FAA Drone ID Proposal:

[JAW]

My point is there hasn't been 1 fatal accident caused by a drone strike that I'm aware of and the risk based on everything I've read is miniscule.

Toy helicopter slices off top of man’s head

A Queens teenager’s obsession with high-powered model helicopters ended in gruesome death yesterday, when one of his beloved toy whirlybirds spun out of control in a Brooklyn park and scalped him, …

nypost.com

 

[unionglzr]

Move to earlier firmware would also solve that problem. My drone on its old 1.04 firmware has no restriction for any portion of the USA.

If you already have all updates and then want to roll back wouldn’t I.d.have been installed or would it be removed and maybe they make it illegal to not update your drones

 

[unionglzr]

Standing?? I paid for the drone and have been damaged by the fact that it is no longer the item I purchased. It’s called fraud

Not manufactures fault for law changes

 

[Bob1956]

My property is remote and parts of it don't have cell coverage . As are most of my flying areas. I won't be allowed to fly my own property ? I have to drive into town fly the postage stamp RC field in the county park? In this park the RC plane people have to stay over the their field and not over fly the rest of the park.

I see a rise of hacking, home made UFO drones and armed pilots who do follow all the rules and don't want bad guys and lunatics giving them a hard time.

 

[unionglzr]

My prediction----The AMA and its Old Geezer traffic-pattern-flyers-at-approved-sites will strongly support this.

Hey not everyone gets to become an old geezer only the lucky ones.

 

[Verdrone]

I hope they make piggy back beacons to make you legal.

 

[Deleted member 93449]

Toy helicopter slices off top of man’s head

A Queens teenager’s obsession with high-powered model helicopters ended in gruesome death yesterday, when one of his beloved toy whirlybirds spun out of control in a Brooklyn park and scalped him, …

nypost.com

First, we are talking about collision avoidance with other aircraft. Second, the proposed system would not have prevented this accident.

 

[Maviac]

This is a solution looking for a problem. And I don't want to hear about the 1001 what ifs. Life has risk. The attempt to mitigate all risk means not getting out of bed which actually won't remove all risk. About 40,000 people are killed in car accidents in the U.S. each year. There are over 2.5 million injuries as a result of car accidents each year. It's not apples to apples but even if there was one plane crash per year caused by a drone strike the numbers killed and injured would be miniscule in comparison. So we are going to throw hundreds of millions of dollars (it will end up in the billions) at a non-problem.

Billions have been spend on collision avoidance for manned aircraft and yet there are still mid-air collisions every year. We're going to spend billions more on the UAS airspace below 400' to cover the airspace across the whole country, airspace in which manned aircraft spend less than 0.0000001% of their flight hours flying in.

DJI Demonstrates Direct Drone-To-Phone Remote Identification - DJI

DJI today demonstrated a direct drone-to-phone, Wi-Fi based solution to remotely identify airborne drones, pioneering an easy way for anyone with a smartphone to monitor nearby drones for enhanced safety, security and peace of mind.

www.dji.com

Are you completely clueless about the fact that automobile injuries and deaths, and aircraft collisions, have been drastically reduced in recent years due to federal regs?

 

[Deleted member 93449]

I think it's probably about time that you make an effort to gain an understanding of what risk mitigation actually involves and why it is important. Suggest that you read the FAA Safety Risk Management Policy. Just sayin'...

https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Order/FAA_Order_8040.4B.pdf

The critical paragraph in the SRMP is "Objective. The objective of SRM is to provide critical information for decision makers by identifying hazards, analyzing safety risk, assessing safety risk, and developing controls to reduce safety risk to an acceptable level. SRM facilitates communication and coordination across FAA organizations for enhanced safety risk decision making."

Question for you; what scenario causes the highest number of fatal aviation accidents in general and commercial aviation? Are you telling me that the hundreds of millions of dollars being proposed to spend on this drone technology, drones that have not cause 1 death as a result of a collision with other aircraft, couldn't be better spend to mitigate fatal accidents that do occur in other areas?

As stated, this is a solution looking for a problem that doesn't exist.

 

[Deleted member 93449]

Are you completely clueless about the fact that automobile injuries and deaths, and aircraft collisions, have been drastically reduced in recent years due to federal regs?

No, I'm not clueless about it but I'll ask you the same question I've asked prior. What are the causes of the highest number of aviation accidents and deaths? Would the money being proposed to spend in an area where zero deaths have occurred (collision between a drone and a manned aircraft) be better spent to mitigate those accidents?

 

[DoomMeister]

Having to have an internet connection on a sUAS to fly legally is about the stupidest idea on this planet, especially in the USA. Less than a mile in any direction from my current location I have full bars on my cellular connection with 4G LTE/5Ge, but right here I have 1 bar and 4G LTE is slower than a snail. My present position is in a retirement community in Florida with a population well over 100,000 people. Cellular coverage for most of the USA is useless over a half mile from a major interstate highway and in rural areas it totally sucks.

I have no qualms with using an affordable ADS-B addon for existing equipment or built in on new, but letting big business take over Class G airspace just to get richer doesn’t cut it.

 

[Matriculated01]

Everybody needs to keep in mind the inevitable abuse of this new power that the government is going to engage in. Get ready for the criminalization of ordinary people. As if we didn’t have enough criminalization schemes in place already ?
You grazed a NFZ by 30’ accidentally? Get ready for the hefty fine courtesy of your friendly neighborhood FAA. Just keeping everyone “safe“ y’all!

I see many people talking about idiots flying near airports and endangering people in a very real way as if they’re making some brilliant point... Yea, that’s ALREADY illegal. How about enforcing existing laws before creating new ones? I know - radical idea, pure fantasy land.

