USA - Registration numbers to be required on exterior of aircraft soon (Feb. 23)

[Cheech Wizard]

Does anyone have more information on the mentions of "night flying" and "over people" from the email received? The links in the email just drop to the FAA home page, and all of my searches have just turned up the rules that were already in place around these. I see no mention of these other proposed changes either.

You can do both now.

 

[JSKCKNIT]

Ask a First Responder what they think about it?

I have. My brother's a police officer and I have several friends that are as well. Even they will tell you they've been trained to not just walk over and start handling suspicious items.

Again, this external marking is about quickly locating an owner. The ruling could have been rolled out without the fictional first responder bit.

 

[BigAl07]

You can do both now.

Over people? Easy there man... not yet and not a random ALLOWANCE when/if it goes live. Only certain aircraft flying in certain conditions will qualify. It's not a blank check....

 

[Cheech Wizard]

I would encourage you all to go to the FAA web site to comment on Rin 2120-al32. Imagine that you are a terrorist and putting a bomb in my drone. But you are law abiding and therefore put your correct registration number on the drone. Does that seem insane to anyone else?

"A Terrorist" put an explosive device in your drone? So, how did that happen?Do you hang around with terrorists? WTF?

 

[sar104]

I have. My brother's a police officer and I have several friends that are as well. Even they will tell you they've been trained to not just walk over and start handling suspicious items.

Again, this external marking is about quickly locating an owner. The ruling could have been rolled out without the fictional first responder bit.

That's exactly how they are trained, but you missed the resulting reasoning - quickly locate the owner so that first responders, whether LE or bomb techs, don't need to handle it without first confirming that it is safe.

 

[Cheech Wizard]

I have. My brother's a police officer and I have several friends that are as well. Even they will tell you they've been trained to not just walk over and start handling suspicious items.

Again, this external marking is about quickly locating an owner. The ruling could have been rolled out without the fictional first responder bit.

So, you want to tell all the first responders in the U.S. to just suck it up and do their job?

 

[Cheech Wizard]

That's exactly how they are trained, but you missed the resulting reasoning - quickly locate the owner so that first responders, whether LE or bomb techs, don't need to handle it without first confirming that it is safe.

I would call that a "FIRST STEP" in an investigation.

 

[sar104]

I would call that a "FIRST STEP" in an investigation.

Agreed. They really don't want to have to call bomb disposal every time they find a crashed drone in a sensitive location. If they can deal with the situation with a quick call to the local FSDO to locate the owner and verify that it is not a threat then that is a much better outcome. The motivation for this is so blindingly obvious that I'm having a hard time accepting that anyone doesn't actually understand it.

 

[Cheech Wizard]

Let me walk you through your own example....

I'm a terrorist. I register my drone as John Smith. I put in some address and a phone number to a pre-paid cell phone that I bought for $20. This took me all of 45 minutes (ok, an hour if the cell store is far away). I then create a drone to deliver a bomb. Now, I'll just ignore the obvious situation... I create a bomb that is delivered by the drone. What I do is spend a lot of time, not creating a bomb that I can blow up upon delivery (because that would be _way_ to easy and I'm a much more James Bond villain type of terrorist)... I take the time to create a bomb that only blows up with the battery is removed. Now, I fly that drone to some busy spot and land it. A first responder then gets the drone and calls me (remember, I'm a sophisticated terrorist so I put the registration on the drone (because that is the only situation where your scenario works.... I'm a law "abiding person" who put their registration on the drone). The first responder then calls me and as a "law abiding person" I tell them, yeah... my bad, I accidentally flew that drone and landed it next to the White House. So now what? They are safe to open the drone? Oh? They don't remove the battery? Well, without the registration they don't open the battery either. However, under my frame of mind, they treat the drone as it could explode. Who's going to keep that first responder alive in this situation... you line of thinking or mine?

So I've just shot your situation full of problems. Truth is, you could come keep coming up with more and they will be just as flawed as this one.

But wait... you did....

Well, I already showed that this is _easily_ not the case.... but seriously, we are talking about drone and you are now talking about luggage and vehicles? I'm going to guess you mean a drone inside if luggage or a vehicle? What the #$%$%? That would just put the bomb inside.... the VEHICLE OR LUGGAGE! They don't need a drone for that! I guess you are going to have first responders open up the luggage, find the drone and then not want to open the drone? Seriously?

YES!!!!!!! If this is an _actual_ problem... people rigging the drone to explode if the battery is removed THEY SHOULD ALWAYS TREAT IS AS SUCH.... external registration or not! The problem goes back to the stupid registration itself.

No... no it does not. I just gave you something I came up with over the span of 10 minutes and 1 hour's worth of execution that proves this wrong. The new rule.... could get people killed.

WOW... that's it Just WOW!

 

[AMann]

Agreed. They really don't want to have to call bomb disposal every time they find a crashed drone in a sensitive location. If they can deal with the situation with a quick call to the local FSDO to locate the owner and verify that it is not a threat then that is a much better outcome. The motivation for this is so blindingly obvious that I'm having a hard time accepting that anyone doesn't actually understand it.

It would really dependnon the location, too. They would evacuate the place if it landed in a political convention area or a hot target like that and simply disrupt it in place with R2D2 first, then ask questions later.

