I’m sure many of you in the US have seen this Esurance commercial:
“That’s not how this work, that’s not how any of this works...”
Getting 1000 members on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn isn’t how this works either. Its that old saying, “You can’t be everything to everybody.” Neither can the Small UAV Coalition.
There are several threads regarding different organizations claiming to represent the interests of commercial sUAS operators, trouble is that most of them represent their own interest. These organizations see it from their own and differing perspectives, attorneys, commercial pilots, lobbyists, and marketing specialists for example. You at least have to give them credit for attempting to try something when the vast majority of people aren’t willing to do anything.
However, what effect will these organizations have on influencing the regulatory process and how does that effect us? Most will have little, if any, and the ones that do most likely don’t represent our interest in operating a “small” sUAS business commercially. Maybe a better questions would be what effect have we have had or might have on them?
Bart mentioned how Jesse Kallman’s testimony at the US House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure hearing influenced his decision to contact the Small UAV Coalition:
http://www.multirotorforums.com/threads/new-sub-forum-small-uav-coalition-usa.22390/ Unfortunately he incongruously connected AirWare and The Small UAV Coalition to that Committee meeting. Yes AirWare is one o the twelve companies that “hired” Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP to form The Small UAV Drone Coalition, but Mr Kallman did not represent the “Coalition” and his presence at that Committee hearing had nothing to do with the “Coalition.” As Bart mentioned Mr Kallman is the Head of Business Development and Regulatory Affairs for AirWare and it was AirWare that was asked to participate in that hearing in large part, because one of the founders of AirWar is also a software developer for the current ATC system.
Bart was right about Mr. Kallman’s testimony but that testimony is not representative of the “Coalition.” I do not believe that Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP represents my interests, nor the majority of people interested in operating a small sUAS business. I believe they represent the interest of twelve large international companies who want to make sure that whatever regulations the FAA is proposing do not prevent their “Clients” from conducting “drone” business in the US.
I am not saying that these interests are mutually exclusive but I’m not sure its a good investment of $30K annually so that they allow you to listen in on a couple of conference calls and I doubt that amount of money does much to motivate them to spend much time on issues that might differ from Amazon’s but are important to us.
Is there a more cost effective way to support efforts to influence the regulatory process?
I have stayed out of the various discussions about the different advocacy groups, but now I want to make the case for why I think this forum and its members should get behind and support ACUAS.org.
First and foremost, without having to pay anything the members of this forum have had a profound influence on the direction and development of ACUAS,org. All of the video in the trailer was generously provided by members of this forum and if you read the content you’ll see that much of it was also contributed by forum members. It was created to represent the interests of MRF members by MRF members! The very reason for its existence is to protect our right to own and operate small sUAS businesses legally and profitably.
If small sUAS businesses want to operate legally and profitably we need to look beyond the current regulations that govern the flight rules of sUAS and take into consideration the needs of people and organizations who want to gain the benefits that sUAS has to offer. In order to accomplish this ACUAS.org has been reaching out in three essential ways - trying to gain understanding of organizations that represent technologies and businesses that might require the FAA to alter current regulations to not only meet these companies needs but also their strategies, generating niche thinking to identify new segments of the ill defined sUAS market, and developing an infrastructure of suppliers, vendors, partners, and users whose relationships will [should] be influential in the regulatory process.
It has taken over 100 years for the regulation of flight to reach this point, it will probably take a decade to sort out the introduction of commercial drone use, ACUAS.org is oriented toward creating an organization based on developmental education, incremental improvement, and ongoing process rather than simple market-share tactics and one time events.
The hearing on December 10th was long overdue, it should have happened two years ago. It was also one of those hearings where everyone read their prepared statements therefore I think its doubtful that it had any effect on the FAA. For those who might not be familiar with the NPRM process, the FAA was required to submit its proposed regulations to the Office of Management and Budget - OMB, and the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs - OIRA, for review to determine what effect the regulations might have on existing and future industry prior to opening it up to public comment. ACUAS.org has a member who asked for input from us regarding the pending regulations who spoke at last weeks Congressional OMB hearing. I’m not saying what was discussed will change anything, nor am I implying that we had more influence than the Small UAV Coalition, but we certainly didn’t have any less, however, we had direct access to a member of that hearing.
ACUAS.org is making strides with other influential organizations and individuals as well. Its a lot of work developing an advocacy organization. It would be great if ACUAS was further along but I’m confident in saying that the money your talking about spending with the Small UAV Coalition would go much further and be more effective at influencing regulations that favor commercial sUAS operators.
I went to The Imitation Game last night and there’s this great line in it: “Sometimes its the people who no one ever imagines anything of, that do the things that no on can imagine.”
