K
Kathleen Martin
Guest
When quadcopters with cameras vastly improved in the late 2000s and early 2010s, US regulators and many other governments around the world got caught with their shorts down. Smartphones drove the cost of sensors and connectivity components down, and then cheaper sensors, better wireless transmission technology, and mobile devices that could give you a live bird’s eye view suddenly made it very easy and safe to remotely operate a small aircraft. This proved to not only be useful for taking pretty pictures, but also gave a number of industries and governmental efforts opportunities to make their work easier, and more importantly, save lives.
The environmental benefits of sUAS (commonly known as drones, even if that is a bad term for what they really are) are incalculable. Yes, many things drone pilots do just wouldn’t happen if manned aircraft had to be used instead. For example, a real estate agent isn’t going to shell out the big bucks for a plane or helicopter unless it’s an unusually expensive house. But they’re still replacing manned aircraft and their fossil fuel emissions with a relatively tiny electric aircraft in many cases, and it’s a growing phenomenon.
In other words, electric-powered aviation is already here.
Taming The Wild West
When lower cost unmanned aircraft came on the scene, US law on the matter wasn’t that clear. The FAA tried to require everyone using a drone commercially to get a regular pilot’s license or jump through a bunch of other expensive and difficult hoops, but they were mostly ignored. Then, they lost in court when they attempted to enforce their expansive interpretation of the law, and the law on operating drones temporarily became a very “wild west.”
The popularity of drones, a large community of unlicensed commercial drone users, and the legal grey area put federal regulators in a position where they couldn’t create rules that were difficult to follow. If they did do that, they’d only push commercial drone operators to just keep doing what they were doing, and many of them would probably have banded together to take the FAA to court endlessly. So, they had to come up with a process to improve drone safety, but also make it easy for drone operators to comply with the rules.
The result of this challenge was actually a pretty decent set of regulations (as far as US federal regulations go). In 2016, they opened up the process to take a test at a local testing center, apply for a license, get a background check, and then become a legitimate operator. They didn’t require a specific training course, leaving it up to the applicant whether they wanted to sign up for a commercial test-prep program or self-study.
To stay current, a drone pilot needed to take the test again every two years, giving the FAA an opportunity to update pilots on new policies and laws via test study.
Continue reading: https://cleantechnica.com/2022/05/25/commercial-suas-drone-operation-keeps-getting-easier/
The environmental benefits of sUAS (commonly known as drones, even if that is a bad term for what they really are) are incalculable. Yes, many things drone pilots do just wouldn’t happen if manned aircraft had to be used instead. For example, a real estate agent isn’t going to shell out the big bucks for a plane or helicopter unless it’s an unusually expensive house. But they’re still replacing manned aircraft and their fossil fuel emissions with a relatively tiny electric aircraft in many cases, and it’s a growing phenomenon.
In other words, electric-powered aviation is already here.
Taming The Wild West
When lower cost unmanned aircraft came on the scene, US law on the matter wasn’t that clear. The FAA tried to require everyone using a drone commercially to get a regular pilot’s license or jump through a bunch of other expensive and difficult hoops, but they were mostly ignored. Then, they lost in court when they attempted to enforce their expansive interpretation of the law, and the law on operating drones temporarily became a very “wild west.”
The popularity of drones, a large community of unlicensed commercial drone users, and the legal grey area put federal regulators in a position where they couldn’t create rules that were difficult to follow. If they did do that, they’d only push commercial drone operators to just keep doing what they were doing, and many of them would probably have banded together to take the FAA to court endlessly. So, they had to come up with a process to improve drone safety, but also make it easy for drone operators to comply with the rules.
The result of this challenge was actually a pretty decent set of regulations (as far as US federal regulations go). In 2016, they opened up the process to take a test at a local testing center, apply for a license, get a background check, and then become a legitimate operator. They didn’t require a specific training course, leaving it up to the applicant whether they wanted to sign up for a commercial test-prep program or self-study.
To stay current, a drone pilot needed to take the test again every two years, giving the FAA an opportunity to update pilots on new policies and laws via test study.
Continue reading: https://cleantechnica.com/2022/05/25/commercial-suas-drone-operation-keeps-getting-easier/
