Is the FAA Killing the Hobby? — Remote ID Myths

[GFields]

The Pilot Institute has put together a great video to help understand the myths associated with RID

 

[Torque]

LOL, just came to post the same video.

 

[umanbean]

Thanks Gfields, haven't watched it yet but I will for sure... from PI so i know it's a good one.

 

[mavic3usa]

Good video; perfect person to deliver the message.

 

[MS Coast]

Ahhh, a voice of reason. But, given the stubborn nature of the sky-is-falling points of view, the fuss will almost certainly continue.

@GFields, thanks for posting that.

 

[Torque]

Another rumor dispelled in a recent article by Vic Moss:

Rumor: Everyone will know our names and contact info.
Fact: No, they won’t. The RID packed will not broadcast any personal information. The only identifiable piece of information will be your RID serial number. And that can be used to get your personal information. But only by an officer of the court who shows the FAA just reason for needing that information. Just like the license plate on your car, it is traceable. But just like the license plate on your car, John Q. Public is not privy to your personal information. That must be obtained by an LEO showing cause. And with RID, there is the added layer of defense against misuse.

Remote ID, love it or hate it, here is the real info: - Drone Service Providers Alliance

The preponderance of (usually well-meaning) bad information spreading around the drone forums these days has prompted me to write this article. Please feel free to share this with those who are fearful or uneducated in the actuality of the upcoming FAA Remote Identification (RID) rule. It’s a...

dspalliance.org

 

[DARKSeifer]

My opinion about the myths:

1.- The hobby is not going to die because no one is going to comply with RID (except the ones that fly the latest DJI drones ofc), as no one complies with VLOS or bringis a visual observer when flying with FPV goggles for example.

2.- Emitting your location to the public while flying an expensive camera will never be a good idea, you are just asking for trouble. You are not going to be assaulted every flight, but you are more likely to get assaulted than without RID. We already had Aeroscope available to law enforcement, RID adds nothing but trouble with random people

And yes, even if 99.99% of the people won't know how to get you, that one every 10,000 will do and will get you if you happen to fly near his area.

I can pick my Mavic 3 signal from 3Km away with a regular tablet with line of sight with the area where the drone is flying, did a test and shared the results on this forum so yep, range is pretty high as the drones is emitting from a high unobstructed area.

So in resume, most karens will be lured by the drone noise, just like usual, only the super freak karen/assaulters will get you by RID.

3.- You can track airplanes ofc, but airports have security and stealing a plane/copter doesn't sound like a good idea, while the average joe can easily steal a drone and sell it second hand afterward.

4.- This was a bit nonsense.

5.- Agree, just fly without it, forgetting the module looks better than clearly sabotaging the module. What you can do, is pick the worst module available on the market though, the one with the poorest range.

6.- I'll probably get an Aurdino and have some virtual drones flying over my house, but I'm under uncontrolled airspace at more than 50Km of the nearest airport, but yep, a lot of people are going to do it on major airports and no one will be able to get them because it's anonymous, it has a ton of range specially when paired with an antenna and an amplifier, it's wireless, has no signature, and you can drop the Arduino module anywhere you want and even with dedicated triangulation devices and open access to every private property around, it would take days to find it.

Call it terrorism if you want, everyone is going to do it because it's easy, cheap, fun and has zero consequences as it's impossible you can get the spoofer unless he wants to get caught.

 

[rickmurray1989]

The Pilot Institute has put together a great video to help understand the myths associated with RID

I am so ready for Remote ID... Hopefully it will wash out the rogue pilots who constantly complain about it.

 

[MS Coast]

2.- Emitting your location to the public while flying an expensive camera will never be a good idea, you are just asking for trouble. You are not going to be assaulted every flight, but you are more likely to get assaulted than without RID. We already had Aeroscope available to law enforcement, RID adds nothing but trouble with random people

You don't need RID to find drone pilots flying drones in public. The drones make a very distinctive sound and the pilot is usually nearby with his head tilted down, looking at device with a screen that he's holding in both hands while wiggling his thumbs. Some of those robbery targets even wear bright yellow or red vests with "DRONE PILOT" in bold letters so everyone knows exactly what they're doing. Other's put out yard-wide bright orange locator discs on the ground and stand next to them.

