Very informative video on the lawsuit against the FAA on remote ID. You decide ?

[Chip]

I'm a hobbyist and fine with it. BUT, The idea of only the government agencies who make laws and have the funding to lobby for the laws get to have drones that can't be tracked!

@Vic Moss, is is true that all law enforcement and government UAVs will be exempt from remote ID requirements?

 

[Chip]

As previously reported, the ACLU, on 2/9/21, issued its position on Remote ID, and the ACLU is generally ok with it. I agree with that position. For one thing, I want to be able to legally fly BVLOS, and as the ACLU puts it, “a regulatory framework permitting routine BVLOS flights was never going to happen … until the law enforcement and national security communities are comfortable with their ability to identify and track” drones.

With regard to broadcast transponders that would broadcast their unique ID numbers locally to anyone within range, the ACLU said “We think this is good; the broadcast Remote ID should be sufficient to achieve both the security goal of allowing facilities to identify and deter illegal or hostile drone flights and the privacy goal of empowering individuals to know what aerial cameras may be recording them.”

The ACLU further said: “The FAA is doing a good job in building an infrastructure that will give us the ability to know what “eyes in the sky” are observing our streets, communities, and cities. While details still need to be worked out, the agency’s goal seems to be a system in which anyone can see the “license plate” of nearby drones on their cell phones."

I certainly have some issues concerning the safety of drone pilots and I anxiously await a definitive decision by the courts on these difficult issues.

My impression is that the ACLU has strong dislike of government using drones to conduct secret surveillance without a search warrant. I get the impression from reading the article that the ACLU assumes that all law enforcement and government drones will have to broadcast remote ID just like everybody else. Could be in for a rude awakening.

 

[Vic Moss]

I'm a hobbyist and fine with it. BUT, The idea of only the government agencies who make laws and have the funding to lobby for the laws get to have drones that can't be tracked!

Agencies don't lobby for things. They are forbidden by law.

 

[Vic Moss]

@Vic Moss, is is true that all law enforcement and government UAVs will be exempt from remote ID requirements?

No. Some will for obvious reasons. You can't have a blacked out SWAT drone being monitored by the the criminals being monitored. That sort of defeats the purpose.

LEOs who want to do this have to go through the SGI process.

 

[Chip]

No. Some will for obvious reasons. You can't have a blacked out SWAT drone being monitored by the the criminals being monitored. That sort of defeats the purpose.

LEOs who want to do this have to go through the SGI process.

Can you explain what is the SGI process?

 

[Fearless Flight]

The bottom line to all of this is giving the government more control over more aspects of your personal life is never a good thing.

This is especially true when it’s sold to you as “keeping everyone safe” while not a single criminal who wants to do harm with a drone will be stopped because of these rules/laws

No criminal with damage and destruction on his mind is going to say “wait I better turn around and go home I don’t want to break the remote ID laws.

 

[Vic Moss]

Can you explain what is the SGI process?

Sorry, I tend to slide into FAA-speak...

It stands for "Special Government Interest". It can be used by First Responders, people needing to fly during a natural disaster for inspections, and such.

More here: Emergency Situations

 

[sar104]

The bottom line to all of this is giving the government more control over more aspects of your personal life is never a good thing.

This is especially true when it’s sold to you as “keeping everyone safe” while not a single criminal who wants to do harm with a drone will be stopped because of these rules/laws

No criminal with damage and destruction on his mind is going to say “wait I better turn around and go home I don’t want to break the remote ID laws.

Are you saying that all laws are pointless since criminals don't obey them?

 

[sar104]

Sorry, I tend to slide into FAA-speak...

It stands for "Special Government Interest". It can be used by First Responders, people needing to fly during a natural disaster for inspections, and such.

More here: Emergency Situations

SGI waivers are temporary and specific. It seems more likely that government agencies wishing to be exempt from RID will simply have appropriate standing COAs.

 

[Vic Moss]

SGI waivers are temporary and specific. It seems more likely that government agencies wishing to be exempt from RID will simply have appropriate standing COAs.

From what I've been told, any agency needing to fly w/o RID will need to have an SGI, except under very limited circumstances. Nothing in writing though, so it remains to be seen.

