US government will reportedly require all drone purchases to be registered

roguenuke said:

Not as of right moe, but possibly soon and there is in fact a notice to check the FAA website out when purchasing such things. I put two up myself just a few days ago because we sell the helicopters with cameras at my store.

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They clearly care more about safety than privacy. The little camera "toys" that wont require registration are the WORST potential privacy violators. Small and almost silent they are virtually invisible.

But our government stopped worrying about privacy some time ago.

What if...? said:

"Good" news. They apparently are going to issue a single number to each pilot to be placed on all models. The process will be free and online.

So they DID listen to the comments.

The 250gram threshhold is kinda stupid, but what are you gonna do? Even my smallest weighs more than that without a battery. They chose this because over that could cause injury if it hit somebody. While a football weighing twice that and traveling at 60mph is an acceptable risk in any park any day. Meh.

All in all better than we expected.

I'm interested in whether there will be a "Flyaway" hotline. All my rigs are setup not to fly away. Even my autopilot bird had a circuit installed to cut power to the flight controller by a switch on my radio. Too much time and money spent to risk watching it fly off. Rather crash it and recover what I can. (I only fly where I'm supposed to so there's nobody to crash into.)

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That is much more reasonable.

What I don't like about it is that they want to register citizens and database them for using a technology that the government is also using, except citizens aren't allowed to know when or where the government is using it. It's a double standard of power, as usual.

If citizens get monitored then government gets monitored, otherwise this law is bunk.

What if...? said:

"Good" news. They apparently are going to issue a single number to each pilot to be placed on all models. The process will be free and online.

So they DID listen to the comments.

The 250gram threshhold is kinda stupid, but what are you gonna do? Even my smallest weighs more than that without a battery. They chose this because over that could cause injury if it hit somebody. While a football weighing twice that and traveling at 60mph is an acceptable risk in any park any day. Meh.

All in all better than we expected.

I'm interested in whether there will be a "Flyaway" hotline. All my rigs are setup not to fly away. Even my autopilot bird had a circuit installed to cut power to the flight controller by a switch on my radio. Too much time and money spent to risk watching it fly off. Rather crash it and recover what I can. (I only fly where I'm supposed to so there's nobody to crash into.)

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The funny thing is that the idiots that would do stupid, dangerous, or criminal acts wouldnt be following the law to start out with.

There are already limits on RC planes etc. The only reason that people are freaking out is because of the word 'drone'. That word makes people think of all kinds of things but mostly they think of the military drones. before RC quadcopters were labeled 'drones' no one cared about them. Todays high tech quadcopters are much safer than the old analog versions by a long shot. ANd most have built in software that wont let you fly near airports. The small ones dont fly long enough to warrant any concerns at all.

FreedomFromAll said:

The funny thing is that the idiots that would do stupid, dangerous, or criminal acts wouldnt be following the law to start out with.

There are already limits on RC planes etc. The only reason that people are freaking out is because of the word 'drone'. That word makes people think of all kinds of things but mostly they think of the military drones. before RC quadcopters were labeled 'drones' no one cared about them. Todays high tech quadcopters are much safer than the old analog versions by a long shot. ANd most have built in software that wont let you fly near airports. The small ones dont fly long enough to warrant any concerns at all.

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Exactly.

My racers are "fenced" by battery capacity. The point where a bigger battery doesn't result in more flight time is about seven-eight minutes. And I'll be moving to 25mw fpv (less than 200 yards range) as soon as diversity receivers become available. Not because anyone is making me but because it works better. More birds in the air at one time. Eight instead of four.

If the rules come out as reported, I think everybody can live with them. Those of us who fly responsibly wont be overburdened.

I'd still like to see "watermarks" added to video transmitters. THATS a common denominator. Well established precedent in FCC rules. Tie the new registration numbers to their purchase. Still a bunch of unregistered, no watermark transmitters out there, I have four right now. But they don't last forever. They burn out or fail for other reasons regularly. So attrition would account for them eventually. This would allow non-destructive, safe identification without having to wait for an incident where the machine is recovered to occur.

FreedomFromAll said:

The funny thing is that the idiots that would do stupid, dangerous, or criminal acts wouldnt be following the law to start out with.

There are already limits on RC planes etc. The only reason that people are freaking out is because of the word 'drone'. That word makes people think of all kinds of things but mostly they think of the military drones. before RC quadcopters were labeled 'drones' no one cared about them. Todays high tech quadcopters are much safer than the old analog versions by a long shot. ANd most have built in software that wont let you fly near airports. The small ones dont fly long enough to warrant any concerns at all.

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I believe part of this is to give the public something besides government machines to vent their spleens on.

FreedomFromAll said:

The funny thing is that the idiots that would do stupid, dangerous, or criminal acts wouldnt be following the law to start out with.

There are already limits on RC planes etc. The only reason that people are freaking out is because of the word 'drone'. That word makes people think of all kinds of things but mostly they think of the military drones. before RC quadcopters were labeled 'drones' no one cared about them. Todays high tech quadcopters are much safer than the old analog versions by a long shot. ANd most have built in software that wont let you fly near airports. The small ones dont fly long enough to warrant any concerns at all.

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They became a concern when they got cheaper and easy enough to operate for any random person to be a potential safety hazard. When only enthusiasts had the skill and resources to own and operate one, they weren't a problem because the enthusiasts knew not to fly near JFK. Now some random idiot can walk into a retail store and buy one off the shelf for less than the price of a television.