The Alternate World - Air traffic Control
FAA and Transport Canada are trying to figure out how to control drones so they can fly safely with civil aviation. Unfortunately, this often results in restrictions that reflect existing aviation technology not the alternate world of unmanned flight and the robustness of internet communications. Even current aviation standards for search and rescue can result in Malaysian Flight 370 incidents because they are still mostly using radar for position reporting and air traffic control. The ability to report anything over an airborne satellite link has been around for 30+years but airline control still uses radars.
Enter ADS-B Out. . a system that uses satellites to relay information on aircraft position, speed and a more.
However, the drone world ( especially very small ones should not need to have anything to do with civil aviation most of the time. Their primary goal should be not to interfere and not present a threat to normal aircraft operations. For small and larger classes of drones, that's a different issue. They will need to interface regularly and therefore accommodate more restrictive access. I want to deal with just the Alternate World of VERY SMALL drones the same way the airlines would consider airport parking congestion as a threat to aviation. Every day thousands of very heavy and powerful machines ( cars and trucks) are allowed to manoeuver through airports and around aircraft with people in them but present virtually no threat to people or property unless its in the hands of a suicide bomber. There are fences and access roads, barriers and signs to direct traffic safely and efficiently. . . to aviation it's an Alternate Universe, and I believe the same can be done for personal and commercial drones. . . especially the VERY SMALL ones. (
There is a lot more in my BLOG post on Alternate Universe)
A system of reporting position is currently feasible and could be implemented over the internet with existing drones, simply by requiring an Internet wifi or cell phone link with the controller that reports position direction and ground speed like ADS-B Out. Typical very small drones like Mavic Pro already store this flight information and a lot more locally in real-time. The ability to report updates to an existing website already is in use and Transport Canada or the FAA could make use of this data by allowing or requiring such reporting to an ATC accessible secure web address. How hard would that be, given anyone can see real-time video from personal drones in Facebook. Personally, I think it's overkill to require small business to report activities this way but if ATC Transport Canada or the FAA determined that even VERY SMALL drones pose a serious threat because no one is tracking there locations with respect to civil aviation there IS a way to do it without a burdensome business cost to the operator or an individual.
