The FAA is not trying to ban drones. The public is trying to ban drones. The FAA is trying to help implement them safely. It gets hard to do when we have idiots doing stupid stuff with them giving all the others a bad name. The public AKA, media fed people are thinking RC FPV pilots aren't allowed to fly over them or over private property but they are seriously ill-informed. I do see them putting some restrictions in place in the future but no one will ever be able to stop this billion dollar industry. It is here and it will stay as long as there is money to be made. That is how the system works. If money can be made it will be made. We live in a greedy era so lets just face the facts and move on.
This people tracking drone is cool as hell but I wont touch it with a ten foot pole and I am in law enforcement. I can't even imagine the press heyday that would come down on me if I announced that I had a drone for tracking a specific person. It is hard as hell for me just to try and deploy mine for search and rescue and recovery of a fleeing suspect.
In order for me to fly my quadcopter for my Police Department for search and rescue I have to pass the FAA Ground Pilots Exam, receive a flight physical, have a second person with me at the time of every flight, the second person has to have a flight physical as well, fly two training flights with my SWAT Team in the presence of two FAA agents, and have a certificate of flight worthiness issued to my quadcopter and inspected. I also have to keep a flight log of every flight and send updates of my flights to the FAA each month via their website. It took me two months just to get approval from the FAA Agents in Washington to have access to the website. I had to have the City Law Director write an official letter to them stating the reasons why our police department wants to implement a UAV. The first letter was turned down so we had to try a second time after some minor changes. On the second attempt I was granted access to the site and I wont even begin to get into what is on the application but I will say it is very lengthy. Once I have accomplished all of those steps for which I am in the 8th month of and only then will I be allowed to use my quadcopter to help locate a lost child or any other type of rescue mission.
So as it stands if a small child was lost in Logan Ohio or in Hocking County I would not be permitted to use my quadcopter even though it is in my van every day I drive to work. Being from a smaller agency we do not have access to air support anywhere in my county. So even though I have a device that could help save this young child's life I would not be permitted to use it to locate them and bring them home. The FAA could impose huge fines on my department for doing so and we all know that if I did use it to find a child it would make it to the media and then straight to the FAA from there.
This stuff is no joke, but non the less, it is here and it will be here for a long time. People are just going to have to get used to it. I fully believe that there is going to be many law suites from un- experienced pilots with less than average good decision making skills damaging other peoples property. I see in the future regulations being brought about having some sort of registration and insurance being a prerequisite prior to flying one of these things with FAA approval.
On a good note, I also see them only enforcing that on people trying to fly them out of the current suggestion parameters of the FAA in place now. They have a good system of 400 feet and within line of sight right now so I don't see any reason for changing that for the hobby pilot.
