Drone registration question

[gcopter1]

I'm way behind the times with this.
Other than letting the FAA know that you own a drone, and, of course, complying with regulations, what does registering a drone accomplishes?

In example, Billy Bob is out and about flying his unregistered drone. Billy Bob's drone crashes onto private property causing expensive damage.
Billy Bob decides to avoid the wrath of the private property owner and abandons any attempt to recover the drone.

If the private property owner, takes action and call the authorities, would the FAA still be able to find Billy and hold him accountable?

Having the drone properly registered and labeled with the FAA's registration number, would make it easy for them.

I guess, there are other ways for the FAA to trace the drone's owner, but, it seems to me, the requirement is a way for the FAA to get some revenue and tack on fines should you skip the registration process.

Your thoughts?

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Other considerations aside, if Billy Bob was the activator of the drone then DJI has his account details and the property owner's lawyer or the relevant air space authority might be able to compel DJI to release those details.

Even if Billy Bob was not the activator, many people tend to have video shot around their home stored on the drone's memory card. A disproportionate number of shots from the one location may indicate home and there is likely to be GPS data in the EXIF data.
Also it might, drone depending, be possible to read the information (GPS) from the DATs on the drone. Failing that, 'they' may be able to compel DJI to do so.

 

[Gagey52]

Billy Bob might need a good lawyer me thinks.
Regards

 

[Ty Pilot]

I guess, there are other ways for the FAA to trace the drone's owner, but, it seems to me, the requirement is a way for the FAA to get some revenue and tack on fines should you skip the registration process.

Your thoughts?

The FAA is federally (taxpayer) funded - they don't need to nickel and dime anyone when they have a massive pipeline of funding such as they do. Google says the FAA budget runs around 25 Billion (with a B), per year. If there are 100,000 new registrations each year that would be a grand total of 500,000 (half a million) dollars.

I'm not a math whiz but I think that works out to about - 1/500th of one (1) percent. Someone can correct me on the math if I'm wrong. So for instance; if Billy Bob makes 100K per year that would be like adding 2 bucks to his bottom line. In any case it is such a small amount, that I'm pretty sure it's not a money making scheme.

My thoughts are, that it is just a good policy to have a registration number on unmanned aircraft. Especially given that; since the inception of these consumer UAVs, time and again it has been seen that there are instances where they become uncontrolled or crash land in places they shouldn't be.

I think pilots (such as Billy Bob) should be responsible enough to put their name on their actions, so I have no problem with it. Besides, if you crash a modern drone (with or with out a sticker that has number tied to you), chances are really good that you can be found.

 

[Wade L.]

Other considerations aside, if Billy Bob was the activator of the drone then DJI has his account details and the property owner's lawyer or the relevant air space authority might be able to compel DJI to release those details.

Even if Billy Bob was not the activator, many people tend to have video shot around their home stored on the card, a disproportionate number of shots from the one location may indicate home and there is likely to be GPS data in the EXIF data.
Also it might, drone depending, be possible to read the information (GPS) from the DATs on the drone. Failing that, 'they' may be able to compel DJI to do so.

And then the neighbor could refer the case to the FAA, who could potentially fine Billy Bob for not properly registering his drone.

 

[eEridani]

And let's not forget that Billy Bob may routinely remove all of his photos from said drone; but DJI keeps copies of photos in it's own TXT flight logs on the drone... so, despite a fair attempt to keep the drone anonymous, it really isn't.

 

[The Fat Controller]

Don't worry, Billy Bob can easily be located using the name, address and phone number in the 'Reward Offered' text file on his drone's SD card.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

And let's not forget that Billy Bob may routinely remove all of his photos from said drone; but DJI keeps copies of photos in it's own TXT flight logs on the drone... so, despite a fair attempt to keep the drone anonymous, it really isn't.

There's a txt flight log on the drone, where, what drone/s?
Now that you mention it I think I have seen mention of something similar within the file system of the app, would you happen to know where those photos are stored? For clarity I do not mean normal photo storage in cache's etc. rather I have the impression they were in some form of log.

 

[The Fat Controller]

The text file is only there if you put it there yourself. It all depends on whether you're happy enough to lose your drone if things go pear shaped (or because you prefer to remain anonymous) or if you'd rather give yourself the possiblilty of having it returned if it's found by someone honest. By placing your contact details in a text file on the SD card it may improve your chances, I do it for all my drones and cameras. If I was to find a drone the SD card is the first place I'd look if there was nothing printed on the drone itself.

 

[Meta4]

And let's not forget that Billy Bob may routinely remove all of his photos from said drone; but DJI keeps copies of photos in it's own TXT flight logs on the drone... so, despite a fair attempt to keep the drone anonymous, it really isn't.

Photos aren't stored in .txt files.
The drone doesn't have any .txt files (or photos) in it and DJI don't ever see your flight data unless you synch it to their servers.

 

[Vic Moss]

I'm way behind the times with this.
Other than letting the FAA know that you own a drone, and, of course, complying with regulations, what does registering a drone accomplishes?

In example, Billy Bob is out and about flying his unregistered drone. Billy Bob's drone crashes onto private property causing expensive damage.
Billy Bob decides to avoid the wrath of the private property owner and abandons any attempt to recover the drone.

If the private property owner, takes action and call the authorities, would the FAA still be able to find Billy and hold him accountable?

Having the drone properly registered and labeled with the FAA's registration number, would make it easy for them.

I guess, there are other ways for the FAA to trace the drone's owner, but, it seems to me, the requirement is a way for the FAA to get some revenue and tack on fines should you skip the registration process.

No, the registration requirement is mandated by Congress. And it's the responsible thing to do. Unless you're 100% flying recreationally with a drone that weighs less than 250 grams, register it.

This is NOT a revenue plan, it's the law.

Your thoughts?

Just register it.

 

[Michael Ainsworth]

I recently tracked down the owner of a Mavic mini 2.
Found it in my street.
Took out the SD card and loaded it into my comp.
Many videos on the card of various areas but I found some I recognised then did a Google earth search and narrowed the area.
Identified street, house and car.
The owner was very surprised when I turned up with the drone.
Lot of drone owners take photos/ video of where they live, also use large SD cards and don’t delete or reformat after each flight.

 

[LeadSledGirl]

I recently tracked down the owner of a Mavic mini 2.
Found it in my street.
Took out the SD card and loaded it into my comp.
Many videos on the card of various areas but I found some I recognised then did a Google earth search and narrowed the area.
Identified street, house and car.
The owner was very surprised when I turned up with the drone.
Lot of drone owners take photos/ video of where they live, also use large SD cards and don’t delete or reformat after each flight.

Nice of you to spend the effort to track them down. But now we do want to know the rest of the story - was it a flyaway? Fell off their car? Inquiring minds and all that

 

[Michael Ainsworth]

Nice of you to spend the effort to track them down. But now we do want to know the rest of the story - was it a flyaway? Fell off their car? Inquiring minds and all that

It was a “Blow away” as a lot of these are. Flew too high in high winds away from take off point. Unable to fly back, also over built up area, Bvlos.
Force landed low battery.
Tried explaining but who wants to listen to an old fart when you are 20 something.