I've been the Chief Inspector at 5 Part 145 Repair Stations, sit on an FAA safety advisory board and dealt with numerous FSDOs, ACOs and MIDOs over a 40 year period so I think I have a little knowledge on how they work, including their inner workings. The FAA has been fed a new technology field to regulate and enforce that they weren't manned or had the knowledge to support so we are where we are today. The same situation exist for commercial space launch companies and some of their operational challenges. I've been contacted by several PMIs and Ops inspectors during the past 6 months and asked questions about sUAV ops because they don't know how these things work.~!While it certainly may be plausible that Capitol Hill is responsible, that remains argumentative. You could come to a clear conclusion only if you had comprehensive first-hand knowledge of the inner workings of the system. Personally, I think the system is far bigger than we realize. Again, I give the FAA the benefit of the doubt, although I remain as frustrated as the next guy. Put simply, the FAA just didn't see this coming. It's like writing a memo on safe beekeeping when you're inside a hive full of pissed-off bees.
At the FSDO that I deal with there are maybe 2 or 3 out of 40 inspectors who have even flown a sUAV.
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