If robbing these easily located drone pilots of their gear while they're out in the field is a common crime and serious threat why have we not heard of a single incident?

The obvious answer is that it's not a significant problem and all the fretting and posturing about post-RID armed self-defense and roving bands of drone bandits ready to strike as soon as a home point has been set is just plain silly.

I will admit that there is a possibility that some highly motivated anti-drone fussbudget named Karen might go to the trouble of using RID to get my serial number and find me so they can say something rude. Oh, my!

[Note: I'd definitely prefer not to have RID. But, I'm not personally afraid of living with it.]

 

[mavic3usa]

Please remember the drone community needs to pull together and support each other. There's always going to be the fringes but for the most part, I think we are all good. Regardless of what drone you fly or whether you are part 107 or not...we're on the same team!

 

[Cafguy]

Am I allowed to say I told you so?
Soon We will all have to register our Ardiono Uno's

 

[lookout]

Ok, that does it! I'm not clicking into another RID thread no matter how legitimate the title or OP is! All this bickering and beating a dead horse by both sides of the argument has reached my Breaking Point. Y'all must not have a **** thing better to do. Goodbye!

That'd be nice to think that the government finally decides to pull its head out of its rear, but we know that's not going to happen anytime soon. So we just have to give them a pink slip that let's them know we aren't going to be subjected to yet another petty brain damage of theirs.

 

[DARKSeifer]

You don't need RID to find drone pilots flying drones in public. The drones make a very distinctive sound and the pilot is usually nearby with his head tilted down, looking at device with a screen that he's holding in both hands while wiggling his thumbs. Some of those robbery targets even wear bright yellow or red vests with "DRONE PILOT" in bold letters so everyone knows exactly what they're doing. Other's put out yard-wide bright orange locator discs on the ground and stand next to them.

If robbing these easily located drone pilots of their gear while they're out in the field is a common crime and serious threat why have we not heard of a single incident?

The obvious answer is that it's not a significant problem and all the fretting and posturing about post-RID armed self-defense and roving bands of drone bandits ready to strike as soon as a home point has been set is just plain silly.

I will admit that there is a possibility that some highly motivated anti-drone fussbudget named Karen might go to the trouble of using RID to get my serial number and find me so they can say something rude. Oh, my!

[Note: I'd definitely prefer not to have RID. But, I'm not personally afraid of living with it.]

There are tons of photographers/videographers robbed each year (and drones and RID aren't going to increase the percentage, probably). I've been a photographer for the last 19 years and I've never been robbed, mostly because I'm not a tool, and I don't expose my gear around.

But you only need to go with your fancy lowepro backpack full of glass to some areas and say goodbye to your gear in a moment; same for drones, which for people that were photographers/videographers before drones, are just another camera in the bag.

You won't see any seasoned photographer/videgrapher flying its drone with a vest or a foldable table/helipad because in all scenarios you want to be invisible and blend with the environment as much as you can. People with vests usually are operators that work for companies that do things like solar panel inspections, or newbies that still believe in rules and think drones are "aircrafts" and they are "pilots" even when they just needed to pass a super easy course that everyone passes.

On the other hand, even when not being robbed, you'll be interrupted; you can counter drone noise by setting your takeoff location at 300+ meters from the target because they'll hear the drone, but they won't be able to follow the drone and find you.

So let's say for example I'm doing some pics of a building for an apartment owner; I do some interiors with my regular tripod, camera and a few flashes and then want to also add some aerial pics of the building itself (probably wait for sunset), which would be a regular easy job.

If someone hears the drone flying around he will be pissed off for sure, but won't be able to locate me because I probably took off 1Km away, but with RID he can instantly get my takeoff location (with the drone nearby it takes less than 30 seconds to start the app and receive the first packet that tells you the operator location). Maybe I will still be able to finish the job without being disturbed, maybe he just picks the car and drives next to me for confrontations, which already happened to me before I decided to take off 300+ meters away from the objective.

RID is just another tool for the assaulter, it doesn't mean karens are going to rain from the sky. My Mavic 3 is emitting RID since last year, I don't remember the exact date, but it could be picked by OpendroneID since quite a long time and for the moment it hasn't lured anyone to me, but it's just a matter of time.

PS: When flying at night I got my drone lasered quite often, so I decided to put some black electric tape on the leds and guess what, never been lasered again.