 

[JAW]

First, we are talking about collision avoidance with other aircraft. Second, the proposed system would not have prevented this accident.

I was simply replying to your assertion that ".....there hasn't been 1 fatal accident caused by a drone strike that I'm aware of...."

 

[W5CI]

there is no way that this can be enforced. plus it is only for drones above .55 lbs so it doesn't apply to the mini the way I read this

 

[Matriculated01]

there is no way that this can be enforced. plus it is only for drones above .55 lbs so it doesn't apply to the mini the way I read this

I think there’s definitely potential for mass non-compliance overwhelming the FAA’s ability to enforce.
As far as the mini being exempt, that won’t last long. This proposal would cause a proliferation of sub-250g drones at which point the weight exemption would be removed. I have absolutely 0% doubt about that. As soon as the government realizes that the little drones are basically capable of everything the regulated ones can do and see a mass of people buying and enjoying them, it’s game over.

 

[Deleted member 93449]

I was simply replying to your assertion that ".....there hasn't been 1 fatal accident caused by a drone strike that I'm aware of...."

We were speaking in the context of collision avoidance between aircraft.

 

[Deleted member 93449]

I think there’s definitely potential for mass non-compliance overwhelming the FAA’s ability to enforce.
As far as the mini being exempt, that won’t last long. This proposal would cause a proliferation of sub-250g drones at which point the weight exemption would be removed. I have absolutely 0% doubt about that. As soon as the government realizes that the little drones are basically capable of everything the regulated ones can do and see a mass of people buying and enjoying them, it’s game over.

I'm guessing you may be right. How is the FAA going to know that a drone spotted in the sky is a sub-250g drone not sending out an identification signal or something that weighs more 249g? Either they are going to take an I don't care attitude (no way to enforce so let it be) or change the rules so they apply to all drones regardless of weight.

 

[badaxed]

This is a solution looking for a problem. And I don't want to hear about the 1001 what ifs. Life has risk. The attempt to mitigate all risk means not getting out of bed which actually won't remove all risk. About 40,000 people are killed in car accidents in the U.S. each year. There are over 2.5 million injuries as a result of car accidents each year. It's not apples to apples but even if there was one plane crash per year caused by a drone strike the numbers killed and injured would be miniscule in comparison. So we are going to throw hundreds of millions of dollars (it will end up in the billions) at a non-problem.

Billions have been spend on collision avoidance for manned aircraft and yet there are still mid-air collisions every year. We're going to spend billions more on the UAS airspace below 400' to cover the airspace across the whole country, airspace in which manned aircraft spend less than 0.0000001% of their flight hours flying in.

• “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety.” Benjamin Franklin’

 

[Mark C58]

Two comments/concerns. Where does the info go, is there some giant NORAD system planned that will monitor drone flights as they happen, or is this some kind of recorded system that "government personnel" can review at some future date to come and fine/arrest you if you flew somewhere you weren't supposed to be? How many people and what is the cost of this new UAS monitoring branch of the government? If the drone "transmits its ID and there in no system that can receive it (not the UAS owners problem) is the drone technically in compliance with the proposed rule?

 

[Drone on]

I thought this thread needed more input, so...

I always add 50% to any estimate of time or money, so three years could be closer to five. A lot can happen in that time.

I work for the world's largest retailer. Our executives dismissed Amazon's drone delivery commercial aired X number of years ago, as a publicity stunt. We have tried drones in distribution centers, to take inventory, and spot check product facing, but like all things tech, the conditions have to be perfect. It is much easier to accomplish the same objective with scanning machines on wheels, even at DC stock heights. Even then, tech only makes financial sense where labor is tight. While solving the dilemma of 'the last mile' is cause for salivation, not all drone deliveries will be within a mile of the DC.

Still, what happens if the commercial drone industry 'floods' the sky with 'same day delivery'. All that constant buzzing as they descend. Will people select that delivery mode, or socially/collectively reject it?

The commercial industry presupposes people will tolerate drone delivery. I find that hard to believe. Will people down the drones? If so, the lost products will add up to the point that drone delivery is not worth it to retailers. Not any of the tests have been to commercial scale, yet. To my recollection, real world tests have been the occasional drop off, and for medical supplies. Rarely does financial modeling play out as designed. The ROI may not be real.

Regarding a safe airspace, while drones out number manned aircraft, how many are up in the air at any one point in time? I'm sure the numbers are greater in densely populated areas, but not so much in rural areas. I've been flying for three years, and I've only seen another drone twice. Do we really need a blanket policy, or a more demographically tailored policy?

Regarding the bad guy, I'm sure the bad guy effort will be recorded somehow, but stopped? If I remember correctly, the only thing that prevented the assassination attempt in Venezuela (?) was a drone technological failure.

Regarding enforcement, unless there's a new drone task force, I don't see existing police forces stopping everything to pursuit a senior citizen drone pilot. Maybe the FAA or other would issue you an auto generated ticket like the cameras at intersections can. And, if you fail to pay?

Regarding privacy, just as Amazon works with the USPS, the US(PS) could work out a deal to install surveillance equipment on commercial drones, or be suspected of doing so.

In the spirit of cooperation, would it not be possible to elevate the floor of manned aircraft from 500' to 650, and have the commercial drones fly from 450 to 600'? The commercial drones will be more powerful, and computer controlled, so the more narrow space should be easy to navigate. Also, commercial drones would likely start from distribution centers, even pizza. The DCs would be on the outskirts of town, fly straight up to altitude, and then, within their assigned altitude, across to destination, before their intolerably noisy final descent.

I suppose a floor of 550' for manned aircraft would extend the airport radius forbidden zone, but not that much. Geometry anyone?