NTSB: Drone Flights Are Subject to FAA Regulations

[IDemo]

Source: NBC

The government has the power to hold drone operators accountable when they operate the remote-control aircraft recklessly, a federal safety board ruled Tuesday in a setback to small drone operators chafing under Federal Aviation Administration restrictions. The FAA had fined Raphael Pirker, an aerial photographer, $10,000 for operating his Ritewing Zephyr in a reckless manner on the University of Virginia campus in 2011. An administrative law judge with the National Transportation Safety Board, which hears appeals of Federal Aviation Administration enforcement actions, sided with Pirker earlier this year, saying the FAA hasn't issued any regulations specifically for drones and therefore can't determine their use.

But the FAA appealed the decision to the four-member safety board, which said Tuesday that the small drone is a type of aircraft that falls under existing rules and sent the case back to the judge to decide if it was operated recklessly. "It's a huge win for the FAA, and signals it's not going to be the Wild West for drones, but a careful, orderly, safe introduction of unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system," said Kenneth Quinn, a former FAA general counsel.



Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/ntsb-drone-flights-are-subject-faa-regulations-n250876

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. This means?

a. Drone operators cannot drink for 12 hours before a flight?
b. Drone operators cannot have epilepsy, diabetes, and other common diseases?
c. Drone operators will have to keep detailed hours of service logs?
d. Drone operators will be warned about dating the flight attendants?
e. Drone operators will be required to hold valid FAA licenses?
f. Drone operators will be required to file detailed flight plans?

Hmm.

[mainer]

2. I've heard that you'll need a pilot's license

to fly a drone. It's like forcing kids to get a driver's license before they can operate radio controlled cars.

[jmowreader]

9. If kids' radio controlled cars could take out a semi, you'd have a point

I don't think a UAV pilot needs the same kind of license as an Airbus pilot. OTOH, what we are talking about here is taking the most complex air traffic system in the world and injecting thousands of planes you can't see, but that could destroy your aircraft and kill everyone aboard if you accidentally flew into one. Or more likely, some dumbass who doesn't know anything about wind is going to take a job from a real estate agent to photograph a house and end up putting his drone through someone's $2000 French doors.

A year of flying drones around an open field and 40 hours of cross-country flight would be unreasonable and unrealistic, but a written test on airspace rules and weather, plus ten hours of practical flight training over two days (which will cause lots of "get your drone license in one weekend!" schools to open) and a flight demonstration in front of an FAA designated examiner would be appropriate.

[snooper2]

12. maybe not a semi, but this can take out a Honda Fit LOL

[truedelphi]

14. If a drone were to go through the windshield of a semi-trailer truck,

That could end many peop0le's lives.

And I think all your other comments are excellent as well.

[Blue_Tires]

13. uh....no

and please stop conflating drones and UAVs to garden-variety RC planes for the kiddies from Radio Shack...

[IDemo]

3. The link to the NTSB documents pertaining to the case is found in the article:

http://www.ntsb.gov/legal/pirker.html

[groundloop]

4. Bull Crap..... it merely means the FAA has the authority to regulate drones

And that anyone who operates a drone in an unsafe manner can be penalized. IMO this is the proper decision.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. OK, Kemo Sabe. H O W ?

[LanternWaste]

8. There's quite a bit already written on the how...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/09/23/philosophical-approaches-to-drone-regulation/

With hyperlinks to more detailed explanations of how, when, who, where, etc...

[Blue_Tires]

7. It means no asshole can fly them all over Class B airspace

and other controlled/restricted areas without facing legal consequences...

It means no fuckwit can use them to do low-altitude buzzes to troll people in public spaces, among other things...

What's so hard to figure out about that? There have already been a couple of high-profile scares around JFK...

[jmowreader]

10. This means...

a. Probably not, but flying a 50-pound drone with a controller in one hand and a beer in the other would be a bad idea.
b. Well...the Army requires its enlisted UAV pilots to pass the same flight physical as its Apache pilots, but UAV drivers can need glasses and Apache drivers can't.
c. Yes. They should.
d. Only the operators who are Republicans.
e. Yes. Maybe not a full-blown commercial pilot's certificate, but definitely some proof of ability to fly the thing without killing anyone.
f. It depends on the UAV. Some of those things are pretty damn big. A guy flying an electric quadcopter doesn't really need to file a flight plan, but you know as well as I that once the civil UAV market opens up the guys at General Atomics are going to see a market for civilian Predators - and a Predator is bigger than a Cessna 172. (Television stations would buy the fuck out of Predators - they'd be cheaper than news helicopters and just as useful.) They'll probably split it into small, medium and large UAV...small being 20 kg and under, medium being up to 250 kg, and large is for people who convert used Pipers to drones.

[Xithras]

11. It will probably end up being similar to the regulations on ultralight aircraft.

Ultralights don't require a license, or flight logs, or any of the other things, but the FAA DOES regulate how and where they can be used...no commercial use, flight during daytime only, restrictions when flying over dense urban areas, weight and power limitations, minimum altitude requirements, etc. Hobbists aren't subject to any of the more onerous FAA requirements, so long as they stay within the bounds of what the FAA considers to be "hobby flight".

If you want to operate outside of those limitations, you'll end up needing some type of license, and then you probably WILL need to go through the medical screenings, face the prohibitions against drinking and other intoxicants that can impair your ability to fly safely, and log your flight hours. I have a large quadcopter, and my son has three, and I see no issue with that. If you want to operate these commercially or in situations that could put others at risk, then you should have to meet some fairly basic safety and training requirements.

[TygrBright]

5. There goes another irony meter... n/t