Hi everyone,
I've read the FAA's proposal. I'm not a big fan of these requirements, but nevertheless, I thought I'd summarize the things that I believe are important:
1. The new proposals will not apply to drones that weigh less than .55 pounds and which are used exclusively for recreational purposes. That means that if you own a Mavic Mini or anything lighter and you just fly it for fun, these rules won't change anything for you. No remote ID required.
2. The new proposal finally gives a useful definition of visual line of sight. As I read it, you won't have to actually be looking at your drone, it just has to be in a position that you (or an observer) could see if it you were looking with unaided vision. Under the new rule, it appears that you can look down at a FPV view of your drone temporarily without being in violation of the rules. The old rule was ambiguous on this point.
3. The requirement of internet reporting does not have to be the result of a transmission from the drone. This means that your drone will not need its own mobile phone plan or transmitter. Rather, the internet reporting can occur via a smartphone connected to the controller, and it can use either Wifi or a mobile data service (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, or even (gasp) Sprint) to send the data.
4. As a result of #3, above, if you own virtually any currently commercially available drone, your drone is probably already capable of complying with Remote ID with a firmware update and a new app from the manufacturer.
Your drone already transmits most of the required information (barometric altitude, etc.) from the drone to your controller in an encrypted format. The firmware update would be required so that the required information would be transmitted in the clear periodically to comply with the broadcast requirement.
The app update would be required to allow your phone to transmit the required information over the internet to an approved service provider.
5. You would also be required to subscribe to a service provider to receive the information sent over the internet. Ideally, you'll want to have more than one because if the provider goes down while you have internet service, your drone won't take-off.
On the other hand, if you have no internet service available, your drone WILL take off and fly. As long as it also broadcasts data directly from the drone itself, you can fly as long as you want with no internet service available.
The FAA says that you'll have to pay $30 a year for that service. I have no idea how they got that number, but given that I can use a number of LAANC service providers today for free, the estimate seems reasonable.
It wouldn't surprise me if a hobbyist organization set itself up as a service provider and provided the service for free for its members.
The FAA says that DJI is already an approved LAANC service provider, and so it wouldn't surprise me at all if DJI set itself up as an approved Remote ID Provider as well.
5. The one thing that reallly, really surprises me is the fact that hobbyist groups have only 12 months to request that the FAA recognize areas for flying drones without Remote ID. Once that 12 month period is up, the FAA will not accept any further applications to recognize these areas.
I would think that the FAA should be willing to accept such applications forever, in order to accommodate hobbyists who build their own model aircraft/drones/etc. I guess the thinking is that future builders will include Remote ID capabilities in their aircraft, or build them under .55 pounds.
6. The quotes that I've read from the FAA and industry indicates that the FAA wants this rule to take effect right away. Industry appears to wish that the FAA had adopted these rules much sooner. I would not count on a long delay. These rules will likely be adopted soon, though they won't take effect for about three years.
www.thedroneu.com
I went back to reread a part and I’m getting an error page.