 

[Cheech Wizard]

Agreed. They really don't want to have to call bomb disposal every time they find a crashed drone in a sensitive location. If they can deal with the situation with a quick call to the local FSDO to locate the owner and verify that it is not a threat then that is a much better outcome. The motivation for this is so blindingly obvious that I'm having a hard time accepting that anyone doesn't actually understand it.

I know, it's incredible. @tcope has a link in his profile to his YouTube page. He has some pretty cool videos, and now I know his real name...HA.. EVERYBODY is easy to track. So, just add your FAA number or deal with it later. (I hope not)...Good Luck.

 

[Cheech Wizard]

I don't get offended, but I do get pretty exasperated by these tactics. These forums are a great resource that gets significantly diluted when people start posting misinformation just to start an argument. Not all misinformation is deliberate, of course, but it generally becomes fairly clear who is here for a real discussion and who is here just to wind others up. I really dislike being the one to give up and say "I'm done with this discussion", in case the bad information prevails, but sometimes you just have to walk away.

Sometimes they don't want you to get the last word....HA.

 

[Cheech Wizard]

I printed out a dozen of my FAA Reg # with my computer in size 8 Arial font on regular printer paper
When trimmed down the entire number is 3/4 inch long and 3/32 inch tall
I attached it to my aircraft with Scotch tape in an inconspicuous spot.
It is virtually invisible unless you pick the it up and look for it.
But, following the new FAA guidelines, it meets their requirements.

BUT.... They DON'T"T want to touch it without looking at the reg number. That is the whole point.

 

[Cheech Wizard]

I have no problems with external markings. I've marked mine with the registration number and my phone number externally since I first started flying.

I take issue with the reasoning the FAA gave for the rule change. "Concerns about the risk a concealed explosive device might pose to first responders upon opening a compartment to find a drone’s registration number."

A person using a drone for nefarious reasons isn't going to (knowingly) leave a paper trail back to themself. Secondly, if there's a concern about explosives, nobody's going near the thing and they're especially not opening compartments. They will send a robot and immobilize the device. That's what we were taught in the Marines and I'm sure law enforcement was as well.

A trick of insurgents (going back several armed conflicts), is to boobeytrap an item a person will interact with/let their guard down around. I guess a marked drone makes it safe.

The FAA could have just as easily made this rule change by saying externally mark your drone so we can quickly identify the owner. There's no reason to try and sell a nonsensical terrorism angle for a rule change.[/

So, you "marked yours since you started flying"? Then, Just what are you saying? Stirring the pot? Crazy.

 

[Cheech Wizard]

I have. My brother's a police officer and I have several friends that are as well. Even they will tell you they've been trained to not just walk over and start handling suspicious items.

Again, this external marking is about quickly locating an owner. The ruling could have been rolled out without the fictional first responder bit.

So you actually have a good conversation with them about drones after explaining why the FAA requires ID?

 

[Cheech Wizard]

Over people? Easy there man... not yet and not a random ALLOWANCE when/if it goes live. Only certain aircraft flying in certain conditions will qualify. It's not a blank check....

From what I understand, you can herd them like cows....ha.

 

[AMann]

Some of our friends acros the puddle will know this story- I know of someone in the bat research community who put an expensive bat monitoring ultrasonic recording system under a bridge in London. The police did not know what it was and their bomb disposal unit disrupted it. The owner did not put any identification marks on the outside of it. It cost about the same as a M2P.

I put my name, phone number and registration number on the top of my M2P with a sharpie pen, hoping if ever necessary, someone will return it and not destroy it.

 

[tcope]

Agreed. They really don't want to have to call bomb disposal every time they find a crashed drone in a sensitive location. If they can deal with the situation with a quick call to the local FSDO to locate the owner and verify that it is not a threat then that is a much better outcome. The motivation for this is so blindingly obvious that I'm having a hard time accepting that anyone doesn't actually understand it.

So if someone had asked Tim McVay about the rental truck parked in front of the Federal Building he would have told them about the bomb in the back?

You think when the police find an abandoned vehicle some place that they _always_ get ahold of the owner before they move it? I guess it is much more likely that a rough drone will be rigged to blow up after it lands safely.

More to my point... if rigging a drone to blow up after a safe landing in an area where it is illegal to fly were a legitimate threat, it should _always_ be treated as a bomb.

Why does the government not require people's contact information on the outside of briefcases? Answer, because if they find one left in an area of risk it should always be treated as a threat. THAT is the way that you protect first responders.

 

[tcope]

I know, it's incredible. @tcope has a link in his profile to his YouTube page. He has some pretty cool videos, and now I know his real name...HA.. EVERYBODY is easy to track. So, just add your FAA number or deal with it later. (I hope not)...Good Luck.

Is that my real name? So much for your detective skills. If you thought you had all the answers you might now think my rogue drone was safe to open. Would you be right or wrong? but again, you have all right answers so it must be safe.

 

[Cheech Wizard]

Is that my real name? So much for your detective skills. If you thought you had all the answers you might now think my rogue drone was safe to open. Would you be right or wrong? but again, you have all right answers so it must be safe.

HUH...Todd? OK... I am going to have to ignore you from now on...