How You Too Can Be Shut Down By the Feds For Flying Drones

An anonymous reader writes "University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor Matt Waite waived a government cease and desist letter recently received for his experiments using 3-pound, $500 drones for news reporting (specifically, for a story about drought in Nebraska). He gave journalism organizations the lowdown on what they can expect from the government on this front going forward and said he's posting his experience in trying to get certified by the FAA on GitHub so they can follow along."

Tin foil

[Anonymous Coward]

No, the FAA is being very deliberate about shutting down everyone who is deliberately breaking the law by commercially flying uavs. They should prosecute instead sending a C&D

Re:Anything police can use should be restricted

[HornWumpus]

It's illegal to fly an RC model for any kind of pay.

As long as you are doing it for fun (and follow AMA safety rules), RC camera work is legal.

Re:What's the difference between a drone & R/C

[HornWumpus]

You can have a real time camera, as long as you operate it in line of sight.

You can't operate it for profit. e.g. Aerial photography of real estate.

Re:RC plane?

[Anonymous Coward]

The things that make an RC plane into a drone are the GPS and autopilot. If you have to be there with a controller making it move, it is an RC model. If it can move on its own according to a pre-determined flight plan, it is a drone.

Re:I am a pilot...

[HornWumpus]

Those are AMA rules which are included by reference by the FAA.

400 ft AGL, line of sight, weight limits (which escape me at the moment), airport standoffs, traffic rules are all spelled out.

http://www.modelaircraft.org/ [modelaircraft.org]

Most flying fields won't let you fly without membership (which comes with liability insurance). Rules are often printed or at least referenced in kit instructions etc.

400ft is pretty high for a model. Often barely visible.

Re:I am a pilot...

[mbeckman]

I'm a pilot too. A helicopter pilot. You've got the rules wrong. Fixed wing aircraft stay 1000' and higher. But helicopters fly specifically at 500' AGL for the most part, as we are required to "avoid the flow of fixed-wing traffic." So there is a scant 100' clearance between us and potential catastrophe from an errant RC pilot. Drones are a worse hazard than RCs to helo pilots, because drones are often flown by idiots whose sole qualification is a Frys Electronics gift card. This includes the so-called drone journalists, who uniformly, in my experience, are ignorant of airspace rules and regulations.

Putting drones at the same site as an active news story likely to be covered by helicopter ENGs is abject stupidity. Drones, even million-dollar military models, are incapable of complying with the FAA's see-and-avoid visual flight rules for traffic separation. The technology to sense and avoid other aircraft in the same close quarters simply doesn't exist. Drones should be specifically outlawed in any journalistic or commercial role because they cannot operate with the same separation helos have from overlying fixed-wing traffic.