Commercial flights deemed legal... Trappy won!

Mikeq

Member
Looks like the FAA didn't get the memo.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-b...lying-drone-at-spring-training-182122323.html

Big Government is at it again, and not even the baseball team located in our nation's capital has been spared it's overreach. The Federal Aviation Administration recently told the Washington Nationals that it was flying a drone at spring training without expressed permission. No, not from Major League Baseball, but Uncle Sam himself. CBS News reports:


Love this quote:

"No, we didn't get it cleared, but we don't get our pop flies cleared either and those go higher than this thing did,"

 


"Huerta said that using unmanned systems for agriculture in the United States offers unique complications that are not true for countries like Japan, where the practice is commonplace."

Yes,,, they have FREEDOM in Japan. FREEDOM in the US has faded into the mist under the hand of big government.
 


Motopreserve

Drone Enthusiast
"Huerta said that using unmanned systems for agriculture in the United States offers unique complications that are not true for countries like Japan, where the practice is commonplace."

It really seems like they are just making this up as they go along. "Unique complications"???

I would think of all the scenarios that they are looking at - agriculture would be the LEAST complicated. Let's see: Flying primarily away from most obstacles and potential danger...check. Flying primarily away from passersby...check. Flying in the service of an industry that feeds the country...check. Flying for the purpose of potentially aiding small farmers in an industry increasingly dominated by conglomerates...check.

Hmmm. Seems less and less complicated the more I think about it :)
 

Mikeq

Member
It really seems like they are just making this up as they go along. "Unique complications"???

I would think of all the scenarios that they are looking at - agriculture would be the LEAST complicated. Let's see: Flying primarily away from most obstacles and potential danger...check. Flying primarily away from passersby...check. Flying in the service of an industry that feeds the country...check. Flying for the purpose of potentially aiding small farmers in an industry increasingly dominated by conglomerates...check.

Hmmm. Seems less and less complicated the more I think about it :)

Not to mention I'm sure many of these fields are being crop dusted by full size aircraft without any issues.
 

Mikeq

Member
I wonder if there's some really simple way around the whole FAA issue. If part of the aircraft never leaves the ground, is it an aircraft? If I had a long string tied to it and the string comes down to the ground or is attached to a fixed object, am I an aircraft?
 

The regulations on tethered airships etc. is less stringent at least here in Canada..... A neigbour has been doing aerial photo work by blimp here for years.....
A tethered MR would technically fall under this less stringent category since it could not fly-away!


I wonder if there's some really simple way around the whole FAA issue. If part of the aircraft never leaves the ground, is it an aircraft? If I had a long string tied to it and the string comes down to the ground or is attached to a fixed object, am I an aircraft?
 

Motopreserve

Drone Enthusiast
I wonder if there's some really simple way around the whole FAA issue. If part of the aircraft never leaves the ground, is it an aircraft? If I had a long string tied to it and the string comes down to the ground or is attached to a fixed object, am I an aircraft?

There is no reason to get tethered. Technically the RC craft is already a different category simply because "aircraft" was meant to mean with people onboard. This came up somewhere in the Trappy case (can't recall where I read the statute - here or other coverage).
 

kloner

Aerial DP
there is a company that claims to have an faa letter that they sell in a kit that tethers your phantom and supposedly makes it legal, they claim to give you an faa exemption or something, 99.99, looks like a kite string.....

Most of us in the industry can agree that 99% of the time that'd be no more than a cause for a wreck
 


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