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Perhaps the moderators should start warning then banning people who repeatedly spread misinformation regarding what is legal and what isn't. Just a suggestion.
I also like the idea of one place to go that is accurate. There is some interpretation that naturally can vary....like if the AMA is the community based guidelines to use, or your local community and park rules. Just to point out the potential misunderstandings, the AMA 400' you quoted applies only within 3 mi. of an airport. See how easy it is to get it misinterpreted?The rules are simple and easy to find . I really don't see why people have a hard time understanding them .
Getting Started
Must ALWAYS yield right of way to manned aircraft
Must keep the aircraft in sight (visual line-of-sight)
UAS must be under 55 lbs.
Must follow community-based safety guidelines
Must notify airport and air traffic control tower before flying within 5 miles of an airport
The "Must follow community-based safety guidelines" refers to the long standing RC community (AMA) guidelines . Under 400' , don't fly over people etc ...
And we'll always try to find loopholes to benefit our own point of view!And yet people do misunderstand rules. And thus it ever shall be.
I'm for it .
Lately it seems to be getting worse , sometimes I wonder where people get their info. I'm more of a casual observer here , I've been here a while and I read nearly every intelligent post , and see lots of false information being disseminated . One of the biggest debates is the FAA reg. process for hobbyist intentions.
This should be given some thought , & maybe some iron-clad factual guidance per legalities , requirements, expectations & rules , as a sticky.
We could eliminate half of the redundant questions and arguments.
The rules are simple and easy to find
I really don't see why people have a hard time understanding them
Police in the USA will not be arresting anyone over drone use unless what you are doing applies to regular laws. The police are not trained to do the job of FAA agents... they have been informed to deter, detect, immediately investigate, and, as appropriate, pursue enforcement actions to stop unauthorized or unsafe UAS operations. The NTSB would probably be the governing body for FAA violations.Agreed, as long as "the rules" are those for a single country - the USA. Not every country makes them easy to find, nor are they simple everywhere.
I don't think the problem is understanding the words so much as interpreting them and figuring out if and how they're going to be applied to oneself in a given situation. Reasonable people (here, for example) disagree about whether these "guidelines" published by a regulatory agency can be enforced as regulations.
If you get arrested because a law enforcement officer thinks you've committed a violation by flying at a greater altitude than 400 feet or out of visual line-of-sight, you're going to incur significant cost and inconvenience. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm not sure there's clear case law here. Even if you find a sympathetic judge (let's say, in Maine where you were on vacation from Arizona) who finds in your favor, that doesn't mean you'll avoid paying for your transportation back there months later when your hearing is. As much as some people seem to think cops simply love when people argue their pet theories about why some rule doesn't apply to them, such arguments nearly always just make things worse.
That's in some countries. In others, the legal system is very different and you're not going to have a presumption of innocence. There may be notaries or other judicial officials involved whose very role involves expressing their personal opinion of what the law is and what it means.
Police in the USA will not be arresting anyone over drone use unless what you are doing applies to regular laws. The police are not trained to do the job of FAA agents... they have been informed to deter, detect, immediately investigate, and, as appropriate, pursue enforcement actions to stop unauthorized or unsafe UAS operations. The NTSB would probably be the governing body for FAA violations.
SOURCE: https://www.faa.gov/uas/resources/law_enforcement/media/FAA_UAS-PO_LEA_Guidance.pdf