 

[eEridani]

Idaho has a state law forbidding LEO from using drones without a warrant; at least that's my read. But this level of import the law should be national, not local.

As for the idea of identifying an aircraft, drone, boat, car, whatever, I'm actually for an identifier. Anything to find that guy that flew his drone through a window of a moving freight train gets my nod.

 

[Fearless Flight]

Are you saying that all laws are pointless since criminals don't obey them?

Not at all. I just don’t like the government picking and choosing what they are going to get involved in to make us safe based on things other than realistic possibilities.

There’s a ton of things that are happening in the U.S. right now that have a way bigger impact and likelihood on all of our safety yet no concern what so ever.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

As for the idea of identifying an aircraft, drone, boat, car, whatever, I'm actually for an identifier. Anything to find that guy that flew his drone through a window of a moving freight train gets my nod.

The FPV flyer called NURK FPV flew his drone in and out of a freight train. Was some pretty impressive video but it ended up costing him a good chunk of change. 27k according to the FAA website. In a video he did with another youtuber he said it cost him the price of a car. I'm sure that one video made him more then 27 grand just by the number of views.

 

[Donnie Frank]

I know I am going to get flack for this ...and maybe I don't know enough about RID.....but it sounds to me that other than the ID being available to any one who want to seek it out...if you are a responsible drone flyer...there really is nothing else bad about it...if that part were eliminated ...I can't see any reason to object to it...I started to watch the video, but it got off to too much of a slow start for me ...and is too long to keep my interest...I am not looking for arguments with any one...but I am curious why some are so opposed to it...it seems to me that if you are flying responsibly....there is no reason to object to it

There are security concerns that unfriendlies will be able to gather intel on you and your drone. I could see where such information could be hacked and used maliciously by a neighbor who thinks he has some kind of leg to stand on to "save the neighborhood." One would have to have complete faith in government entities to NOT have this concern. I'm surely not one of those people.

D

 

[MARK (LI)]

There are security concerns that unfriendlies will be able to gather intel on you and your drone. I could see where such information could be hacked and used maliciously by a neighbor who thinks he has some kind of leg to stand on to "save the neighborhood." One would have to have complete faith in government entities to NOT have this concern. I'm surely not one of those people.

D

That is why I said
"but it sounds to me that other than the ID being available to any one who want to seek it out...if you are a responsible drone flyer...there really is nothing else bad about it...if that part were eliminated ...I can't see any reason to object to it."

 

[thispilothere]

Is the database being public so that Amazon and the like can track traffic while making deliveries?

 

[eEridani]

There are security concerns that unfriendlies will be able to gather intel on you and your drone. I could see where such information could be hacked and used maliciously by a neighbor who thinks he has some kind of leg to stand on to "save the neighborhood." One would have to have complete faith in government entities to NOT have this concern. I'm surely not one of those people.

D

One question: do you have a Facebook account? If yes, then your argument is null.

 

[eEridani]

The FPV flyer called NURK FPV flew his drone in and out of a freight train. Was some pretty impressive video but it ended up costing him a good chunk of change. 27k according to the FAA website. In a video he did with another youtuber he said it cost him the price of a car. I'm sure that one video made him more then 27 grand just by the number of views.

Oh - we should be rooting for a vandal now because he made money from his crime?

 

[Kenichi]

My concern is that currently the Remote ID will give a lot of information that, I as a pilot, might not want disclosed, my current location or my launching location is one.

Bad actors would be able to monitor the app to see RID pop up find you, take your controller, hit RTH and take off with your drone. This is the best case and this has already happened, the FAA are aware of this and they don't care that RID will make it easier for bad actors to do this.

The benefits that the FAA has listed won't benefit the pilot at all, there is no benefit.
And once the FAA does it many others will follow.

So you in the US, look at countries that have more oppressive drone and model laws, that is where you are headed.

I, for example, have to fill in an application to fly two weeks ahead of time, with full and exact flight plan, pay the $350-500, and hope that I get approved and that the weather is good those days because there is no transfer to other days. This is where the US is going with RID watch the FAA's YouTube channel.

 

[eEridani]

[snip] I, for example, have to fill in an application to fly two weeks ahead of time, with full and exact flight plan, pay the $350-500, [snip]

$500 a flight. You must be raking in the big bucks to afford that.