Are you registering your UAV??
 

The FAA says every UAV over 1/2 pound must be registered.

"The online registration would apply to owners of small drones weighing more than 0.55 pounds and less than 55 pounds, including payloads such as on-board cameras, according to a statement by the FAA.

“Make no mistake: unmanned aircraft enthusiasts are aviators and with that title comes a great deal of responsibility,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement. “Registration gives us an opportunity to work with these users to operate their unmanned aircraft safely. I’m excited to welcome these new aviators into the culture of safety and responsibility that defines American innovation.”

The new rules would require drone owners to pay a $5 registration fee. Penalties go up to $27,000 for civil violations, $250,000 for criminal acts with up to three years behind bars."

Take off weight of the popular camera carrying UAVs like the DJI Phantom is 1300 grams (over 2 lbs), so this covers a LOT of toys.

I suspect soon any UAV will require on-line updates before they will even launch. They will require internet connection and full registration before they will fly the first time at all. Firmware updates will be required on a regular basis and they will upload the location of every flight during the firmware updates. If the firmware is not updated, it will not fly at all.

The current batch of UAVs will be obsolete in a few years. Any UAV sold will have all the protections built in.

A friend of mine bought one for shooting real estate and weddings and such. He tried to fire it up and play with his new toy in the back yard. It would not fly at all. He was pissed and figured he got a defective one. He called tech support all made and they looked up his address and he is within 3 miles of an airport. No fly zone. He went to a friends house and it worked great.

The world of UAVs is here. I just wonder how long before the first person is walking at a park and gets killed by a UAV from some moron. It is going to happen.

I've been around some rather large ones being flown on the beach where I live... being flown by idiots that is.. and have been quite terrified. One guy had one that looked sorta like a hybrid of a drone and an RC helicopter, it was electric and looked to have carbon fiber blades with a span of about 3 feet. No guard around the blades. He was flying it up and down the Hermosa Beach Strand at what had to be 30 or 40+ MPH. This sucker was fast as hell, and he was barrel rolling it and flipping it and such end over end- I was walking out to the beach with my girlfriend and saw this and actually said to her "lets avoid that, and walk around" ... because I saw how fast and loose this idiot was flying this thing near the walk and all it would take would be a poor judgement with the controls and the blades of that sucker would cut deep into your head/neck/etc.

I've seen similar situations out on the beach with drones flying fast and low by kids playing and such and just think it's ridiculous. These are big 'toys' that could get out of control seriously fast and when in a crowd of people will really, really hurt someone. It's not like throwing a football around on the sand... it's a hunk of carbon and metal dropping out of the sky at however fast Newton lets it.....

I do this for a living.

We register everything but we make money with UAS.

UAS's are the ultimate asymmetric weapon, gents, the Genie is out of the bottle.

He is the reason pilots like me are now burdened with this stupidity.

I read a piece that said they'd refund the $5 fee for anyone registering in the first 30 days. Might as well do it now. It's a one time registration that is good for all your craft.

Press Release – FAA Announces Small UAS Registration Rule

It's a $5 fee for your entire fleet of model aircraft and if you do it before a certain date the $5 is refunded. Then it is another $5 every 3 years.

Of course they want it to be an online registration event where you give a gubmint contractor your name, physical address, email address and pay the fee with a credit card.

What could go wrong?

I'll add that I am a 40 year veteran of flying model aircraft safely and responsibly through the community based organization known as the AMA, and I for one am opposed to this new ruling.

Question is, with they take a Visa gift card?

I was going to join the AMA. I am undecided now.

I would rather take away the drivers license of the idiots that can't fly with respect. They aren't going to register anyway.

Yeah, my father is in the same boat. He's been flying model airplanes since the 50's. He's pissed, to put it mildly.

If I was not a commercial 333 operator, in this for the long haul, I would not register.

I worked on all the FAA/OSD committees on file and fly, sense and avoid, flight in the national airspace and helped write some of the foundational rules for drones. The registration ruling has no meaning for hobbyists.

I write coa's for faa district approval...if you have questions, pm me. The .991 just came out last month.

Seems silly to register everything from kites to quads in the .55lb to 55lb class when it is the idiots with more money than sense causing most of the issues.

If you go by the tethered and capable of sustained flight part it would include a kite. There may be an exception for kites but I can see them being just as much an issue fro you helo pilots.

