My questions about the Drone Registration

[Derek]

First off, I've not registered as of this point in time. The weather here isn't flyable anyway, so what difference does it make if I register now or later?

Now, there is a list of Do's and Don'ts that the FAA has given us, including not to fly over people...not to fly within 5 miles of an airport, etc, etc. You all know what list I'm talking about. This "list"....is this a list of "rules", "guidelines", or "laws"? I guess "rules" and "laws" kinda mean the same but I wanted to ask.

The two that I do have concerns about is not flying above 400 feet and only flying within line of sight. Now, I have some motor-gliders and I know that I fly them well above 400 feet on each flight and then glide them down. It's quite relaxing. Is this something that I CANNOT do anymore and I should just sell my gliders? As for the "within line of sight"...does this mean that I should just sell my two FPV systems? If I am wearing my Fatsharks, then I am not seeing my quad/plane. If I am looking down at my 19" video monitor, I am not seeing my quad/plane.

Can someone help me understand what I should do or should I just take up knitting? I really don't want to take up knitting.

 

[murankar]

Hold off for now. THere is a lot of work the ama and faa have to do. For now just keep the mouth shut, eyes/ears open and have fun.

 

[Tony]

The 400' rule has been there for many years. It was an "agreed upon" rule that was unwritten in the laws. But now, it's written in the laws that you can not go over 400'. The reason for this, and the airport limit is by the time the plane reaches you if you are the required distance from the field, it should be over 400' in altitude. So this keeps the plane from hitting what you are flying.

FPV, this one has a lot of gray area. FPV is NOT ILLEGAL... Yet... However, you can NOT fly with goggles as it blocks direct LOS. But you can fly with a monitor because your eyes are adjusted to the ambient light and you can just look up and see your plane. With goggles, when you take them off your eyes have to adjust and that could be a bad thing. The gray area here is some of the new goggles have a forward facing camera so that you can see in front of you without being blinded.

And the way I read them, the FAA is a government agency so what they put out there, the local police are going to take as LAWS. Just look at the cops that came up to people flying and making them land BEFORE you had to register. The deadline is still not here yet and I'm hearing of many people being questioned. Complete BS.

 

[trainrider06]

From what I understand all of the rules FAA state are already guidelines the AMA has had out for years!
Also I just read, an article a few weeks ago how local authorities were trying to ban and restrict R/C flights!
Oddly enough the FAA has gotten on them telling them they have no authority to do so!
All I can say is when the government is involved there will be a lot of grey area's that will be exploited for average Joe's
And we'll all be confused! I'd just say CYA, register and that's at least one area your rear is not exposed.

Oh and a thing not related....I got thread notifications in email today on threads I've been on! Haven't had one of those in forever! Good job Tony! That's a good deal for old senile guys like me who forget what and where we've been on a thread! Lol

 

[Tony]

When we moved servers, Rc-Help received a new IP address. Microsoft was blocking the old IP address so anyone with a microsoft account couldn't get emails and they ended up in my bounce email folder. At this time I have over 3000 emails in there from teh last couple of months. So hopefully that issue is resolved.

 

[trainrider06]

Good deal!

 

[Derek]

Ok...the 400' rule....There is a lot of airspace under that 400' ceiling. Although I can't promise that I'm under 400' "all the time", for the most part...I can get over that.

About FPV...this is the one that really bothers me and has me confused to no end. I've got my questions and concerns on 6 different forums and, naturally, I'm getting conflicting replies. Some people are saying that goggles and monitors are ok. Some people are saying goggles are a "no no". One person told me that FPV is completely illegal. I just don't know who or what to believe. Some people are saying that the FAA's list of "rules" are just "guidelines" and others are saying that these are "LAWS". This whole thing is just absurd!!!

I am in the beginning process of scratch building an FPV 500 class quad. I'm gonna be pretty upset if I can't fly this thing, via FPV, when it's done, lol.

 

[murankar]

Goggles are not allowed for sure for the reasons Tony stated. The FAA guidelines are the same as the AMA guidelines. I don't think any of this is law yet. I don't think it will be law until after the deadline. It seems the FAA is trying to get people on board first. Cleveland Ohio is passing a bill to give law enforcement power to ticket violators of the FAA.

 

[Tony]

Here is the exact wording from the FAA on FPV. The monitor, without being stated, is a gray area.

By definition, a model aircraft must be “flown within visual line of sight of the
person operating the aircraft.” P.L. 112-95, section 336(c)(2).
1 Based on the plain
language of the statute, the FAA interprets this requirement to mean that: (1) the aircraft
must be visible at all times to the operator; (2) that the operator must use his or her own
natural vision (which includes vision corrected by standard eyeglasses or contact lenses)
to observe the aircraft; and (3) people other than the operator may not be used in lieu of
the operator for maintaining visual line of sight. Under the criteria above, visual line of
sight would mean that the operator has an unobstructed view of the model aircraft. To
ensure that the operator has the best view of the aircraft, the statutory requirement would
preclude the use of vision-enhancing devices, such as binoculars, night vision goggles,
powered vision magnifying devices, and goggles designed to provide a “first-person
view” from the model.
2 Such devices would limit the operator’s field of view thereby reducing his or her ability
to see-and-avoid other aircraft in the area. Additionally, some
of these devices could dramatically increase the distance at which an operator could see
the aircraft, rendering the statutory visual-line-of-sight requirements meaningless.
Finally, based on the plain language of the statute, which says that aircraft must be
“flown within the visual line of sight of the person operating the aircraft,” an operator
could not rely on another person to satisfy the visual line of sight requirement. See id.
(emphasis added). While the statute would not preclude using an observer to augment the
safety of the operation, the operator must be able to view the aircraft at all times.

Furthermore, at the bottom of the pages it reads this...

1 For purposes of the visual line of sight requirement, “operator” means the person manipulating the model
aircraft’s controls.
2 The FAA is aware that at least one community-based organization permits “first person view” (FPV)
operations during which the hobbyist controls the aircraft while wearing goggles that display images
transmitted from a camera mounted in the front of the model aircraft. While the intent of FPV is to provide
a simulation of what a pilot would see from the flight deck of a manned aircraft, the goggles may obstruct an operator’s
vision, thereby preventing the operator from keeping the model aircraft within his or her visual line of sight at all times.

All of this can be read via the link below.

http://www.faa.gov/uas/media/model_aircraft_spec_rule.pdf