FAA Commercial Drone Legalization 2015

[jdyal]

There wasn't a "general flight" topic so I figured this was the most logical place for this topic. If enough of you who are watching this like I am (a hopeful commercial drone pilot) then maybe we can get a whole section in the forums created for this topic.

As many of you know the FAA is on track for opening domestic US airspace to commercial UAS (unmanned aerial systems) sometime in 2015. This includes fully autonomous systems as well as piloted (FPV primarily) systems. Big companies like Amazon and even Dominos Pizza have been developing UAS systems for a few years now so they can be ready to launch into this new frontier as soon as the FAA opens the doors.

Last I checked, the FAA had yet to release anything specific regarding pilot certification for UAS but to me the information released implies that a "full-scale" commercial pilots license won't be required and that there will be a separate yet related type of certification will be created and required. According to studies done on traditional pilot performance compared to FPV/RC native pilot performance in an FPV environment the traditional pilots on average were outperformed by the RC pilots. This is probably part of the reason for a new certification type for UAS pilots (just a guess).

What have you all heard? Are you a hopeful commercial drone pilot like me?

 

[Guitarzan]

Last I checked, the FAA had yet to release anything specific regarding pilot certification for UAS but to me the information released implies that a "full-scale" commercial pilots license won't be required and that there will be a separate yet related type of certification will be created and required. According to studies done on traditional pilot performance compared to FPV/RC native pilot performance in an FPV environment the traditional pilots on average were outperformed by the RC pilots. This is probably part of the reason for a new certification type for UAS pilots (just a guess).

What have you all heard? Are you a hopeful commercial drone pilot like me?

I hope this is the path that needs to be taken
I also am planning an aerial imaging business. But if I can't make ends meet maybe I'll work for Amazon flying packages around. Or more realistically programming the things to do it autonomously. :/

 

[bitogre]

I'm hoping that at least some portion of the Commercial UAS is unlicensed. The limit for unlicensed should be something like electric aircraft up to 5 or 10 lbs, over populated areas (like farms, forests, and private property), and must stay under 400 ft AGL. Requiring every commercial use of UAS to be licensed can limit innovation and create unnecessary barriers to entry that just drives up costs to customers without any real benefit.

 

[jdyal]

I'm hoping that at least some portion of the Commercial UAS is unlicensed. The limit for unlicensed should be something like electric aircraft up to 5 or 10 lbs, over populated areas (like farms, forests, and private property), and must stay under 400 ft AGL. Requiring every commercial use of UAS to be licensed can limit innovation and create unnecessary barriers to entry that just drives up costs to customers without any real benefit.

I strongly doubt that any commercial UAS application will be unlicensed. They're projecting the UAS industry to be a multi billion dollar industry within the first few years. That's a big pie for uncle Sam to take a piece from. Not only that our skies are about to become VERY congested with UAS so in order to operate anything other than recreational RC aircraft it make sense from a safety stand point to regulate who can utilize the airspace in a commercial setting.

Currently the regulation is, in order to utilize a UAS in any commercial application it has to be considered "experimental". And in order to do that you need to have special clearance from the FAA. Any other commercial use of a UAS can result in a $10,000 fine and other stuff that none of us want to mess with.

Basically, yes it will create barriers but it will also help reduce the amount of incidents that would occur by allowing unqualified people to utilize commercial airspace.

 

[jdyal]

I hope this is the path that needs to be taken
I also am planning an aerial imaging business. But if I can't make ends meet maybe I'll work for Amazon flying packages around. Or more realistically programming the things to do it autonomously. :/

I'm in the same boat. But to be honest, programing autonomous UAS will be more exciting than what I do now anyway lol

 

[Craftydan]

Currently the regulation is, in order to utilize a UAS in any commercial application it has to be considered "experimental". And in order to do that you need to have special clearance from the FAA. Any other commercial use of a UAS can result in a $10,000 fine and other stuff that none of us want to mess with.

Actually, that's the FAA's interpretation of the "regulation", but a judge just handed them their head saying suggestions aren't regulation and for UAS there is no regulation for commercial use. wandering into regulated airspace is a different creature, but has no bearing on whether the venture is commercial or not.

"on track for regulation in 2015", IMO, is optimistic. From what I've seen their first *Proposal* is expected in Sept 2015. In the US Federal government, most things are tracked by fiscal year, which starts the previous October. To say Sept 2015 means they're pushing to the last minute of the year to get it done . . . and if it slips, they've blown the congressional deadline so there's no reason for hurry -- it likely won't happen until the middle of 2016.

Even then, it's only the proposal. All the people affected (you, me, corporations, and special interests) have a period of comment and negotiations for the regulation before it can be finalized and enforced.

All said, I don't expect to know the shape of the law until summer of 2016 and it likely won't be enforced until 2017-2019 . . . which by then, the technology will have exploded (let's hope that's only figuratively ) and they'll have lost most ground to expand their regulatory control.

So what does that mean? I think < 400' AGL will stay a no-mans land. regulated airspace outside of the landing patterns is never below 500' AGL, and away from airports and major corridors, it's usually clear far higher. 400' is still a tight ceiling for some hobbyists (gliders in particular), so I expect hobbyists and commercial entities alike will have to request authority for higher altitude operations, on a site by site basis (This would make it into charts and NOTAMs). Licensing is a HEAUGE logistics problem that I think the FAA is really hesitant to expand. The financial hurdles to private aviation have been high enough to keep demand low -- that makes the problem small. Limited examinations and licenses can be managed by a few regional centers. If they want to expand what is licensed and permitted, they'll have to expand to something similar in scale to a DMV . . . for something that up to now has done pretty well self regulating.

If we have the misfortune of having an effective major-city terrorist strike using model airframes as the weapon, the psychological shock will likely force no-fly zones over major city centers, similar to what rests over DC today. This would be a shame, but is the nature of our country in this day and age.


So how does this affect those wanting to start commercial ventures? No venture is without risk. If it lacked risk, it wouldn't have room for profit. To misquote the Dread Pirate Roberts, " Anyone who says differently is selling something." Recognize the risk, and if it's too great, stay on the sidelines. If not, and you feel you can get up and running and show a profit before regulation takes effect, be ready to loose or change your business model as the regulation comes out.

 

[xuzme720]

Never had a valet, Dan. You can try if you like, I'll most likely kill you in the morning!

What worries me is just that about the licensing. You know they will not go to the infrastructure of the DMV and even that is a nightmare and an all day event! What I fear the most is, that the regulations will be so strict and hard to comply with, that almost nobody will be able to fly. The only possible silver lining is since they are a government bureaucracy, they will hopefully drag their feet long enough to push this into the following year. From what you've said that is a distinct possibility!