US to require recreational drones to be registered: official
Source: AFP
Washington (AFP) - The United States said Monday it will soon require the owners of recreational drones to register their devices with authorities, amid rising concerns over air safety and privacy.
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) head Michael Huerta told a joint news conference they were setting up a task force to move ahead with the plans.
"It is my hope that the task force will complete its recommendations in the middle part of November, with the goal of having some rules in place by the middle part of December," Foxx said.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/us-require-recreational-drones-registered-official-174850082.html
valerief
(53,235 posts)upaloopa
(11,417 posts)hack89
(39,171 posts)It's easy when civil rights are not involved. Basic civics.
No Vested Interest
(5,156 posts)BumRushDaShow
(127,254 posts)When they first excitedly announced a roadmap for remote-controlled craft per Congressional mandate, I don't know if they really thought about the issue of legitimately-defined "drone" aircraft (which I expect would be the type that are several feet long and look like mini planes) versus the thousands of hobby quadro-copter things with cameras on them, that are causing the problems.
erronis
(14,941 posts)Should be just as easy as getting all gun owners to register their weapons.
Drones can be bought online from reputable dealers (WTF does that mean?), or assembled from various parts. Most of the small-scale development is from people putting together a bunch of parts and flying them around backyards (and over neighbor's swimming pools.)
Pretty soon only the crims will have drones, the rest of us will have viewports on FAA sanctioned commercial bots that won't go where the feds don't want them to.
I need to change my sign-on to "cynick" - anyone know how?
davisharbor
(1 post)Those things are so easy to make from scratch froom commonly available parts. I don't see how they're going too regulate them or convince people to register them.
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)As I said a few days ago, if the idiots had not flow their craft over airports, these laws probably wouldn't have happened.
I have no dislike or problems with drones. I'd like to mess around with one myself.
Xithras
(16,191 posts)I've mentioned before that my son builds quads and octos. It started as a hobby, but now he's starting to build custom and self piloting rigs for photographers, studios, utilities, and the media. The people who fly these things seriously primarily just want a consistent and manageable framework to operate to fly under. They want CLARITY. Most serious operators also wouldn't mind seeing the troublemakers get fined or chased out of the hobby, because idiots flying quads over forest fires are giving a bad name to all operators.
The complications, of course, will be in the details. What has to be registered? How much will it cost? How long will it take? How will the aircraft need to demonstrate this registration? The FAA is notoriously one of the most slow moving and bureaucratic arms of the federal government, and there's some concern that "registration" could simply be another name for prohibition.
And, of course, there's the question of what qualifies as a "drone". I've got a microdrone sitting right here that is barely two inches across, and newer micros like the CrazyFlie have incredible ranges and can operate without LOS. Larger disposable quad frames can now be found online for as little as $5 and can be built by a child. Will these need to be registered?
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)existing airspace regulations somehow, they've also got to come up with a universal framework to cover all drone types, sizes and purposes...
And that's not taking into account that these regs have to be written to meet the future direction of drones, since the technology is advancing so rapidly...
Xithras
(16,191 posts)The number of things they have to account for is immense. The problem with regulating ANY new technology is that people are inventing new variations and potential uses for the technology every single day.
maxsolomon
(32,975 posts)didn't take that long, did it? there weren't even any major accidents and they start a-regulating. next they'll start a-confiscatin'. its that liberal nanny state I tells you.
, its all i've got left.
Wabbajack_
(1,300 posts)Nihil
(13,508 posts)Note that I have no doubts that special interest groups will try to introduce
"important differences" that simply don't exist in order that *their* particular
ox is not gored by this piece of useless & unenforceable legislation.
Wabbajack_
(1,300 posts)I don't know much about drones, they seem to be "new" or at least the term is. Whereas I know remote control planes have been around for a long time, I wanted one as a kid.
William Seger
(10,742 posts)... (unmanned aerial vehicles), regardless of size (so even small models come under current FAA regulations), but technically they only consider a UAV to be a drone if it has an autopilot system. (The more expensive quadcopters and hexacopters have GPS and you can program a flight plan.) But you're right, any new regulations about registration will need to tighten up currently fuzzy language. I have about two dozen small toy quads now, which would be ridiculous to register.
Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)Say a pilot sees a drone aircraft in restricted airspace near an airport. What's next? Round up all the registered drones and ask for alibis? Without being able to identify the actual offending drone, a registry is almost useless.
Would be better to develop a laser to fry the expensive toys of idiots who fly them where they should not be.
Destroy the idiots' toys and the problem will self-resolve. I don't even fly mine much about twenty or thirty feet because wind gusts push it around past that.
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)I can see how they can enforce a registration while purchasing a new drone. It'll be a bit more difficult to get the thousands of existing drone owners to register their toys.
However, if it costs money or is an inconvenience, I wouldn't do it.