A New US Bill for a Proposed Law: Drone Integration and Zoning Act

[Thomas B]

I believe local governments already CAN regulate drones over their airspace. There are several cities here in CA that already restrict flying in parts of the city. For instance some of the beach cities don’t allow you to fly along specific areas of the beach. Another city doesn’t allow you to fly over their marina. Do you realize how many HOA’s are in los angels/ Orange County area? How hard that’s going to be to enforce. How much coding and updates DJI will need to make. You thought it took a long time for LAANCE and drone zone to be available for recreational pilots.

There are also several cities that have adopted vlos and standard guidelines/rules to fly. Burbank is one such city. However most of the city is a no fly zone due to the airport and you need LAANCE for most of the remainder of the city.

In Arizona this power is reserved to the state by law. The rules stated in same follow current FAA guidelines. Despite other rules popping up in AZ, they are not legal. I just don’t want the proposed law currently introduced to even get a foothold.

 

[DoomMeister]

I am a licensed pilot and a 107 pilot. To allow states, counties, cities, and HOA the ability to regulate airspace with NO knowledge would be utterly a disaster. The FAA is slow to enact rules and regulations to protect both aircraft and drones operations in a crowded airspace but the drone is a rapidly growing phenomenon.
I wrote Senator Lee a email requesting him to withdraw his bill or amend to to allow the FAA more resources to cotroler our crowded skys.
I read this forum daily and see too often the same BS where a remote few have no clue about airspace an the rules flying drones.
I may offend some but I believe we all should have some type of training and certification to operate a drone.
I have personally flown past a drone in flight while approaching for a landing at a airport.
As a pilot it is hard enough to watch for other aircraft at 200 knots let alone a tiny dot in the sky.
Please write your congressmen as well as Sen Lee in supporting killing this bill!!!

I have already asked my Senator and Representative from Michigan to do all they can to defeat this bill and urge their counterparts to do the same.

I will soon write Sen. Lee and ask him to withdraw this proposed bill. The FAA controls the airspace in the US, not every state, county, city/town, HOA, etc. He has to have some special interest group lining his pockets to suggest such lunacy.

 

[SkyDogII]

Check this out

it won’t matter.
you can do anything if you have more money than God

4/3635 NOTAM Details

 

[Thomas B]

Check this out

it won’t matter.
you can do anything if you have more money than God

4/3635 NOTAM Details

Yep... noted above in this thread... Disneyland.

 

[SkyDogII]

 

[ChrisOutdoors]

Fascinating, but completely contrary to basic physics. Do you have a link?

No it was first hand experience with a couple spy vs spy type folks who had the toy. They explained the camera's ability to "see" through walls only worked when there was a large enough difference in temperature between the rooms, that's about as much as I remember.

I'm sure there are YouTube videos of the thing working, search FLIRs webpage for handhelds that cost $50-$70k.

 

[AMann]

Not to nitpick but for any bill to get to the president’s desk for signature, it must be voted on and pass BOTH houses of Congress. The house and the senate....
To get to the point where a bill is actually voted on it must first pass through a bewilderingly complex labyrinth of steps. Committee assignment, hearings, GAO scoring, floor debate, reconciliation committee, more floor debate, another vote in both houses etc etc. This “bill” literally hasn’t made its first baby step.

Dude! We knew about this since like 3rd grade when we had to watch this!

 

[harle83]

If by some freak chance the Senators Bill were to gain some steam, I guarantee you the courts will shut it right down. As has been said and the courts repeatedly affirmed the FAA rules the Air from Ground level to Space. Period, end of subject. This is a Senator trying to make points, nothing else. No matter how they wanna attempt to word it, it will be shot down.

 

[AMann]

If by some freak chance the Senators Bill were to gain some steam, I guarantee you the courts will shut it right down. As has been said and the courts repeatedly affirmed the FAA rules the Air from Ground level to Space. Period, end of subject. This is a Senator trying to make points, nothing else. No matter how they wanna attempt to word it, it will be shot down.

So, we should wait and see if this is right?

 

[DoomMeister]

Dude! We knew about this since like 3rd grade when we had to watch this!

