A D.C.-based appeals court struck down a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rule on Friday requiring recreational drone users to register their model aircraft with the federal government, in a major win for drone hobbyists.This could get very interesting. What size does a drone have to be in order to be considered a "model aircraft"? There are some pretty honking huge model airplanes out there.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit sided with plaintiff John A. Taylor, a recreational drone pilot, who argued that the FAA doesn’t have the power to make him register his toy drones because Congress already said the FAA can’t regulate model aircraft.
“The FAA’s 2015 registration rule, which applies to model aircraft, directly violates that clear statutory prohibition,” the opinion said. “We therefore grant Taylor’s petition and vacate the registration rule to the extent it applies to model aircraft.”
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Even small drone might be able to find its way into the fan blades of a jet that is landing or taking off. I mean, who needs geese?
Yours crankily,
The New Y ork Crank
They will down a plane eventually and then get regulated but I thought the same thing about UL part 151 and it hasn't happened yet.
I'm surprised how drone happy Bush, Obama and trump are considering how easy it seems to put c4 in a big model plane and go presidential SUV hunting.
They think it can't happen here? The savages will never figure out GPS, model aircraft and high explosives?
Same as NSA's stuxnet virus loosed on Iran to cripple their nuke plants-an act of war. They have the hubris to think this won't come home to roost, that Iranians could never hack us.
See what already has happened with wannacry backdoor being horded by NSA, leaked or stolen, then modified to attack (Windows) computers for (pathetically tiny symbolic) bitcoin ransom leaving even hospitals prostrate.
Thanks for your service, spooks.
Quite a bit of concern out here as we ramp up for fire season again. Talk of grounding aircraft, which isn't going to fly well (heh) with our million dollar forested golf course communities. The likelihood of sucking a drone is probably about the same as a goose, less considering there are more geese in the wild, otherwise seems to me the rotorwash would blow them out of the sky. If not the rotorwash the retardant: the water coming off the belly of an S64 would smash a drone to pieces in mid-air, probably never even find the pieces on the ground.
20 kilograms, afaik.
Thomas, part of the problem is drones, for instance, hang out near wildfires, geese don't. I know of a couple of situations last year where tankers were called off because some numbskull was buzzing a drone over a wildfire. The more likely scenario (to me) is that a drone damages (more likely) or takes down either a Police or a Medevac chopper. Both situations are ones that often involve attention and may draw the average genius to decide they want to take some video. Luckily, these situations would normally involve smaller drones with less chance of downing wherever if hit/get hit by. However, knowing human instincts, the most likely cause of a downing by drone would be an excessive evasive maneuver resulting in loss of control, kinda like the guy who swerves to avoid the squirrel and hits a tree. The natural reaction to a startling event (drone spotted at the last second, headed for the windshield) might be deadly.
What Thomas said. I was treated to a demo at Reno, with an S64 dumping a water load over the runway in front of the pits, maybe 1/4 mile from the stands...got pretty bloody wet.
I am not unfamiliar with startled reactions that end up crashing into trees 😏
Depending on where and when the fire. Watching wildlife flee an advancing fire is not unlike witnessing a total solar eclipse or Mt St Helens erupt (or Our Tead Pot Dictator). We took a big bird, not sure if it was a duck or goose, in the windscreen of an S61V on a fire in 1988. About a meter below the intakes.
That was exciting.
The newer drones I've seen (from Amazon, I think) are small enough that they might not be that much of a problem, except for the firefighting aircraft grounding thing. Problem is, how can you tell from looking at one in the air if it's substantial enough to do any damage?
-Doug in Oakland
Apologies, Mr. Ten Bears, I should have been clearer. A drone in the area seems to be a wave-off for the fast movers, who would be above the thundering herd. Not sure about the rotorheads hanging out just at the leading edge, down low, sounds like your pidgeon.
S'all good. These are important conversations.
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