New FAA Regulation Requires UAV Owners to Display Drone ID on Exterior
- Thread starter BigAl07
- Start date
Curious how this system works for those situations where (say) an aircraft is in a ‘pool’ of AC that various pilots may fly, depending on the day / flight requirement. Surely all possible pilots don’t have each of their numbers on all AC? The system seems counterintuitive when compared to manned AC registration?
Just curious in why...
I think the idea is to be able to identify the owner if it causes injury or damage.
This "new requirement" is for HOBBYIST because Commercial Registration has always required the Reg # be on the aircraft visible.
An aircraft can only be registered 1x (hobby or Commercial) and it's illegal to have dual registration on a single aircraft. So it would be registered to a single person for point of contact and not to each person who flies the aircraft.
I printed my registration number and my telephone number with If found please call. It is about the width of the Scotch tape and it does not affect the Drone in any way shape or form that I can see
Can you point me to where this is documented? I don’t recall ever seeing that a commercial or registration under part 107 required it to be displayed any differently than a hobby registration. In fact all I’ve found is this and I believe it applies to both:
§48.205 Display and location of unique identifier.
(a) The unique identifier must be maintained in a condition that is legible.
(b) The unique identifier must be affixed to the small unmanned aircraft by any means necessary to ensure that it will remain affixed for the duration of each operation.
(c) The unique identifier must be readily accessible and visible upon inspection of the small unmanned aircraft. A unique identifier enclosed in a compartment is readily accessible if it can be accessed without the use of any tool.
No one will be able to see it unless it's crashed on the ground anyway... What's the point?
I don't believe it's intended to be "visible" from the air in the first place. My assumption, and take that for what you paid for it, is that it needs to be easily seen/recognized without need to dismantle the AC etc.
@bsartist it's entirely possible I'm mixing Section 333 registration display requirements with Part 107. I've been wrong before and I'm sure I'll be wrong again sooner than later.
Thank you. Finally someone who is not just a cheerleader for more regulation to punish those dang newcomers.
Here is my view on this: I’m not likely to lose any sleep over this one way or another. But it feels like a regulatory overreach with little benefit by the acting administrator. Why do I say this? Because I read his own words. Here is what he said:
Acting Administrator of the FAA, Dan Elwell, stated at a Bloomberg Government conference earlier this month that the agency simply can’t condone “unidentified objects” in its airspace. “We need assurances that any drone, any unmanned aircraft, operating in controlled airspace is identifiable and trackable,” he said. “It’s as simple as that."
There may be a better explanation but THIS ONE doesn’t do it for me. Forcing us to put it on the outside seems to do little to make the drones more identifiable and trackable. Transponders would. If you can read a label on a drone exterior then you can pull the battery just as easily. Who are they really trying to help track our drones with exterior numbering? Who are we giving assurances to by moving the number out of the battery compartment? And how is allowing an interior number “condoning unidentified objects”? My drone is not unidentified if an enforcement person asks me to show my number and I comply. I could be missing a very valid argument. But what he said here is not convincing to me. And I don’t think the goal should be to turn every rubberneckers into an enforcer by looking to see if our drone is registered.
And if one is tempted to use license plates or boat registration numbers or tail numbers as a metaphor, I think that’s a thin reed. As per Melvoid’s comment, it’s not like putting them on the outside will make them visible from any reasonable distance. You still have to get close enough that you could ask that the battery be removed to show the number. I think Ellwell just has a little too much free time on his hands.
I sometimes think the love for these types of additional regulations is thinly veiled resentment for the great unwashed masses joining a hobby already in progress - and having it easier than the charter members had it. Just a feeling I sometimes get. No offense intended. Having said that, I’m definitely open to be convinced by an angle that I haven’t thought of or that Mr. Ellwell hadn’t quite articulated. I’m also waiting to see where it says that part 107 numbers are supposed to be exterior and not in a battery compartment like hobbyists. The main reason is because if true I WANT to comply. I just haven’t seen than.
The regs already say that they must be made visible without the use of tools (which I would consider dismantling. I wouldn’t consider taking the battery out as dismantling.) So the existing rule has that covered.
Thanks for the clarification on the 333 vs. part 107.
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That's why I fly mine at eye level, so they can easily read it. No, I'm only kidding, but there have been times when...
Yet when the FAA came up with the initial registration and were asked how they would obtain the registration number from the drone, their response was that the problem was not getting the drone, it was matching it to the owner.
Now they seem to be changing their mind and admitting that the problem _is_ getting the drone.
We all knew this from the very start. The FAA was simply lying to people about the need for the registration.
True is... if this law is passed, it still won't make the registration of any use. They will simply keep stacking law on top of law to make it look like they are doing something.
I mean seriously, ask any 5 year old how a 10 font registration number on a drone is going to change anything and they will tell you, it won't.
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and hover it 2 feet from someone's face while they read the reg number.
N017RW
Premium Pilot
Oh thank goodness that for over 99.9% of my flights I, like +90% of other pilots, have been in uncontrolled, Class G airspace. I guess that he'll also do away with Part 103 ultralights since they have no registration number or transponder on them, so thus are unidentified?
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