A Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down FAA Rules for Registering Model Aircraft
The FAA has forced hobby UAV operators to register their aircraft for almost a year now. Today, the rule was struck down by an Appeals court that sided on John A. Taylor’s side (and the side of hobbyist flyers across the nation) that the FAA overstepped their boundaries. Section 336 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 is pretty specific that the FAA is forbidden “from promulgating any rule or regulation regarding model aircraft.”
This ruling does not affect commercial UAV pilots, only hobbyist operators.
We wait to see the FAA’s reaction and if they will challenge this ruling to Supreme Court.
Read MoreNew executive order to help businesses will hurt drone business.
The law of unintended consequences. Trump’s recent executive order to reduce regulation across the federal government is likely to cause more problems for drone use than it solves. While the order was passed to reduce regulation and help stimulate business growth, with the nascent growth of the Drone industry regulations are needed to be updated and changed to give drone pilots more ability to fly their drones for customers. Read the rest of the story on Forbes.
Tiny Whoop Race at Hobby Town in Boise.
The local Boise FPV group is putting on a a Tiny Whoop FPV Race on February 25, at 8pm. They will be following the Drone Racing MultiGP rules. Find out more information from this Event Page on Facebook.
The FAA has taken notice of the Heathrow incident, Walmart the first to comply.
Having seen the incident of the Plastic Bag sighting at Heathrow last month, the FAA stepped up efforts to control the NAS. The latest regulation calls for all plastic shopping bags to be registered and tracked to prevent terrorist floating bags as well as inadvertent bag – aircraft collisions.
The TSA suggests planning an extra 20-40 minutes to your shopping trips to account for Registration number transfer to customers. The open database of registered names, IDs, address, and the name of first born will be available shortly on the FAA website. Comments for these new regulations will go through the normal process at the FAA, pending time and money to convene regulation meetings.
Thanks to Rotor Riot for the first photos of an FAA sanctioned shopping bag.
Read MoreShooting down any aircraft, including UAVs and other RC planes, is a federal crime.
John Goglia has a piece on Forbes.com stateing that the FAA has responded to questions about the shooting down of drones. Citing 18 U.S.C. 32, the FAA has confirmed that shooting down a Drone or any other aircraft is a felony. This statue goes on further and prohibits interfering with anyone “engaged in the authorized operation of such aircraft”. This means that threatening a drone or drone operator could put a person in jail for 5 years.
While the FAA says that it is a federal crime to shoot down aircraft, they have not stated when they will start prosecuting those that are shooting down UAVs
Read MoreRacing Drones in Boise
Here is a fun article from the Idaho Statesman. It covers the “new” sport of drone racing. It has an angle about getting kids involved and how much they enjoy it.
Read MoreIs a UAV on your, or your child’s Christmas list?
Christmas is coming up, and UAV sales are projected to break previous records. The Drone Pilot Zone has a great article that breaks down the safety factors of UAVs, and gives you a list of drones in 4 different classes, from safest (most user friendly) to most dangerous and should be looked at by people that understand how to operate UAVs safely, because these can potentially cause major harm. I’d highly recommend checking this article out if you are shopping for a UAV for the holidays.
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