FAA Task Force Recommends Registering Drone Operators
Source: Forbes
Nov 23, 2015 @ 01:47 PM
FAA Task Force Recommends Registering Drone Operators
by Abigail Tracy
A drone task force assembled by the Federal Aviation Administration recommended on Monday that operators of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) be required to register their devices, the FAA announced Monday.
The task force—with included a variety of stakeholders in the drone market from manufacturers to retailers—recommended that drone operators be required to register as such either online or through an app. Under the task force’s suggestions, operators would have to be over 13 years. Drone hobbyists would receive a registration certificate and personal registration number that could be used for all the drones they own, rather than requiring them to register their drones one-by-one should they have multiple. Hobbyists would simply have to label all their drones with this registration number before taking them to the skies.
This process isn’t necessary for all consumer drones, the task force noted. Instead, it recommended, that drones under 250 grams be excluded from the registration requirement, based on “an assessment of available safety studies and risk probability calculations.” Drones of this size, however, are few and far between, which means that the majority of consumer drones would require registration.
As consumer drones have grown in popularity, there has been increased pressure on the FAA and the Department of Transportation to regulate the unmanned aircrafts in the wake of high-profile drone collisions and near accidents—particularly those that have occurred in restricted airspace.
Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/abigailtracy/2015/11/23/the-faas-drone-task-force-released-its-drone-regulation-recommendations/
I'm a little shaky on the timeline. Over a month ago, this was in LBN:
U.S. government to require that hobbyists register their drones
I guess registration of drones was in the pipeline, but the details were still to be worked out.
More:
Bart Jansen, USA TODAY 11:23 a.m. EST November 23, 2015
Remote-controlled aircraft larger than 9 ounces would have to be registered with the Federal Aviation Administration, under recommendations described Monday by the leaders of a drone task force.
Drone owners would have to register just their names and physical addresses, under a process the task force said should be free. The aircraft would have to be marked with a unique number to identify the owner, although not necessarily by the serial number.
Earl Lawrence, who was co-chairman of the task force as director of drone integration at FAA, noted the lack of dissenting opinions in the task force's report and said "some decisions were simply compromises."
But Dave Mathewson, executive director of the Academy of Model Aeronautics, which represents 180,000 hobbyists nationwide, said his group that participated in the task force wanted to file a dissenting opinion and was prevented from doing so. He said factors other than just the weight of the drone, such as capabilities and safety-related characteristics, should have been required for registration.
By CECILIA KANG NOV. 23, 2015
Drones are expected to be hot sellers this holiday season. Now it looks as if owners of nearly all those machines will have to register with the federal government and have the information placed in a national database, as officials look to address concerns over safety and the mischief caused by unmanned aircraft.
The proposed regulations were outlined in a report released on Monday by the Federal Aviation Administration. The recommendations came from a task force created by the agency and are widely expected to be approved in a few weeks, ahead of what is expected to be a big increase of drone owners after Christmas.
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