then tough luck.

“Excellent. We could call it the rule of ‘quod tangit tunicula.'”

Heh.

14 thoughts on “Got A Drone?”

  2. FAA rules don’t care about size when it comes to R/C aircraft, the way they do about model and high power rockets. There are some really big R/C aircraft out there that fly under the hobby exemption., If it goes out of line of sight or above 400 feet AGL, or you are doing it for a business reason, it’s no longer under the hobby exemption.

    1. I feel for the R/C folks. They’re getting lumped in with the “drone” crowd and it really isn’t fair. Most of the R/C people are disciplined and follow the rules. Many of them are highly skilled at building and flying their model planes. I’ve seen some R/C planes that rival top level homebuilts at Oskhosh in workmanship and their flying skill is top notch. It takes a lot of skill to fly an R/C plane and some of them cost thousands of dollars. Contrast that to the modern “drones” that are largely self-flying. Just about anyone who can afford one can buy one. It’s similar to comparing dedicated ham radio operators to CD radio back in the 1970s. The new guys don’t know or follow the rules and some are making a nuisance out of themselves.

  3. immediate Kickstarter for an Air cannon that will shoot a rolled up Tee shirt 1500 ft with telescopic sights.

  4. The don’t fly drones here looks like a lot of area is blocked off, but it is far from complete….Near me it misses Oceanside, fallbrook and Ramona Airports. If you really populated that map with all the small airports, there would be very little space left over…

    1. Yeah, I think they’re going to have to revise that rule in time. It’s completely understandable to restrict flying in Class B, C, and D airspace, as well as around sensitive areas. There are thousands of small general aviation airports around the country. Most of them are uncontrolled and many of them don’t have very many takeoffs or landings on most days. The current FAA rules restrict drone operations to less than 400 feet AGL. Most general aviation aircraft (except crop dusters) will be above 400 feet AGL within a mile or two from the airport (takeoff or landing), so you could probably set the restriction zone at 2 miles and be safe. If you restricted the altitude to 100 feet within a mile of an airport, that would probably work, too.

  6. Reading over the “What Can I Do With My Model Airplane?” is infuriating. The last item in the “Don’ts” Column is:

    “Don’t fly model aircraft for payment or commercial purposes.”

    What has that got to do with anything? The FAA actually has no statutory authority to prevent anyone from using any kind of aircraft for compensation or hire, but does so anyway. As far as I can determine, it’s because some bureaucrat thinks that (relatively) unregulated airplanes would be more than just dangerous if people were making money on them – they would be dangerous and evil, because that’s what profits are.

    To make matters worse, some idiot in Congress decided to put the prohibition on compensation or hire in the Experimental Permit regulation for commercial space, making that statutory, and almost guaranteeing that no one will do much in the way of test flights under that godawful rule.

    But the prohibition on compensation or hire for toy airplanes is simply un-American. The courts have already ruled against it in one lawsuit, but allow the FAA to still impose the rule pending appeal. I hope it gets shot down, big time.

    1. Given the FAA clearly has no Constitutional power to regulate flights by drones with a range of only half an hour or so, I presume the ‘no commercial use’ is a sop to the ‘interstate commerce’ clause as a fake justification for doing so.

      The simple reality is that drones will be ubiquitous in a decade or two, and governments will have to get used to that. Every tourist will have half a dozen selfie drones following them around and posting to TwitterbookIn, and none will be filing flight plans.

  7. The FAA sent a cease desist letter to someone that put drone footage up on you tube… because you tube was a commercial endeavor…

    did they also send Cease and Desist letters to the 1.9Million “First Solo” youtube videos because we all know student pilots can do anything for compensation….

    The FAA drone regs ban things that have been happening in RC flight for the last 40 years. The end result is that people will just ignore the entire set of laws and the FAA will end up doing selective enforcement for political/well show them purposes…. destroying the legitimacy of the agency….. sooo short sighted.

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