Guys like you aren't the problem. If something is genuinely difficult, people (as a whole) tend to do it well. The hassle, expense and humiliation of doing things badly provides the discipline.
The problem now is some-one can now make a spur of the moment decision to buy a cheap drone of dubious quality and be flying it in minutes. No (perceived) difficulty, no discipline.

IIRC Congress passed something a while back which explicitly stated that hobbyist model airplanes would always remain exempt.

Big airplane fall out of the sky too. ...as do model rocket and RC planes.

There's a saying; what goes up, must something something... oh; Come Down;)

...and no doubt people said the same thing when the wright brothers took flight.

Now if there was a lawyer with any sense that said lawyer would get versed real fast in the defense of a drone operator or the defense of a person on the wrong end of a drone operator!

I see this as being bigger then gay wedding planners...

Cool.
Government tracking and remote control of all vehicles. Kill switch.

Remind me again to buy a GM with OnStar(tm).

I will register but I'm not happy. Been flying r/c since 1975. I have a basement full of "drones" managed not to make a nuisance of myself.

I would expect someone will complain the next time they see one. I have to protect myself with FAA registration and AMA membership. I imagine the FAA will impose fines to show they mean business.

Just can't imagine the registration system working well four (!) days before Christmas. It will likely crash very shortly after opening.

Too many people to register in such a short window before Christmas. Probably 150,000+ AMA members alone. >10,000,000 more non-AMA members is a light guess. All trying to save $5.

Congress did specifically exempt model airplanes. FAA likely used emergency power to sidestep the law.

And yes, it is because casual users of cheap ready to fly aircraft can be real idiots.

Great, Now do tell me- How will this 5 dollar tax make anything safer ?
Samocrap diferent day

Commercial use requires insurance and a FAA flight plan/approval. Seahawk and I have been talking about this for years. We lost one on the first TV approved flight plan a year or two ago that didn't come back when it lost connectivity, it was a big FAA deal. Seahawk wasn't involved in any way on that one.

Which will come first, accidental death or murder by UAV?

Sadly, people have already been killed by accidental collisions. Rarely made the news in the past.

I worry more about the open rotor quads. Face and eye injury. Kids will suffer the most becuase they will have to grow up with the consequences. At least wear safety glasses!

That and fire risk from cheap and poorly designed li-po batteries, just like the hoverboards. Local flyer had an r/c battery pack ignite and do heavy fire damage to his house. Total loss. .

so- what is "their definition of a drone ?
All RC aircraft over a 1/2 lbs ?

Wow, this sucks.

Toddler's eyeball sliced in half by drone propeller - BBC News

Yes, all r/c aircraft 1/2lb Up to 55lbs.

Per the AMA, after 55lbs it's in a separate catagory.

Sounds like our gun registry....complete waste of time.

We don't have a register in Canada, yet, but I'm sure the sheep in Ottawa will see the cash grab value of it.

You don't have to register kites unless they are part of what the FAA calls a "system" with communication links that operate controls on the vehicle. That eliminates kites as I know then. As I understand it, if you simply tether a toy blimp you don't have to register it, but if you put electronic controls on it and tether it, you have to register.

It doesn't look like they want you to register the vehicle. You are registering yourself as an owner/pilot and put your number on all the vehicles you fly.

I predict explosives delivery to some crowded area by UAV.

Did you notice in the BBC link above it stated that it is illegal in the UK to fly a UAV over congested areas such as streets, towns or cities.

Each "aircraft" gets a certificate to be affixed to the aircraft as well.

Yes, a kite is probably hyperbole but not far from it. Any free flight models are fine.

I don't see this helping in any way.

I'm not seeing that in the FAA faq. As I read it you have to put your number on all your UAS's, but you don't have to tell the FAA the make or model or even how many you have.

"The registration ruling has no meaning for hobbyists."

That statement is contradictory to everything that I have read/heard since the ruling came down 2 days ago. Please elaborate.

As I see it, I would register with FAA, and put tags on my RC planes, Copters, and quad-copter?

Is there an insurance requirement (AMA Membership required) to register with FAA? If not now, I'm sure that's next.

That's what it looks like to me. You register, they give you a number, and you put that number on all your UAS's.

The FAA faq doesn't say anything about insurance, but I'll bet states do come along and add their own laws, including one requiring insurance.