There's no hack for RID/Aeroscope on DJI drones yet, the one on github (jeepdors) only work with old firmwares, "old" drones like the Mini 2 and with an old version of the app, else it resets back, but you can be sure I'll be hacking my Mavic 3 whenever it becomes available, same as I hack it for FCC mode.

 

[thispilothere]

There's no hack for RID/Aeroscope on DJI drones yet, the one on github (jeepdors) only work with old firmwares, "old" drones like the Mini 2 and with an old version of the app, else it resets back, but you can be sure I'll be hacking my Mavic 3 whenever it becomes available, same as I hack it for FCC mode.

Hopefully, we'll see a stronger hacking community build because of RID. If people can hack the software protection from Adobe the same day the software is released, I'm sure they can figure this out.

 

[Reginald E Johnson]

The Pilot Institute has put together a great video to help understand the myths associated with RID

I did find out about DJI Drones and the Skydio 2 Drones! The President was in town and the DJI Drones wouldn’t fly but the Skydio 2 Drone did! I was only going to fly about 50 feet and the height was only 10 feed! Go figure?

 

[lookout]

Oh noes! If you fly a quad where you shouldn't it'll bring down a jetliner flying at 30,000.

If you fly without remote ID or spoof it, you'll cause a helicopter going to the scene of an accident to not be able to do it safely.

Man, this sounds like two sides of the same counterfeit coin. This is all based on wrong premises.

The helicopter and the jet liner ain't going to be receiving your wimpy bluetooth signal, nor are they going to try.

It wasn't causing a problem before remote ID and whether you comply or aren't required to have with your sub 250g, nothing will change at all!

Somebody is overreacting about like they did on Janet Jackson's wardrobe failure. Some people say that there was nothing to see and yet somebody is making it seem like it was the end of the world.

 

[Cafguy]

Im not doing anything Illegal with my drone, So I don't mind R.I.D., but I don't like the phone apps. Then again, really nothing I can do- I guess you could spoof, (and I have a thread on the topic) but I Really think its irresponsible and dangerous! Even though it's quite simple to do for anyone familiar with Arduino.

 

[lookout]

Im not doing anything Illegal with my drone, So I don't mind R.I.D., but I don't like the phone apps. Then again, really nothing I can do- I guess you could spoof, (and I have a thread on the topic) but I Really think its irresponsible and dangerous! Even though it's quite simple to do for anyone familiar with Arduino.

Ironically, the arduino module is the only reasonably priced module, but it's not stand alone, only developer, modder friendly.

 

[RPerry]

Good video. I have been involved in commercial drone operations since 2016, I'm also a licensed pilot. My attitude is RID is a great thing. It will demand more professionalism from commercial operators. It has the potential to help keep the separation of other aircraft. I was doing a mapping (autonomous flight) when all of a sudden, a sheriff's helicopter showed up. Both of us were flying legally, but my responsibility was to avoid him, and I did. The thing is if that pilot had been aware of my flight and what I was doing he could have easily avoided my area.
It is going to take time to fully see how well RID works, and how practical it may become to keep separation from other aircraft.
As for the hobbits, professional photographers I don't see it creating any problems with the hobby as long as people are flying legally. Now for the people that don't care about legalities, my attitude is you shouldn't be flying.

 

[lookout]

Good video. I have been involved in commercial drone operations since 2016, I'm also a licensed pilot. My attitude is RID is a great thing. It will demand more professionalism from commercial operators. It has the potential to help keep the separation of other aircraft. I was doing a mapping (autonomous flight) when all of a sudden, a sheriff's helicopter showed up. Both of us were flying legally, but my responsibility was to avoid him, and I did. The thing is if that pilot had been aware of my flight and what I was doing he could have easily avoided my area.
It is going to take time to fully see how well RID works, and how practical it may become to keep separation from other aircraft.
As for the hobbits, professional photographers I don't see it creating any problems with the hobby as long as people are flying legally. Now for the people that don't care about legalities, my attitude is you shouldn't be flying.

If I'm flying legally

Except it can't be proven

Unless someone who knows what the rules are and is recording your flight via remote id and agrees

Except it is only part of the picture and only a few people care what the rules are

Which means it only invites chaos