What do I need to know to fly legally?

whackflyer

Master member
Personally I think the brushed motors are good enough for me. They do wear out after 8 or so hours of flight time tho. I'm on my second set, got the 19,000kv ones this time. 9$ for for 4 of them. It has a lot of punch. If you were going to go brushless you would have to buy a different FC and frame, so if you're wanting brushless just buy a brushless whoop to start with. Another option is the BetaFPV whoops, I've heard they are very good and they're fairly reasonable on price too.
 
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Ed B

New member
The FAA is a registration, it is required for anything .55 pounds to 55 pounds. As long as you are outside.

Does anyone know where the .55 pounds came from?

I'm thinking it that its a proxy designation for indoor/outdoor drones. I saw the original (2014?) FAA PDF when they reviewed the specs of several drones. The smaller ones were all well under 250 grams and the heavier outdoor ones were all well above... but otherwise is seems quite random. There was a comment on another blog that bird strike testing doesn't even happen for anything less than 2.2 lbs.
I have not been able to find any written justification by the FAA.

There didn't seem to be any great community motivation to fight hard for .55 as a registration threshold, but now that its being applied to Remote ID, it means substantially more. I doubt that most drones under 1.5 lbs would have the capacity to carry the full Remote ID gear (transmitter, extra battery etc).
 

The Hangar

Fly harder!
Mentor
Does anyone know where the .55 pounds came from?

I'm thinking it that its a proxy designation for indoor/outdoor drones. I saw the original (2014?) FAA PDF when they reviewed the specs of several drones. The smaller ones were all well under 250 grams and the heavier outdoor ones were all well above... but otherwise is seems quite random. There was a comment on another blog that bird strike testing doesn't even happen for anything less than 2.2 lbs.
I have not been able to find any written justification by the FAA.

There didn't seem to be any great community motivation to fight hard for .55 as a registration threshold, but now that its being applied to Remote ID, it means substantially more. I doubt that most drones under 1.5 lbs would have the capacity to carry the full Remote ID gear (transmitter, extra battery etc).
Good point. I don’t know where that number came from. :unsure:
 

nhk750

Aviation Enthusiast
Probably some dumb politicians that thought .55lbs couldn't hurt anything, but I guess they forgot about bullets that only weigh a few grams. It is possible that in the future they will change this loophole as they seem to like to ruin everything that is fun, or tax the heck out of it.
 

Ed B

New member
The 'sorta' funny thing is I also haven't found much discussion or debate over the .55 pound limit when the registration requirements were put in place. The way the registration process happened is that it started (as you likely know) in 2015 but public comments weren't accepted on it until February 2019 due to the federal "Interim Final Rule" process... so every one was living with the .55 threshold without the ability to comment on it to the FAA for 4 years. It wasn't a huge factor in registration... but I believe it will be with Remote ID.

I'm mostly focused on the ability of recreational flyers with older planes and drones (above .55 pounds) to retain the ability to fly in their backyards and private lands vs being limited to 'an FAA-recognized identification area' which means an official recognized community based organization flying field. Kids need to be able to fly at home to get into the hobby!
 

nhk750

Aviation Enthusiast
So, I was flying at a lake two days ago and talked to a police officer that was watching me. I fly electric and that was all he was concerned about, as internal combustion is not allowed there. I asked him about all the new laws and he knew nothing except what he has heard on the news. He said they only enforce flying in State parks, National parks, and the common sense no fly areas. He said that may change as the feds brief local law enforcement, but for now as long as you fly safe and away from restricted areas, they dont really care about registration numbers or any of that. He also said it will be next to impossible to enforce all the future fed rules as they just dont have the resources or time to deal with an old guy flying a work of art they built by hand, however they are focused on the stupid drone operator doing stupid things. He also said the feds are going to need to fund enforcement and provide more officers if they expect them to enforce all the new silly rules as they are way to busy with real crime.