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Questions from a new owner

LanceBeasley

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I'm a new drone owner, having wanted one for years. Now that I have one and have had to wade into the legal/regulation issues, WOW they are complicated!

My observations:

1) Is a drone strike now more likely than a bird strike?
2) Most legislation/regulation is usually fantastic at converting whole swaths of the population into criminals, while the bad actors (and uneducated enthusiasts) are mostly unaffected. The promulgators certainly mean well and earnestly hope to help the situation, but that's rarely the case.
3) There's no way to prevent short-sighted manufacturers from selling to budget-conscious buyers hoping to enjoy an attractive new hobby.
4) Well-made drones are very powerful and amazingly easy to fly for maybe dozens to hundreds of hours trouble free. But they are also very complicated inside- meaning a simple malfunction (failed bearing/bushing, motor controller, etc) has the potential of sending a drone into a crowd, up/over into controlled airspace. I'm assuming the top manufacturers (like DJI) warn when the circuit/mechanism is drifting out of spec.
5) Why exactly is it prohibited to fly a drone beyond visual range in a rural wooded area below 400ft? Even if the drone gets away, it can fly no more than 30 minutes, and is far outnumbered by birds.
6) The regulations include the 250g waiver. What about a waiver for drones under a certain battery capacity/flight time?

Thoughts?
 
1. No. Flocks of drones don't hang around at airports.
2. True. Regulations and laws only apply to those that follow them, and there is no real "active" enforcement of UAV regulations, and most LEOs wouldn't have a clue what they are. Those using the national airspace are expected to know and abide by the regs. Geo-Zones and various apps have helped somewhat.
4. Failures can happen at any time with little or no warning whatsoever. Knowing what to do will mitigate risk. For instance, you might get a compass error warning before takeoff, or you might not even though there is one. Results of a compass failure or magnetic interference could prove disastrous. There are many things that can go wrong - drones are essentially flying computers. A pre-flight checklist is a good idea, as well as checking motor temps and battery condition (swelling/cell voltage deviations).
5. I live and fly in a very rural area. There is no guarantee that you will not encounter aircraft at 400 feet, or that your aircraft will remain below 400 feet AGL if you have lost control of it due to a malfunction. Most UAVs can travel 5 miles or more quite easily. Again the objective is to mitigate risk and be able to enact "see and avoid" or emergency shutdown procedures if necessary.
6. There are no "waivers" that have anything to do with flight time. The only thing the 250g spec gets you is that you don't have to register with the FAA for hobby flight in the USA. It might be more beneficial in other countries, though.
 
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Consider this a nube question. Concerning question 1, what sort of event are all these rules trying to prevent? If the chances of a drone strike are lower than a bird strike, then what is a similar risk? Colliding with a transmitter tower? The pilot having a debilitating medical emergency?

I don’t want any of these things to happen of course. But what risk are we avoiding, and at what cost?
 
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