Especially if it stays in specific restricted flightpaths that follow the pipelines. It might well decrease the duration of unrepaired leaks along pipelines.

Anytime anyone uses a radio-control airplane, you call it a "drone", and it is eeevil.

Anytime anyone ''evil'' uses a radio-control airplane, you call it a "drone", and it is eeevil.

is there an "effort by the agency to show it is loosening restrictions on commercial uses of the unmanned aircraft?" Have any of you asked for such an effort? This is the beginning of the slow but steady movement toward cops using this shit. Hell, maybe that bat shit sheriff in AZ can launch them from his howitzer. Nuts.

from surveying, agriculture, environmental monitoring, infrastructure inspection, etc

Like any technology they will bring a lot of good along with a some serious issues that the public should be very concerned about...But more than likely will be ignored if we do not elect the right people.

Having said that...I WANT ONE of those 4 propeller drones that can carry a camera & maybe a very small payload just to play with.

- The old hierarchical model that requires large grids of people living in concentrated areas in order the maximize profits, is running into technology that doesn't need any of that.

BP is a 19th century Robber Barony. It's past time we put it out of our misery.

[center][/center]

Per a ruling by the FAA's own administrative law court last March, the FAA currently lacks the authority to prohibit flights or fine operators of small commercial drones because existing regulations simply do not cover them. The FAA's previous claim, that you can legally fly one as a "hobbyist" but that flying them commercially constituted a crime because it is "reckless", was thrown out by a judge who recognized how stupid the argument really was.

Sea Shepherd has used them, an Occupy videographer built one to keep track of the police in NYC, private individuals are using them to track and report pollution and get it stopped and other things.

In Texas, a guy was flying his hobby drone (they are in most cases just remote control toy planes) and then he looked at what it had on video. There was a creek filled with blood from apacking plant and he reported it and got it stopped.

Every country wants them as they are cheaper than planes with a pilot. For some they are the new black helicopter, for others they are the embodiment of human killing drones in the movie Terminator.

Technology makes a lot of jobs, people are going to push this for the money. They don't have some kind of philosophy to tell them how it's going to be used and they don't care. Once it was about 'terrorists' and now it's just about the money.

BTW, our city passed a law to prevent the police from using drones here. But Amazon wants to use them for packages.

I think theres gonna be drone crashes all across America. What happens when the wreckage of two drones crash through someone's windshield? Other mishaps come to mind, whose held responsible? Corporate people? Citizen people? No one? Just duck and dodge our way into the drone-age?

I say target practice if they stray over residential property. Keep-um on a short leash or we'll have the bastards parked outside our windows listening and watching our every move so someone can profit.

What control is there over BP right now? How do we know they aren't using the drones to spy on people they have injured with their careless disregard and neglect, or their competition?

Here is a corporation that is going the way of the dinosaurs because of their outdated technology, middle ages mindset and extreme pollution and they just got permission to fly spy planes all over the US. It's a scandal in the making. They can't even keep their promise to compensate victims of their neglect and we are going to trust them with flying spy planes. It just can't get any dumber.