That is why you try to get your elected officials on it early so it gets killed before it even reaches the floor for a vote. Let committee put it in the round file so the flies can devour it.

 

[AMann]

That is why you try to get your elected officials on it early so it gets killed before it even reaches the floor for a vote. Let committee put it in the round file so the flies can devour it.

I agree, getting out there to voice your concerns about it early is important. The previous post was probably correct about it not getting anywhere, but what if? It will be a huge issue for all of us if ‘what if it passes’ becomes true.

 

[MavicFlyer]

This looks like a bad idea, but at some point the technology is probably going to need to be explicitly and specifically regulated for privacy issues. While the current consumer drones are not much of a privacy issue unless they get very close, the DJI Z30, for example, is exactly what many members of the public think of when they see a drone. I'm both impressed and horrified every time I see it in action. When that capability makes it into consumer drones there will be a real problem unrelated to airspace safety, and so unregulated by the FAA. Existing privacy laws are not really set up to cope with that.

Of course, the price tag of the Z30 will keep it out of the hands of the typical consumer...I couldn't find a price, but the cost of less capable cameras was pushing 5 figures!!

 

[sar104]

Of course, the price tag of the Z30 will keep it out of the hands of the typical consumer...I couldn't find a price, but the cost of less capable cameras was pushing 5 figures!!

It's only 4 figures, but agreed it's not consumer level so far, especially since it needs a M200 or similar to field it. But that tech will come to consumer drones soon enough.

 

[MavicFlyer]

No, they were thermal. I know the difference, microwave gives a much clearer image and is sensing direct backscatter from inside a room. The one I saw only worked with stationary bodies and was detectIng heat differences on the wall surface and showed hotter stationary objects behind it as a blob. It was a unit being advertised as for fire detection.

I remember seeing an indoor demo of a FLIR system (maybe 20 years ago?). It couldn't see through a wall, but if a person on the other side held their palm against the door for a couple of minutes, the FLIR -did- see the hot spot. So while you can't observe a person, you -may- be able to detect signs of their presence.

 

[AMann]

I remember seeing an indoor demo of a FLIR system (maybe 20 years ago?). It couldn't see through a wall, but if a person on the other side held their palm against the door for a couple of minutes, the FLIR -did- see the hot spot. So while you can't observe a person, you -may- be able to detect signs of their presence.

Hence the blob that I mentioned, it certainly wasn’t like the active microwave sensors that send a signal to penetrate a room and return a detailed image of what is inside.

 

[MBurris]

Well, if it passes it could be a big one affecting all of is in the US. If you don’t like it, please contact your representatives as soon as possible. Also, forward the link for Rep. Lee’s Bill to as many other drone and RC plane websites and pilots as you can, get them involved also.

Sen. Lee Introduces Drone Integration and Zoning Act

WASHINGTON – Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the Drone Integration and Zoning Act Wednesday, a bill to establish a regulatory framework for drones based on the principles of local governance and cooperative federalism. “The FAA cannot feasibly or efficiently oversee millions of drones in every...

www.lee.senate.gov

Find and contact elected officials | USAGov

Use USAGov’s Contact Your Elected Officials tool to get contact information for your members of Congress, the president, and state and local officials.

www.usa.gov

Imagine that. A Republican wanting more regulation. Seriously, this would kill the drone industry in the US.

 

[Thomas B]

Imagine that. A Republican wanting more regulation. Seriously, this would kill the drone industry in the US.

Or make everyone who flies a drone a criminal.

 

[Super Dave O]

Details please

I think 80% of the " drones at airports " are BS.

 

[PheadJack]

I sent Mike Lee an email asking him to withdraw the bill. Probably won’t make a difference if it’s just me but if everybody here does it then it will get noticed.

His contact form is at the bottom of this page.

Contact

www.lee.senate.gov

I sent a similar request; hopefully, we can get some momentum going. I express our concern to him and asked that he simply allow the pilot community to continue our self monitoring and close ongoing conversations with the FAA on regulations development. At some point a larger involvement by government and municipalities may be needed, but it needs to be part of what is already in place.

 

[Gryphon962]

I wrote too, told him that state and local governments have proved they are not competent to legislate for airspace.